Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release, the fifth full-length album from enigmatic Australian avant-garde death metal surrealists Portal. Ion is the long-awaited follow-up to 2013's Vexovoid. This is the band's most intense and experimental release to date, an album not for the faint of heart and/or mind. Portal's style is an unorthodox fusion of death metal with black metal. The band's hybrid musical style is characterized by heavily distorted guitar riffs, down-tuned rhythms, and vocals ranging from "menacing, echoing" sound effects to guttural grunts. Lead guitarist Horror Illogium has described Portal's intent as "to capture a cinematic horror scope". The band cites as inspiration for it's lyrical themes the entities mentioned in Lovecraft Mythos, such as Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth, and Cthulhu.
S**Y
Stellar per usual
Breathtaking artwork. Whirlwind of an album- don’t try to figure it out because you can’t. Favorite band. Doesn’t disappoint.
K**N
They definitely opened the portal with this one
Portal delivers again. I believe that with this album, they went with 6 string guitars instead of 8 on the previous. This is not a problem though. The guitars are in a higher register, but they are still harsh, and they get a really warped sound out of them that continues to give portal their disturbing atmosphere. This album also hearkens back to Seepia in many ways. This album does not fail to distort, and with the fast warping guitars, I often felt like I was being utterly contorted through a portal to interdimensional horrors.
D**D
5 stars
Foul, Threatening, Putrid sounding Australian Blackened Death Metal. If you don't like this, you are normal. If you do like this there is something wrong with you. If I could give it 6 stars I would. One of the best records in Portal's catalog and one of the best death metal releases of the year.
S**H
Dank, Dark, and Deep
Portal sounds otherworldly as usual. Come get some bleakness. It'll make the rest of your life seem angelic by comparison.
