Portal - 'Swarth'

Memorable, immeasurably dark extreme metal.

Profound Lore isn't a label overflowing with numerous artists. The mindset is clearly that of quality-over-quantity. And yet another gem unearthed by the label is Australia's Portal, who have just cranked out one of the darkest, most evil albums of the year with Swarth.

There's a distant, obscure quality to Swarth, almost as though its sounds are resonating from the depths of hell. Capturing the abstract, cold essence that Sunn O))) has finally obtained, though not boring as Sunn O))) often tends to be, there's also a vital headbangable quality running rampant throughout.

Indeed, the band successfully tightrope-walks the fence dividing crushing, dark death metal with atmospheric black metal as it wastes no time in making its point. For most bands attempting to create a detached, hellish atmosphere, songs tend to be unnecessarily long. But like a well-scripted movie in which everything matters, Portal impressively makes succinct expressions. They don't need to take time to discover a way to sound evil simply because the songs are inherently evil themselves from the get-go.