Genre: Atmospheric/Black/Death Metal
Label: Profound Lore
Date of Release: February 19, 2013
DISMAL DEATH METAL
The fittingly named quintet Portal is certainly a bleak
giant in the face of the world of metal. Established back in 1994 from
Brisbane, Australia, this band has gained a rather large following for their murky
tunes of blackened and atmospheric death metal. Over the years, they released a
fair number of EPs and demos, along with their 2003 debut full-length “Seepia,”
until they were signed to Canadian label Profound Lore Records, where metallic marvels
such as Agalloch, Mitochondrion, and Disma are signed. Afterwards, 2007 saw the
release of the band’s second full-length album “Outre,” and later their third
installment entitled “Swarth” in 2009. Through all this time, many fans have
been drawn to the darkness this band has had to offer with sludgy and raw death
metal bludgeon, and, subsequently, has led to Portal unleashing their fourth
full-length beast in 2013, appropriately named “Vexovoid,” bearing seven tracks
and lasting 35 minutes to ensnare its victims and drag them into the
suffocating abyss.
As always, the musicianship is somewhat bizarre, but great
nonetheless. The vocals are composed of brutal and frigid growls and snarls,
credits to The Curator. They are half-faded into the thick fabric of the rest
of the soundtrack and the instrumentation, which supplement “Vexovoid”
therefore with a cryptic tone. The guitars perform muddy and aphotic riffs that
add further to the dark, echoing, and thick atmospheres that this album
succeeds in conjuring. Although, on occasion, they do tend to sound a little
too muddy and are hard to digest or hear for full enjoyment, they do a wondrous
job in invoking horror and tinges of ominous ambience among the senses. The
drums assist in the hypnotizing sounds of the vocals and guitars, complete with
fiery blast beats. The sound production make the vocals and instruments sound
sludgy and dark, and, although there are times when it causes the tracks to
sound a tad inaudible, it works in making the majority of this album haunting
and unwavering in its violence. Overall, the musicianship and production play
their parts generally well in this dark release.
If you have enjoyed Portal’s earlier releases over the
years, there is a very high chance you will enjoy the sounds and musical
concepts of this follow-up album. “Vexovoid” contains raw, blackened death
metal that intends to hypnotize and engulf its listeners with thick ambience
and creeping atmospheres. For the most part, the album hits this target well. The
structures are oddly built, and it certainly makes the music quite
unpredictable and allows for more room for some nice surprises. What helps
reach this complexity to further heights is the overall atmosphere of the
record, with the murky and pummeling production giving the tracks a cryptically
brutal feel to it. As stated earlier, though, there are moments woefully peppered
throughout “Vexovoid” where this muddiness does not do well in turning in the
band’s favor, since it causes some parts to be rather difficult to make out and
makes it appear that the group chooses volume over actual substance and
versatility. Nonetheless, aside from that shortcoming, the thickness of the
sound plays out like clockwork in making the album both obscure and brutally
captivating. Accompanied by great musicianship, the record’s bludgeoning death
metal formula does nicely in entrapping its audience in its sludgy assault.
As well as the haunting music itself, the lyrics are also
very odd yet haunting in their concepts and manner in which they are written,
along with the artwork. While a portion of them are written in English, the
other half of them are written in Latin, along with perhaps a few other
different languages. They also appear to not form any actual sentences or
phrases, and are instead expressed in rather terse and mysterious lines that
add up into some abstract lyrical passages. These passages are somewhat
ritualistic in how they’re structured and written out, and the end result is
fittingly strange lyrics for very bizarre yet deathly metal, and The Curator’s
growls project the cryptic nature. The grotesque album artwork does a
spectacular job in showcasing the band’s sound, being both haunting and
bizarre. As a whole, both the lyrics and the artwork are well executed in how
they are written and drawn out, respectively.
“Vexovoid” turned out to be a very solid death metal
release. The musicianship is nothing short of stellar, the production is nicely
sludgy and heavy, the blackened and atmospheric death metal is greatly planned
out and executed, and the lyrics and artwork help in making the album all the
more cryptic and unsettlingly powerful. Even though, once again, the muddiness
does tend to be a bit of a burden on the total enjoyment of the release, but
luckily, that’s the only true flaw that lurks in this album’s shadow. The songs
are oddly structured, and therefore make it hard to pinpoint what will occur
next in the band’s bludgeon, and they are overall quite captivating in their
listen. As stated earlier, old, loyal fans of Portal will find nothing to
disappoint them, and they are highly recommended to return to the band’s realm
through this fine release, and any fan of raw, thunderous, and fearfully dark
death metal will certainly want to try this album out. With its
well-roundedness in musicianship and concept, “Vexovoid” unleashes hell upon
its audience and leaves them wanting to be violently pulled into the darkness
again and again to their hearts’ content.
Score: 8/10 (Great)
