ALBUM REVIEW: Portal – Avow

Australia’s Experimental Death Metal deviants PORTAL recently unveiled 2 new full length albums via Profound Lore Records. I will be writing about the more metallic of them, “Avow”.

Abrasive riffs kick off the warped tome with a vitriolic scourge, this is clearly going to be a punishing listen, as one would expect from Portal. The droning guitars and crashing cymbals conjure abyssal visions before a pummelling array of blastbeats and psychotic guitars contort into life. Dissonance erupts below monstrous vocals and we delve further into the cosmic darkness that takes the murkiest filth of Portal into a despairing and isolating new height of terrifying grandiosity. The avant-garde instrumentation on display is certainly a continuation in excellence from “Ion” with the disturbing sonic convulsions as depraved as one could hope for. The way in which these new dancing visions jump from the outer realms is so perfectly hideous, that it is clearly going to be a truly visionary, inhuman and unhinging listen awaiting us.

As the portal yearns further open still, the horrifying experience sharpens its intensity, taking droning sparseness to precise, serrated and daunting malice that splits flesh and bone with ease as the spacious ambience is penetrated by violent drum work, spasming guitars and those haunting vocals that tie the instrumental visions together in ghastly fashion. The way in which the music cascades is rather natural, yet the actual playing feels so unearthly and hostile, this balance to me is what makes Portal such a special entity, their ability to create while removing the human feelings that music generally carries. The disintegration of life continues with resplendent chaos and utmost vitriol.

While the earlier sections of the album forged a dense and pounding display of ferocity, the way in which this devolves into malignant and discordant eruptions feels genuinely volatile and frightening, with a disturbing, lurking behemoth of abrasiveness never far from reach but never signalling or warning of attack. The deliberate technicality is as impeccable as always while they still manage to make things feel immersive and sporadic, keeping a veil over the music that has to be penetrated by someone truly seeking what is on offer. Of course the flurry of celestial viscera coupled with the immovable weight of gravity is conveyed gorgeously, but there is something far more sinister lying beneath the obvious with Portal, something that seems impossible to quite place yet lumbers closer than ever to the surface on “Avow”.

Portal’s triumphant return is no less disturbing, claustrophobic and devouring than any other works, in fact we see a natural and otherworldly culmination of their entire discography in this churning, retching soundscape that will splinter most life forms in radius.