Vitriol is a three piece extreme metal from Portland, Oregon. Their debut album, To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice comes out September 6th and we asked guitarist/vocalist Kyle Rasmussen to tell us about each track. Check out his commentary on the album below.

The Parting of a Neck

With this being the song that launched our career, so to speak, we felt it appropriate to use it to begin the album. It also sits in a bit of a poetic place being the earliest song that was written for the album.

Crowned in Retaliation

This is my personal favorite track and what I believe to be the most "fully realized" in regards to the Vitriol sound. It manages to create dynamic without reigning back on the intensity or weight of its voice. It's a truly suffocating song that still manages to feel anthemic and memorable for me.

Legacy of Contempt

What a burner of a song. This is one of the songs I enjoy most to play live. In terms of technique it is the most foreign to my usual tricks resulting in a song that always manages to keep me on my toes.

I Drown Nightly

These are some of the more personal lyrics on the album. The beginning riff was heavily influenced by an Angelcorpse/Perdition Temple approach and quickly turned into to one of the more satisfying live tracks on the album.

The Rope Calls You Brother

There's a lot that can be said about this song. It has been an early favorite of those who have already heard the album and certainly one of our most ambitious both musically and compositionally. This track ended up surprising me quite a bit once the album was complete.

A Gentle Gift

I was inspired to meditate on the classic concept of "a fate worse than death". It's easy for words to begin losing their impact after they've been heard in the same order enough times. Sometimes reframing a well known idea is all it takes to create a harrowing experience.

Victim

These lyrics describe a cancer of the spirit that I find especially repulsive and abundantly problematic in today's culture. This results in Victim being one of the more personal lyrical works on the album.

Violence, a Worthy Truth

The end of this song has caused many a demoralizing night in the practice space.

Hive Lungs

This ended up being the ultimate "sleeper" track for me on the album. All the way through going into the studio it was a song I was chronically underwhelmed by. There were times where I even entertained scrapping the song. After vocals and post production elements it turned into one of the stronger tracks on the LP. Just goes to show how a piece of work's identity can elude you even so near its completion.

Pain Will Define Their Death

With the strength of the track combined with the title's significance in regards to 2017's EP, this was the obvious choice for a closer. Adam and I knew we wanted to provide the listeners with a new experience, and with the weight of the album we also knew it couldn't be a softly spoken outro. This reimagined end to Pain Will Define Their Death is one of my favorite experiences on the album.