Review by Ben for Mitochondrion - Archaeaeon (2008)

Full of potential but the murky production and stupendous length make it too much of a chore to fully appreciate.

Mitochondrion? Nope, never heard of them! At least I hadn’t when I first noticed their latest album, 2011’s Parasignosis, getting decent reviews on Rate Your Music. For some reason, I thought I’d do something I don’t do all that often and check out the discography of a band entirely unknown to me, giving it the same level of attention and research I normally grant the bigger bands in metal. The first question that obviously needed answering was what the hell does Mitochondrion mean anyway? Wikipedia’s answer is “a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells”, but that really doesn’t help someone of my scientific level, nor does it explain why a brutal death metal band from Canada might choose the word as their moniker. I could go on, crapping on about how mitochondria have been implicated in several human diseases and how they play a role in the aging process, but the band themselves made it a heck of a lot clearer in an interview when they stated they chose the name because mitochondria (yes, that’s the plural of mitochondrion) is the power source of all living cells, which the band essentially view as a “power from within”. The band see the word as perfect way to encapsulate their atheistic beliefs that there is “nothing outside of oneself – no gods, no supernatural, no aetheric anything!” Strangely enough, since learning about this word I’ve heard it come up in science podcasts numerous times when referring to DNA.

With the definition out of the way, how did Mitochondrion the band form and why should we care? Originally a three-piece made up of Shawn Hache (vocals), Nick Yanchuk (guitar and vocals) and Nick Gibas (bass), Mitochondrion formed around 2002. At this early stage the trio utilised a drum machine, but already envisioned an immensely dense sound mixing elements from black and death metal. Eventually in 2003 a drummer was found in Jesse Anderson before Mitch Aramenko joined as a second guitarist in 2005. This incarnation of the band released a self-titled demo the same year which was primitive and seriously lacking on the production side. It wasn’t until 2006, when Karl Godard replaced Anderson on drums, that the band was “able to execute much more and actually put (their) thought forms into reality”. With this more competent line-up in place, Mitochondrion recorded a second demo entitled Through Cosmic Gaze, which is where the band first displayed their unique style in a slightly more cohesive form. Unfortunately, it was not enough for the band to capture the attention of a record label, so in 2008, after another line-up change (Aramenko departed with Hache adding guitar to his vocal duties), Mitochondrion decided to self-produce and release a debut album. Entitled Archaeaeon, this nasty piece of work was released in April 2008 and limited to just 666 copies.

How exactly should I describe the music found on this rare artefact? How about the jagged edge of Gorguts, mixed with the warped atmosphere of Incantation, the intensity of Bestial Warlust and the chaos of early Kataklysm, all coated with layers of demonic vocals emitting a range of dark occultist themes. Sound awesome? Well I guess it would if it had a kick ass production and was performed flawlessly, but that’s unfortunately not the case with Mitochondrion’s debut. Still, I wouldn’t spout all those band names around without some level of admiration for what these guys are doing and there’s a lot of promise to be found beneath the murky layer of dirt that cloaks this album. I must admit that my first couple of listens were a daunting experience. The frenzied nature of much of the material, combined with the inaccessible production and seventy-minute running time left me bewildered, reaching for hooks that just weren’t there while the cacophony bashed me over the head. With each subsequent listen I found more to enjoy, and I can only now say, after around six or seven full run throughs that I’ve tamed this beast enough to really hear what it has to offer. Should we the listeners be expected to put so much effort into what should be an entertaining experience? Well this is death metal isn’t it? Not some form of sugary pop music designed for mass consumption! Anyway, what was my reward for all this effort?

Once you get past the overuse of vocals, the distractingly wooden drum sound and the at times complete loss of guitar definition, there are some very cool things going on in Mitochondrion’s work. The opening track, Into the Pit of Babel, is probably the track where the more promising aspects are best displayed. There’s certainly method to all the madness and a bunch of memorable riffs and vocal patterns eventually take hold where initially it was difficult to appreciate them. They utilise a neat interlude mid-track, complete with a decent lead and effective piano, giving the track some much needed breathing space and variety. Track six, Oath in Defiance, is another excellent example where extra dynamics are allowed to develop and the guitars are given some focus. These good tracks show that the band can hold back on the chaos, slow things down, without losing the vicious atmosphere they were clearly going for with their sound. The fourteen minute 137 (Death's Hendecaratia) displays another side to the band, being a monstrous slab of doom, but it unfortunately suffers due to Archaeaeon having already run close to an hour before it gets its chance. Credit where credit’s due though and each of the abovementioned tracks gave me good reason to keep giving the album another go when my fight or flight reflex was in overdrive.

Other parts of the album simply fail to connect no matter how much attention I give them. Karl Godard’s drumming is complicated and at times impressive, but it can also be messy and distracting, which is probably more to do with the self-produced nature of the album than his talent. Sometimes I wish the band would just cut down on the multi-layered vocal approach too as between the excessive vocals and drums, there’s not a lot of room left in my poor brain to take anything else in. Fifth track Infernal Weapons Summon would probably be quite enjoyable if it didn’t come across as total Deicide plagiarism, sounding very close to what Revocate the Agitator might sound like if played by Suffocation after way too many drinks. Mitochonrion’s occasional use of noise is not completely unwelcome, although I have to say the four-and-a-half-minute Organum Exitus outro is a horrifying cacophony of random feedback infused with a toothache-inducing dentistry nightmare. The album was already way too long and challenging, so making the listener run one last gauntlet of torture is really pushing the limits of reason. Flaws aside, Mitochondrion show patches of serious potential throughout Archaeaeon, and I for one am keen to see what the band could do with a decent studio production and ideally a little bit of restraint. I’m off to check out their second album Parasignosis to see whether they live up to that potential.