Portal -
SwarthReviewed By Andy "Dinger" Beresky (www.StonerRock.com)
Profound Lore
Available Now
Australia's Portal is a band that has defied categorization since their inception. Their first two albums sounded like they were recorded inside a cave, and production like that didn't help categorize Portal's sound. Some considered it a mixture of death metal's brutality and black metal's atmosphere, which isn't too far off, but I just like to call it "nightmare metal", because really that's what it is when you get right down to it. Portal take all things twisted, unreal, and scary, and wrap them into a giant ugly ball of sound that you just can't stop listening to. It's like when you're a kid, and you see your first slasher flick. You see the masked guy with the knife stalking the big breasted co-ed. You know she's going to get the axe, and that you're going to be grossed out and scared to death, but you can't take your eyes away.
You would think that there aren't that many places left to take obscenely heavy music, but with the release of their third album,
Swarth, Portal manage to take us to one of those places. While on the last two releases, it was more of a Lovecraftian fear of the unknown we felt listening to Portal, due to the production, on
Swarth the monster is finally revealed and fully visible, or in this case, audible. I wouldn't call the production pristine, or even clean, but for Portal, it's definitely a step in that direction.
Don't think for a second that this is going to decrease the eldritch brutality. Quite the contrary, it's actually the most in-your-face heavy of their three releases, and it's cool to be able to hear the actual parts rather than just a blurred wall of sound. What they're doing is complicated, it's dissonant, and it's done purely for effect, with a blatant disregard to traditional melody, structure, and even rhythm. Which begs the question: is there a fine line between sonic intensity and noise? If so, are Portal stomping all over that line?
In my opinion, yes, and yes. That should give you some clue that this album may not be for you. You may hear it and think, "what the hell is this unlistenable noise, and how the hell could anyone like this?" Well, honestly, the world's a twisted place, and nobody conveys that better than Portal. Recommended for fans of Mithras, Immolation, and anyone into truly deranged soundscapes.
URL: http://www.myspace.com/the-portal
