Mitochondrion, Tunic, SCARE, and Languid
Mitochondrion – Through Cosmic Gaze
After their triumphant 2024 release, Vitriseptome, the Victoria, BC merchants of mania, Mitochondrion, are back with their latest LP, Through Cosmic Gaze. While it’s certainly much briefer than their previous offerings, it is no less brutal or engaging.
Mitochondrion feels distinctly Canadian, with northern prog and metal sensibilities that could only be bred on Canadian soil. The vocals are downright inhuman, belched forth from the gaping maw of an unholy monster. While grindcore/sludge vocals churn through a meatgrinder, tremolo heavy riffs race furiously forward with blast beats nipping at their heels. Through Cosmic Gaze is an utterly ferocious and otherworldly record that will churn you up and spit you out.
Tunic – A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung
Processing pain has always been at the core of Tunic’s ethos, but A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung is altogether more harrowing than their previous records. With all their usual tonal textures and temerity, Tunic employs a bone-crushing blend of guttural wails, punishing drums, and screeching guitars. There is nary a moment of comfort amongst the 33 minutes of anguish - without a melody, chorus, or groove to cling to, we are completely engrossed in torment. A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung is a desperate cry amidst immense personal loss – Tunic’s most personal, urgent, and harrowing record yet.
SCARE – In The End, Was It Worth It?
In The End, Was It Worth It? is the most that a hardcore album has surprised me in quite some time. SCARE bucks the tired tropes of modern hardcore in favour of a very groove-centred, riff-heavy approach, drenched in a droning sludge. Guitars chug and groove with such enormous weight and warm tone, screams clip to oblivion, all the layers of distortion creating what feels like an immense electrical charge all around. Amidst a sea of hardcore homogeneity, SCARE stands out.
Languid – Shove Their System Up Their Ass
Languid doesn’t pretend to be anything they are not. Shove Their System Up Their Ass follows the hardcore punk formula of Motörhead and d-beat with an almost paint-by-numbers accuracy. Politically charged, dizzying distortion, blazing speed. But even though Languid wears their influences on both sleeves, that hardly makes this record boring – quite the opposite. Politically charged punk is not meant to reinvent the musical wheel, it’s meant to meet the moment. Languid carries on the tradition of 80s punk with reverence, talent, and tenacity. Punk thrives in the most tumultuous times, and I can’t think of anyone more suited to this especially fucked-up moment than Languid.
- Clay Geddert