Seepia

The skittering sounds of Portal clamber up and down the walls, and the crawling started with the 2003 LP Seepia. Even two decades after release, it's incredible how modern Portal sounds. Though bands like Abyssal, Mitochondrion, and Ulcerate have certainly attempted "atmospheric death metal", Portal's distinct technicality, stiltedness, and foreboding aesthetic have kept the band amazingly fresh.

Outre' and Vexovoid made Portal synonymous with an obfuscating and grimy production. Outre' in particular covered up much of the riffs with latency - like you're listening to ambient music more than straight-up death metal. This isn't a bad thing, but it has changed how the rest of Portal's discography is viewed. ION and Avow both amp-up the clarity in production while retaining the chaotic intensity, which absolutely confused listeners whose main association with the band was that filthy, murky sound.

Despite coming first, Seepia is in the middle of these two sounds. A keen ear can pick up the dense guitar attack on "13 Globes" and "Omnipotent Crawling Chaos" on Outre', but Seepia's "Glumurphonel" and "Tempus Fugit" are visible under the dust. The Curator's vocals have only become more roar-like over time, but on Seepia he primarily whispers as opposed to the hoarse gutturals of Outre'. These vocals are discomforting - while Molested's Blod-Draum isn't an easy listening (and is certainly a progenitor to Portal's sound), the more straightforward death metal vocal delivery isn't what makes that album weird. However, Portal completely captures that harsh, overwhelming affect where most of the discography leans toward a "wrongness" of death metal. Which, come to think of it, is what you'd want from Lovecraftian-inspired music, right?

A big part of the seeming incomprehensibility on Seepia comes from the extraordinary ability of guitarist Horror Illogium. In addition to the multilayered tracks (which you can hear right at the beginning per the opening volley of "Glumurphonel"), Portal riffs approach the "how do you memorize this?" level of complexity. I will admit to not having the musical knowledge to tell you how Portal perverts standard (or unstandard) chord structures. What I will say is I have seen Portal's early live shows, and "spider hands" is the closest way I can describe Horror Illogium. Traveling up and down the fret board, you can see how Portal develops their tracks in a far more concrete manner than the abstractness belied by Outre'. Where other experimental and atmospheric death metal bands rely so much on feedback and studio reverb, Portal simply plays hard.

Every album in Portal's discography is distinct. Many new listeners start with Outre' given the attention it got in non-metal magazines and web sites in the latter 2000s, as well as its contemporary recognition on sites like RateYourMusic and the wider metal consciousness. I actually think Seepia is the best place to start both for those coming from capital-d death metal and non-metal genres more associated with noise and experimental music. It balances both sides of that chthonic coin, and it has a perfect display of their wide-ranging technical abilities in a way the limpid precision of ION might be unapproachable for different reasons.

The very first time I heard Portal's "Seepia", I instantly dismissed it as incoherent, pointless noise that would be better suited in a land fill somewhere. My guess is that many "metal heads" would have the same reaction upon hearing Portal for the first time. Fortunately, I decided to give this band and this album more listens, and I'm happier for it.

Portal's music is very difficult to describe, mainly because there are no bands that I've heard that sound anything like them. To me they are the musical equivalent of sticking your head into a huge hive full of giant, angry hornets.

The guitars are always at the forefront, very distorted and tuned low (likely 7-strings), and are generally played at very high speeds- which, when combined with the production, gives them a murky, almost drone-like sound. The drums are set a bit back in the mix, but expertly played, with many interesting fills and little if any cliches such as "blast beats" to be found. The bass is barely audible, but it can be heard at times. The vocals here are exceptional, very much rooted in the death metal vein, plus the delivery is unique- sometimes it seems like they're half whispered, which only adds to the creepiness factor of the album.

The music here is constantly swarming, swirling, assaulting, challenging the listener to comprehend what they are hearing. Every time I listen to this album I notice a cool riff or melody that I failed to notice before. That's what I appreciate about this band- they're great musicians that play fast, but keep it interesting without sounding all tech-y like.

Stand out tracks? Vessel of Balon, Sunken, Transcending a Mere Multiverse.

With Seepia, Portal managed to capture a smothering, wicked atmosphere filled with heavy, fantastic riffs that become more enjoyable with each listen. For many, "Seepia" will certainly be an acquired taste, and some may never acquire that taste. With that being said, anyone with a remote appreciation for extreme music should at least give this album a nibble.

In some circles, Portal are hailed as Australia’s number one death metal band, owing to their extravagantly horrific live performances. Seepia was their first full length, being released in 2003. Since then, the band has gone on to release two more albums and continue to grow in notoriety.

Let me just say, I really do love bands that build a mystique about themselves, so I am not adverse to the pseudonyms and costumes adopted by the band. However, no matter how horrifying a man with a clock for a head may appear on stage, this doesn’t do much when popping in a CD. That is why, when having heard this band’s music described as “Antique Horror”, or in any other way associated with a sense of fear and general creepiness, I return to this record.

Honestly, Seepia offers nothing in the way of fear-building. Perhaps to those unfamiliar with death metal, or for those who have experienced the band live. But for me? The only thing that alludes to any sort of atmosphere-building is the intro track, which comes across as a jarring, distracting piece, detached from the following death metal onslaught – perfectly skippable without any loss on the overall experience. No fear, no terror, just annoyance at yet another band slapping on an un-necessary intro.

These passages return throughout the album, with a semi-interesting chiming bell appearing a little before the half-way mark, but again it doesn’t do much and really just breaks up the flow of the album. Whilst the last few moments may articulate exactly what the band was trying to do throughout with their samples, it is just too little, too late. Despite this, the album, when treated simply as a death metal release, really isn’t bad.

Portal formed a decade before Seepia was released. They have obviously used this time well, as not a single riff feels out of place. The production is muddy, with vocalist “The Curator” commanding “Altar Of Madness”-esque rasps and screams, buried sufficiently in the mix to create a cacophony of noise. The album sounds like it was recorded in a crypt, and this is definitely the perfect production for such an album.

Evil? Sure. Creepy? No.

The guitars are what really stand out on this record. Far from refined, technical wankery, they seem to relish in their dissonant, unpredictable nature, crawling through the album at an alarming pace. A balance has been hit here between distinctive and memorable riffs and use of the guitar as a tool for creating a thick, suffocating texture.

This is an old school death metal release with a few new flairs. Such a deliberately destructive production was perhaps not possible when Portal first hit the scene, and definitely not when their predecessors did. As such, the album is unmistakeably separate from others in the same vein. If it wasn’t for the ineffective attempts at creating a horrifying atmosphere, this could have been an absolutely outstanding slab of raw, evil, music.

There might not be anything too mind-bending about this release, but it sure is a fun one. Those looking for some solid death metal riffs look no further, but those wishing for a disturbing, spine-tingling experience should perhaps look to the band’s other releases, or simply their live show.

One fine day in an alternate dimension, Immolation (who in this reality are a brutal, far right evangelical Christian death metal band), were practicing their psalms when a wormhole opened and sucked them up. In the space between realities four entities known as The Curator, Illogium, Werm, and Mephitic happened upon them and decided to take up residence in their bodies, using them as vessels so they may spread their chaotic propaganda to one of the lower dimensions, namely ours, through music under the new moniker Portal. There is one last little bit of information that I should dispel to you before moving on to the review. Where Portal are from, they play all their music backwards.

With a band like Portal I make almost no assumptions, but when someone asks me what they sound like I say pretty much what I said above, "Immolation from another dimension, who play their music backwards". "Seepia" is not a very accessible album, it's a monolith of noise and riffs with claustrophobic production, and little structure. Seriously, if the production on this album was a wall, constantly altering and reforming its structure, you still couldn't throw a tack through the gaps in it. The riffs will be playing smoothly one second, then chugging the next, just to go back to being smooth again. The drums roll and blast, trying to make sense of the riff's nonsense, but at the same time the strings are lacerating, seemingly working against this idea.The Curator's particularly harsh voice will come in at seemingly random points in the song, and tempo changes are so quick and reckless that I'm not even sure if they count as tempo changes. The music on this album isn't so much technical as it is nonsensical. Just listen to the music when "Glumurphonel" really kicks in, just before The Curator unleashes his cavernous howl you'll get the impression that Illogium's fingers really must hate him.

There are moments when static gets so grandiose that it's almost too much, but thankfully The Curator likes to remind us of his prowess with a vaguely ecstatic scream before the serrated dissonance scares you away completely. However there are moments where a hint of normality bleeds through. "Vessel of Balon" is probably the most regular song on the album with an awesome riff half way through, "Sunken" and "Transcending a Mere Multiverse" are also memorable (at least for a bit). Everything else Portal offers here is just weird, and even the aforementioned songs have moments when the conjuring becomes too much for the bad to control. These guys just don't do mundane. The first time I looked at the lyrics I said "fuck it", but now I kind of have a theory behind them. The abstract horror that Portal are trying to convey is so monumental, it can't really be put into reasonable language. They read like a madman who has found solace in the terrible secrets he's privy to, the horror so beyond our three dimensional minds that the everyday words we use can't even scratch them. I have a feeling that even Portal's collective thesaurus of a mind doesn't do much justice either, and that the album is based more off feeling with a dash of imagination. Apparently they have a thing for the Cthuhlu Mythos as well, citing things like the Vessel of Balon, but I don't get a particularly "Lovecraftian" feel from this. But maybe that's the point.

Portal won't be everybody's cup of tea, but I don't think anybody can call them boring. They could be one of the most pretentious bands in existence, and just being weird for the sake of being weird, but if either one of those are true, I don't really care. I find their music fascinating more than entertaining, "Seepia" doesn't make me bang my head (you can't, really) so much as it makes me want to pay attention in the hope that I might notice something I didn't before, or that I might "get it". It's climaxes are quick and subtle, the quieter moments make me think of silent grainy films gone horribly array, and the tabs for the music are probably in the Necronomicon. If none of these things scare you or the tag "Total Horror Worshiping Death Metal" makes you rub your chin instead of roll your eyes, check these guys out. Everything I've said about them is probably wrong, or only half true, but ultimately how you perceive Portal is up to you. Good luck playing air guitar to it, by the way.

Another reviewer mentioned that seeing this band live was like being sucked through a portal-- I can't imagine what that must have been like, since I get the same sensation just listening to this CD. Some of these songs are only barely sustainable, spiralling further and further into chaos until the little bit of order that keeps things together falls away, and all that remains is silence and emptiness. Their constumes and general sense of aesthetics are pretty unique, too, and downright creepy. The band definitely has their own obscure sensibility, with imagery from classic horror writers (H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth) and a lot of sci-fi atmosphere, although nothing like Voivod or Nocturnus, or anybody else. The closest would probably be Mithras-- Portal is a lot scarier and more extreme, but they have some of the same slightly dreamy feel to them. I can't really detect much direct influence from Gorguts' "Obscura," although Portal is somewhere in the same stratum of weirdess-- lots of dissonance, and art-damaged riffs. They use noise to great effect, too-- everything adds to the general sense of an unstable universe rapidly coming apart (or beginning?). Most people have been calling this death metal, but I would say it falls a little closer to black metal-- the riffs and the way the songs are constructed remind me more of black metal. Or maybe I'm just being swayed by the production, which is the only real flaw on this album. I've never understood the black metal emphasis on bad production, which is always just that to me--bad. I have the remastered version, and still the drums are barely audible, reduced to a slight tapping sound in the background. This probably adds to the atmosphere of chaos, but still I would rather hear everything clearly. The band's new material sounds better produced (with more apparent Gorguts influences, I think), and I will be waiting on pins and needles until a new full length comes out.