Metal Reviews

You're welcome to comment on:


Click here to see the review.

I would have guessed a higher score from reading the review. Maybe a 85 instead. Personally, I would give it a 88. Mostly because I think they have really got their own sound and it takes a lot to make me feel uneasy these days. I gotta see these guys live. I hope he wears the clock on his head ahahaha. Seriously though, they are doing something quite different and innovative. There are only a few bands out there that have legitimately creeped me out. Mayhem has done it on numerous occasions. There was a time when the mystique of Black Metal was strange and alluring to me. A time when listening to passionate occult music made me question my own beliefs and morality. My first experiences and feelings with it can never be duplicated. If I would have heard Portal when I was 15, I would have been convinced that they had tapped into some dark arcane force beyond this world. That's what makes them special.

And that's the thing. I don't think this album does that, what they do so well on other albums. Swarth was a swirling maelstrom, like I seriously listen to that and feel sick and uneasy as if being confronted with the sublimity of a portal into Lovecraftian dimensions. However, they wrote songs on this album and that really loses the atmosphere for me. Fucking amazing songs, but it only ever seems like an imitation of their past works.

Do you think it may be due to the fact that the initial shock of the sound has wore off? I am attributing my similar reaction at least partly to that fact. I guess I only notice a clarity difference which takes away the mysterious edge. I don't know why I keep thinking of Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, but maybe it's because that album has such a whirling bees nest feeling. The first time I heard it I was floored. I had never heard anything like it before. The closest thing to that I had heard up to that point was Morbid Angel. Anyway, from Anthems to IX Equilibrium I felt a similar difference in production. Anthems felt somewhat unhinged and volatile, but IX Equilibrium seemed more straight forward and riffy in comparison. Do I think one is better than the other. Well..... Yes, I definitely do. Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk might very well be one of the best albums ever made. Ummmm I started this trying to play devil's advocate, but ended up realizing that Swarth is a better album because of the writing style and direction. Answered my own question through a train of thought that I apparently wrote down.

I listen to Swarth and Outre and still get the swarming bees in my tummy feeling. I can recognize a difference in goals with this album, the vocals and riffs both seem to be doing something differently than past albums if it is simply being less abrasive and maybe having more hooks. I still love their sound, but I think the way they make it a little more "accessible" this go around is interesting, but I don't think it equates to the greatness that those past albums were/are.

I listened to Swarth because of this review. Quite liked that album and agreed with that 'maelstorm' feel to the music. Sad to hear this album is a nod towards songs and hooks.

To a degree, it is still fucking Portal after all. And it's not so much hooks in every track as it is to moments of relief through droning and feedback. The fact that it has hooks at all is the difference.

I think I'll go backwards rather than forwards in the discography first, and check this out last.

Wait. Are you a Portal virgin?

Sort of. I've heard a few tracks of theirs before, but never sat down and listened to a whole album.

[quote="North From Here"][quote="traptunderice"][quote="North From Here"][quote="traptunderice"][quote="North From Here"]Sad to hear this album is a nod towards songs and hooks.[/quote]To a degree, it is still fucking Portal after all.[/quote]

I think I'll go backwards rather than forwards in the discography first, and check this out last.[/quote]Wait. Are you a Portal virgin?[/quote]

Sort of. I've heard a few tracks of theirs before, but never sat down and listened to a whole album.[/quote]

Listening to a whole Portal album in one sitting would be quite an undertaking. The band is incredible, but pretty one dimensional. After three or four songs I'm ready for some Unforgiving Blade or something. Something that jams instead of creepy crawls.