In 2009, death metal is showing its age more than ever. A large number of bands have regressed to the sounds of the genre’s infancy, rendering themselves instantly obsolete due to the fact that we already have classic death metal albums to listen to, we don’t need new bands making a slew of inferior copies. Furthermore, much (if not all) of the shock value that bands like Entombed, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse and Deicide brought to the table has long since become commonplace. Death metal is no longer the scary, threatening genre it once was, populated as it is with bands more interested in aping records that came out 20 years ago than forging ahead into any unexplored, darker territories.
Enter Australia’s Portal, possibly the only band out there today that makes death metal sound truly terrifying and otherworldly. With their latest album Swarth, the quintet has solidified their frightening sound, which exists on the very fringes of the style. Try to imagine death metal being played somewhere in the far reaches of space by a band consisting of Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones, with Cthulhu himself manning the vocals, and you’ll start to get an idea of how dementedly alien Portal’s music sounds to mortal ears.
Comprised of a series of technically twisted, convulsing arrangements and bathed in a production that sounds both filthy and spacey in equal measure, Portal’s music defies just about any conventional descriptions one would typically use to characterize death metal. Mind-warping and mesmerizing, Swarth goes far beyond simply being “technical”, “brutal” or “heavy” and enters a realm all its own. Swarms of blistering guitar and drum-work give way to creepy ambient soundscapes, as if the music pulses with the black energies of the great swirling abyss itself. The songs feel as if they were designed to fold space by some extra-terrestrial intelligence, a Dreams in the Witch House-like exploration of perverse calculus. Portal’s vocalist, known as The Curator, narrates the proceedings with incantations that are just as unearthly as the music, such as “Sprawling strictures slither/ Seeping lumen antegrade/ Victuals sinner qua non/ Sentient fathomless appendages dredge” from “Writhen”. Indeed, Portal’s attempts to invoke the unnameable encompass every aspect of their art, creating a total listening experience that is unsettling in the utmost.
Discussing individual tracks on Swarth is pointless, as the album must be experienced as a whole in order to gain even a modicum of understanding as to what Portal have accomplished. The tracks weave together to create a nightmarish journey to another dimension, the audial equivalent of being driven mad at the sight of one of Lovecraft’s writhing, tentacled horrors lurking at the threshold. Portal’s ability to unleash obscure cosmic horror is something that requires repeat investigations in order to be fully comprehended, and only the most patient and open-minded listeners will reap the sickening rewards.
Ultimately, Portal both defy and transcend the confines of death metal, entering a musical consciousness all their own, dragging the listener kicking and screaming along with them into the far reaches of the void. As intriguing visually and lyrically as they are musically, Portal have tapped into something truly special and unique with Swarth. While other bands are content to rehash the same sounds we’ve already heard from the genre a million times over, Portal live up to their name, opening a gateway to another world of challenging, hypnotic and terrifying death metal.
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