First of all, let us take a moment to celebrate the great Jeff Treppel’s description of the new Portal album, Avow, in this week’s Shit That Comes Out Today:
“If you like death metal that sounds like the tape has been mangled and warped and run through the washing machine (without any degradation on the production end), Portal once more have you covered.”
I’m not sure if Jeff meant that as a compliment or an insult. Regardless, it is EXACTLY what us Portal fans wanted from Avow, so we’re all happy campers.
This should make us even happier campers: in addition to Avow, the scariest band in metal has surprised-released ANOTHER new album, Hagbulbia. And believe it or not, it actually is different from Avow, less like a mangled, warped tape run through a washing machine and more like a thousand old television sets all left on static at full-volume. Most it, if I’m not mistaken, doesn’t even contain guitars or drums (I would guess it’s predominantly electronic).
So Hagbulbia is every bit as enevelope-pushing as Avow, but, personally, I find it a less enjoyable listen. It’s amazing what Portal can achieve with instruments. But Hagbulbia, although successful as an example of what it probably sounds like in Hell, really MIGHT be “just noise.”
Or maybe it’s totally brilliant and I just haven’t wrapped my head around it yet.
Both Avow and Hagbulbia are out now on Profound Lore. Listen below. Then head to the comments section to discuss, debate, etc.