VITRIOL

Are you looking for a metal band that will leave you pulverized by the end of the set?

The Pacific Northwest is rich at the moment with alot of quality metal bands.   Tonight at the Wise Hall (thanks to The Invisible Orange) in Vancouver, we get to see one of the more extreme technical death metal bands called Vitriol who are based in Portland Oregon.  They also have support from Dissemination, Kommand and Wormwitch.

The band has a few EP’s out there and a full length called To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice back in 2019.   Current members are Adam Roethilisberger (Bass and vocals), Kyle Rasmussen (guitar and vocals), Stephen Ellis (guitar) and Matt Kilner (Drums).   I think what is more unique about these guys is that both Adam and Kyle do death metal style vocals and share vocal duties throughout most of the songs.

Vitriol  hit the stage at around 930pm, and there is a vocal backing track playing.  Near the end of it “Kill the Enemy” “Kill the Enemy” as Adam, Kyle and Stephen scream it at the audience to get them pumped up for the mayhem about to happen.  They then blast into the first song “I Drown Nightly” which is like 190 beats per minute, warp speed, death metal.

Then onto song 2 “Pain Will Define Their Death”, which you will get a workout just watching the speed these guys ratchet up to on every instrument. Pure Chaos!

No ballads here folks, these guys are 100% brutal.   You will be gritting your teeth just like Kyle does when he is ripping through solos and single note hyper picking on the guitar.

The whole set is dedicated to the latest release To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice.   At one point Kyle mentions “guys it’s hard to play this shit!”, my lord I have to agree.

Not a sold out crowd here, but it’s still a good crowd for the most part at the Wise Hall.   Sound was just ok for me, a little muddy at some points but this is a small hall.

The ballistic pace continues on, as the only rest they take is that some songs have a minute or 2 backing track at the start that gives them abit of a break.  Song 6 “Victim” carries on with all the guys headbanging and thrashing around.    Adam is a beast on bass, with the finger tapping, but Matt too with the insanely frantic drumming.

Song 7 “Hive Lungs”, love the ripping solos on this one by Kyle.  The dude is definitely on his game with the 6 string.

Show ender is song 8 with “The Parting of a Neck”.  This one is a little slower but more melodic than the others, but a suitable ending I think to wind it all down.   I think all of us in the crowd were run over by a train after this one.  I even noticed Kyle sitting on the floor behind the half stack chugging the water down.  Very intense band, and well worth seeing one of the most extreme bands to come out of the Pacific North West!