lol thanks seeing as swarth is one of my favourite albums of all time i am happy with that

Yeah, this song is also good. I'm looking forward to Vexovoid even more now!

Are pre-orders available yet? I'm itching for this to be out more than ever after this song. I really like how the production showcases the instruments much more now, even the drums are very audible.

I have mine preordered through Amazon. Strange that the labels involved aren't offering any sort of preorder...

does anyone know how to get an mp3 of the new song? i usually wait till it appears on youtube and download it through a youtube to mp3 site and then put it on my mp3 player and listen to it but it hasnt appeared on youtube yet

I agree with this so much. that's so important to me cause that's what I was bitching about with outre since the drums way too quiet for my tastes

Man that artwork is awesome!

finally was able to download the song and it reminds me of swarth but with better production and the curators vocals seen to be more brutal this time around which i think is great

Is the new album supposed to be out? Metal archives says Feb 19, 2013, but I just picked it up today.

you picked it up where? definitely meant to be out feb 19

Well, yes, I do agree with you in that decipherable guitars are generally a negative thing in this sort of music, but Portal had guitars that were more-or-less this clean on Swarth and that worked well for them, more-or-less.

I'm honestly too pissed off/disappointed about this to objectively criticise it, but basically it's way too songy and it's sad that, after Swarth, they've decided to become more normal instead of less so. This needs more atonality, and less drum presence, and less melody and just uuuuuggggghhhh it's a good song I'm probably going to like this eventually but for now I'm just going to throw a really huge bitchfit about it for not being what I expected.

I meant that you wouldn't agree about it shaping up to be the very best.

Well, of course not. This is going to be their weakest by far.

I got it at Amoeba in Hollywood. At first I thought it may have been a sampler or something like that but no, full album.

not completely sure if i believe you but a few copies could have been accidentally sent out i heard its completed so it is possible, congratulations if your telling the truth(hard to tell on the internet)

That's how most metal albums end up getting leaked onto metal blogs a month before release, so I'm not surprised.

^ Hint hint

Understandable, but here's a couple images. It's awesome by the way. ;D

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b56 ... G_8051.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b56 ... G_9900.jpg

that is epic, sorry for being a bit sceptical and yes hint hint

also glad your enjoying it

how does it compare to the rest of their discography in your opinion?

from what i have heard the curators vocals sound different and more brutal this time around is that consistent on the entire album? sorry for so many questions :d

http://www.amazon.com/Vexovoid/dp/B00B4 ... s=vexovoid

Vexovoid samples

Good shit. The Curator sounds unhinged.

They already toned down the weirdness on Swarth, Seepia was way more twisted.

i love this album best thing i have heard this year. and it will be a contender for the year end list.

I don't remember liking them when I first heard them years ago but I'll have to take a second listen based on the artwork alone.

Yet another new track.

^ Sounds amazing, of course.

It has leaked fully now for those waiting for every song that comes out.

really love Vexovoid but it is too short

Curator sounds savage instead of pedestrian, riffs are discernable, 34 minutes is a perfect length for an extreme death metal album, this is awesome.

Disappointment. Sounds very artificial and uninspired. I think they already did their best.
And those fillers on Vexovoid..., oh, half of the song Plasm is boring outro-ish sound and Oblotten and Awryeon contains something of a kind too.
It's not atmospheric at all, it just prolongs the waiting for the next song.

i agree that the Curator sounds better this album he suits the music more imo and i agree with the riffs too i just guess i want more portal :d personally for me i would have liked the album to go around the 40 to 45 minute mark but that is really the only negative thing about it to me the riff on Awreon at the start reminds me of a riff on Swarth but i forget which one

and i think the bits to help with the atmosphere have potential personally i just wish the album was a bit longer to make them really work

Might have to check this out. Saw them the other week supporting Marduk. Very fast, very technical, very loud and very furious. Definitely one of the strangest bands I've ever seen (playing entirely in black hoods of course)

The Curator's head-dress I believe was a Medieval double henin princess-type thing. I've got a shaky video on my blog from my phone (no sound) showing the Curator and one of the guitarists in action.

The third new song sounds disappointing too so far. I don't get it, it sounds like they intentionally tried to avoid both the dense atmosphere of Outre' and the captivating dissonance of Swarth. What the hell were they even going for this time around? Certainly not riffs, the last two albums were chock-full of those. The only thing that's improved are the vocals and the drums, which could have easily been translated over to a Swarth V2.0 (and would sound out-of-place on a redux of Outre'). I just don't get who this is actually supposed to appeal to. It's frustrating.

Yeah, in that sense it's a bit of an awkward album, the sound isn't really churning and evil, but at the same time it's not hooky and riffy, it's just kind of a nice sounding blur. I think the last two albums with this sound would have been excellent albums, since this one doesn't really do much, and it's definitely musically their weakest, but still, it's Portal churning savagely with an excellent sound, so I won't complain.

Also, I admit my comments about the excellence yesterday were based off a brief listen of the first two songs only, which are both really good songs and showcase that glorious sound nicely. Awryeon is another fantastic song, lots of techy twisted madness, something I wish the album has more of overall. Curtain and Plasm are kinda sucky tunes.

I think the album is just the right length and I'm personally surprised with the amount of experimentation, I expected a bit but they've gone all out so I can see this album having mixed reviews with fans, especially those who prefer their older material. It's closest sounding to Swarth but it's definitely it's own bag. I'm all for the type of production they've chosen as Seepia is almost unlistenable and songs are indiscernible. I like the edition of the Meshuggah-like riff on Kilter, I love the Alien reminiscent synth at the end of Plasm, it's good to see it rear it's head on other tracks too, the atmospherics accompanied with other instruments that I can not distinguish.

See, the thing is, I don't hear any experimentation here at all. It sounds like at this point they're merely shrugging, laying back, and refusing to try to do anything interesting. This sounds like a toned-down, middling reiteration of everything they've done up until now.

Musically I'm kinda with Throne here, the riffs themselves are (largely) unadventurous, there's a fair few outros I guess, but I don't think outros are really all that experimental. It's like they've put all their effort into the production and overall sound, and have tested out how their most basic concepts work while filtered through it.

Listened to it last night, and I'm still excited for my copy to arrive. It sounds more "normal", but is still undeniably a Portal album, which is what I put my money down on. Probably their best album as far as the overall sound is concerned, and despite what everyone is saying, I'm not disappointed in the riffs. I was actually reminded of a few moments from the last Kerasphorus EP, which made me grin a little.

Now the only things Portal-related left for me to be impatient about are U.S. shows and the new Grave Upheaval album.

Not a big fan of this band, but I'm interested in hearing this!

I thought it was more of a middle-eastern kafia headress type thing.