This is the debut album from US death metal band Mithridatum.
Harrowing is a 35-minute slab of blackened dissonant death metal that contains ex-members of Abhorrent and The Faceless.
Harrowing offers a withering tale of blackened extremity, dark technicality, serrated dissonance, and ferocious death metal. The atmospheres are thick and bleak, yet also savagely dense and merciless. Mithridatum’s music is brutally nuanced, and blessed with a nightmarish intensity that manages to balance heaviness and atmosphere well.
This is music that’s twisted and warped. The band’s extreme metal has become corrupted and foul, lurking in the underworld and slowly growing into something truly monstrous. Harrowing sounds as immense as it is, in all senses, from the huge recording to the near-physical presence it has. The songs are complex and intricate, but essentially boil down to presenting an ever-shifting amorphous mass of teeth, terror, and weight, all of which are ultimately here to spell doom and heartache for all concerned. Mithridatum are taking no prisoners, at least none that are left sane and whole.
Harrowing is not a record for the faint of heart nor for those uninitiated into the realms of blackened dissonance or atypical extremity. However, for those travellers who thrive in such waters, there is much to explore and enjoy here.
Highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 