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Portal – Outre
Profound Lore Records
Strange personalities and extreme ideas are not in any shortage from within portions of the metal community. However, it in the case of Brisbane, Australia’s death metal unit Portal, mystery and weirdness are taken to another level.
Upon hearing their previous full-length, 2003’s Seepia, I was floored. Portal has managed to capture concentrated ugliness and coupled it with brute force, forging their sound into a very original style of death metal. Trying to find out any information about the band in particular is just as mysterious…nothing seems to be revealed, which makes their music all the more intriguing. The imagery used both for their records and live performances play out in a cinematic fashion, exposing horrific visions in black and white and emphasizing the feel of the music quite effectively.
Portal’s latest release, entitled Outre, takes all the horror-like feel of their previous releases and concentrates on a more focused version of itself. The swirling, manic guitar lines are still present and the drumming is still just as incredible, but the arrangements hold a bit more clarity and repetition. This approach works well, as Outre sounds darker and more fucked up than Seepia and gives more of a platform for vocalist The Curator’s growls and raspy lines. The effect sounds like a series of invocations given over a death march. While the production is maybe even less crisp than Seepia, I can’t say this is a bad thing. Overall, I’d say this is Portal’s best effort to date and by far worthy of picking up (as well as the re-issue of Seepia, also on Profound Lore Records). Those with adventurous tastes or a need for real brutality will not be disappointed.
Atavist – II: Ruined
Profound Lore Records
The sludge and doom genres hold a slippery slope in the realm of talent and personal style. Any asshole can write slow riffs or stand in front of a full stack, shoving a guitar into the speakers and ‘utilizing’ feedback. With the increase in popularity of slow arts (just like with any sub-genre or musical faction), every now and then there’s an equalizer that sets the bar. Crushes the bullshit. Pulls all the punches there are to pull. Ave Manchester, England’s Atavist.
II: Ruined boasts some of the most fucking painful sounding guitar that it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to stand in front of these guys in a live setting. Each note might as well be like having rocks thrown into your face, over and over again. The bass drives the lows so heavy that the mix seems to clip at times. The vocals are a throaty scream that don’t sound contrived, nor do they provide a huge contrast with the sounds of the instruments – all of the elements utilized are very well placed and effective. Within II: Ruined’s duration the band also incorporates acoustic guitar passages accompanied by piano, crawling tempos, effective use of feedback, and plenty of space to let atmosphere build before incorporating vocals. By far, my favorite track is 'V.' (total running time of 16:53), which begins with a short build that sounds like a His Hero Is Gone riff before suddenly crawling through a long dirge and continuing to evolve through mid-tempo grooves and haunting passages, all before crushing your ass and ending with a staccato guitar piece.
The North American version released via Profound Lore Records boasts six original compositions, simply titled in roman numerals, of depressive and extremely slow sludge/doom metal. Also included is a bonus track, a cover of Grief’s ‘I Hate The Human Race’. This record is solid from start to finish and if it sits filed away after a few listens that’s your own goddamn fault. Atavist has conjured up something worthy of continued listening without having to rely on antics, the ex-members/former bands ‘thing’, or incorporating anything unnecessary into this slab of heaviness. Hails!
The Howling Wind – Pestilence & Peril
Profound Lore Records
This is the first release for this post-Thralldom project from guitarist/vokillist Killusion and drummer Parasitic Nex. My expectations prior to receiving this disc for review were shattered upon first listen, as this effort is much more raw than I had expected!
Pestilence & Peril begins with Projections, a darkened and gloomy track of churning noise, cavernous whispers, and massive atmosphere before you’re hit with the first riffs of Sin Continuum. The guitars kick out a very old school, straightforward fast progression with Parasitic Nex furiously bashing away behind the drum kit. Killusion has definitely carried over much of the Thralldom atmosphere/vibe to this new project, however the music is far more to the point and less experimental. The riffs are very focused and generally-speaking the arrangements are more of a traditional approach, but the execution seems much more venomous than Thralldom to me. The sound is pure hate distilled and laid to tape! Virulence 33 continues the journey with a more doom-influenced main riff before suddenly switching the tempo up with a battery of blast beats. There is no shortage of dynamics within the album, yet each scream, riff, and beat are focused and voracious.
Pestilence & Peril contains much to be desired and doesn’t seem to limit itself to one particular persuasion. The music is blackened, yet not strictly or necessarily black metal. It’s doomy, yet not necessarily doom or sludge metal. In that respect, Killusion and Parasitic Nex have succeeded in not only creating a potent collection of aural violence, but kept from limiting The Howling Wind to falling in line within trends or genres. Fans of Killusion’s work in Unearthly Trance and Thralldom will find just as much delight in The Howling Wind as newcomers searching for a new and original slab of darkness. Kudos, gentlemen, and please keep it up.
Every track upon this album is a highlight. To give more than a small taste of what you would hear when listening to this record would be to spoil it. Get it immediately and listen to it in its entirety under the influence of your choice. Darkness only improves the experience.
Glorior Belli – Manifesting the Raging Beast
Southern Lord
I’ve been sitting on this record for quite awhile (long past it’s actual release), listening carefully and intently to the masterpiece that vocalist/guitarist/composer Infestvvs, bassist Dispater, and drummer M:A Fog have created. I was struck by the huge leap in maturity and originality Manifesting the Raging Beast has been crafted with in comparison to Glorior Belli’s first full-length, O Laudate Dominvs. Earlier Glorior Belli material is by no stretch of poor quality regarding musicianship or writing (on the contrary, the band has always slayed), but when listening to O Laudate Dominvs it’s not hard to liken the album to other’s in the ‘orthodox black metal’ genre. However, Manifesting the Raging Beast bursts through the speakers like a blackened punch to God’s dick, and all done with no shortage of well-honed dynamics and melodic guitar parts. This record smokes their previous effort easily, and anyone even remotely sympathetic to this style of black metal (or appreciators of metal in general) will most likely find themselves pressing the play button again on the cd player after the last track is over.
Opening the album is “From Darkness There Springs Light.” Beginning with a few moments of silence and swelling noise, a crawling guitar riffs drops out of the speakers before Infestvvs snarls “Light is sour blood spilled from pregnant skies. Frothing and turning, ignoring dead wings as they drift by, it reveals blood and rust from twisted faces,” then later “And now, from darkness there springs light.” The lyrics are written in an almost wholly poetic form over the course of the album, shrouded in cryptic personal meanings but all pointing to Him.
To give a song-by-song breakdown and description of the rest of the eight hymns contained on Manifesting the Raging Beast would be pointless. This is a work that should be heard in order to truly understand the feeling and craftsmanship. This is black art of the highest order and absolutely essential.
Monarch! – Dead Men Tell No Tales
Crucial Blast
Dead Men Tell No Tales is a 2xCD collection of France’s noise/drone/sludge terrorists, Monarch!, the songs originally released as two separate full-lengths: 2006’s Speak of the Sea and 2007’s Die Tonight.
Fans of crawling, suffocating heaviness should take note. Monarch! tread the waters of previous greats like Khanate, Burning Witch, and Corrupted, but with a much more blackened and desolate atmosphere. The majority of the space in these sprawling 5 songs is constructed of droning guitar and bass chords. Vocals are sparse, alternating between soft whispers and wretching, powerful screams. Emilie’s vocal talents are vast and she fits the mood perfectly with each drawn breath or scream. Songs stretch anywhere from 11 to 26 minutes in length and sound like the apocalypse in slow motion. Ruling, and highly recommended!!!
Weedeater – God Luck and Good Speed
Southern Lord Records
There’s a fine line that sludge and doom bands seemingly always have to be mindful of, which is a balance within the use of repetition and the simplicity of the riffs. Used correctly and the intent of playing slowly is effective and with purpose. Weedeater’s latest record, God Luck and Good Speed, seems ‘over the line’ to me.
The riffy ‘stoner’ portion of the genre gets boring and very quickly, and God Luck and Good Speed did nothing to hold my attention. While the music is heavy, there’s a definite lack of originality contained within this collection of songs (not counting ‘Alone’, a 2 minute track of banjo and low, clean vocals). The riffs don’t seem to go anywhere and vocalist/bassist Dixie’s throaty rasp just doesn’t do it for me.
I miss Buzzov*en…
Bergraven – Dödsvisioner
Hydrahead Records/Total Holocaust Records
2007 has been a year that produced many essential recordings from the trenches of darkness, doom, and death. Bergraven’s second full-length entitled Dödsvisioner is by far one of the best surprises of the year. I heard multiple descriptions prior to the release of what this one-man project was like, but none of them were even close to encompassing the sound or feeling contained within the record’s eight songs. Bergraven refuses to be backed into a niche corner like the hordes of many shitty extreme metal bands, playing off their image or making bold statements about nothing. The music speaks loudly and says much, none of which I can even begin to convey within the space of a review. Get this record immediately.
