https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og_aw_WcuLo

Not sure if it's the title of a new song or album, but new Portal is always welcome even if the sample is a bit jarring. Not sure if the music is purposely obfuscated just for effect, or if this is the production they are going with. If it is, it's going to be a bizarre listen for sure. Either way, I'm excited. Vexovoid wasn't their strongest effort, while still managing to be a decent album, so I'm curious how they're going to follow through. Thoughts?

Oh...and those visuals...

All hail the Portal blackened mass! I love the production of this. It sounds like a horror film from the 70s only more grim.

I'm a huge Portal fan, so of course this is exciting. I'm sure the music in the clip is just a noise piece they composed specifically for this teaser, as they've done in the past with their short little promo clips, but it'd be interesting to hear the band incorporate some noise/industrial influence...and though I ended up enjoying Vexovoid, it's not really what I wanted in a new Portal record, so hopefully there's beehive riffs and terror-inducing soundscapes galore on this new one.

Bring back Havoc Unit.

New Portal is always welcome. Looking forward to the mindfuckery & inevitable headaches!

Oh man I am excite.

Quite the clattering.

Yeah I also wasn't thrilled with Vexovoid, and even if the teaser is a sample from the album Portal is kinda hard to judge on a short clip.

New song:

I like it. Good step back in the right direction after Vexovoid played it pretty safe. It reminds of Seepia with the shrillness of the guitar tone and the total note assault approach to the guitars. The vocals kick ass too, as usual. Not sure how I feel about that long meandering passage that happens after the 2-minute mark - feels like a long excursion with little buildup - but the structural elements bode well.

Release date is January 28th.

EDIT: A bunch of other info (tracklist, an interview) here: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?stor ... 1984643848

Absolutely killer song. Has anyone read the interview Illogium did? Really in depth, informative stuff. I think that's were the track premiered. Really recommended reading!

http://www.bardomethodology.com/article ... interview/

Was really impressed by the mention of a discarded album. And with a finished layout and recording! It was supposedly going to "out-Portal Portal"

Fuck yes, that's what I'm talking about. The Curator's vocals are great as always, and the guitars are as bendy as ever. That long build up into the end does fall a little flat but that weird melody in the background keeps my attention long enough for me to not mind. Gotta say I really like the album art too; reminds me of Metropolis for some reason.

i came here to post this, just wow reminds me of Swarth but the vocals sound a bit different, less muffled i think butt either way it works

Exactly what I want out of a Portal song: frenzied, amorphous "riffing" with a curious atmosphere, and the latter part of the song sounds like the air is melting. I think the clearer sound of the recording is beneficial here, too, as the guitars/bass performance is claustrophobic and frantic enough to deliver the sort of dark, suffocating feel associated with this band's music. I'm curious to hear the material that was shelved before the rebirth of Illogium's approach to writing, but I'm enjoying this new piece so much that I don't yet feel like I've missed out on something. Instant preorder for me, no hesitation.

I wonder if their live performances will be, at least aesthetically, completely different...only time will tell I suppose.

i like how it seems like they walked back to the point they were at after seepia and then made a turn into a new direction. Looks very promising.

i thought i would ask about the production, what are people's thoughts on how clean it is? at first i was not impressed when i think portal i think murkey and hard to really make out anything and clean production sounds like it wont be nearly as scary sounding but i think it works perfectly here you can hear every guitar note and those guitars are perfection

I don't mind it, Vexovoid was already clearer than anything else they'd done before so it would have been more surprising if they murked it up again.

The new song sounds like a cleaned up Seepia which I'm all for. Got that stupid glow in the dark vinyl pre-ordered along with a regular black copy.

that is very true, the issue i had with Vexovoid is for me nothing interesting happened on it and i am already loving this album through the one song more than Vexovoid i mean its not a bad album but if i am going to listen to portal its not going to be that album

i am genuinely excited for this, i wonder if the allegedly new members are part of the reason why it sounds different, either way i love what i have heard so far

Man that was quite unpleasant...in a good way! While the cavern-death movement is in full force nobody can replicate the chaos Portal crafts. Bit of a cleaner take this time around but still labyrinthine, mindbending & hostile as ever. FUCK!!!

Where did you get a black copy? Surely not through PL's webstore?

Profound Lore's euro shop had some but they're all gone now.

http://aisamerch.de/profoundlore/en/hom ... on-lp.html

Oh, weird. And pretty lame of PL... Gotta sell those "made for instagram" variants somehow I guess.

Thanks for the reply.

New members? Sorry, not challenging you at all, but is there a source on this? The Archives says it's been the same line up since the mid 2000's.

I am totally confused that anyone ever could like this stuff.
This bands produces pure noise imo. My vacuum cleaner is more interesting to listen to. o_o

honestly i dont know if i believe they have new members or not my entire source is a post someone made on a forum
http://www.nwnprod.com/forum/viewtopic. ... c&start=15

the first post on the 2nd page, the only reason i even mentioned it is because he was right about the tuning(i think) but yea i dont think some guy on the internet is the best source

What specifically do you not like about it? I'm more baffled by someone being into metal music but not enjoying some Portal.

This is the exact same perception your parents had when you first put on Altars Of Madness, which is a good indication that you stumbled upon what I call "next level shit" worth digging into. My revelatory band when it comes to next level shit was Teitanblood, maybe you can start out with their first album. Happy caverning.

when i first listened to Portal i hated it, i thought it was complete garbage but for some reason there was something that kept me coming back to them even though i hated them and it took a while but Swarth grew to be my favourite album of all time so initial impressions especially with Portal are not always to be trusted

Couldn't you say this about any of the bands you don't like?

i couldn't get into them either when trying out seepia, sweyy and outre' - i kind of found something to be liked on outre', which i guess is why i kept coming back to them, only to find out they still didn't properly click with me even tho' there was certainly something there
but when they released swarth, i was hooked

I think the recording sounds great, as I mentioned above; what is actually being played by the instruments contributes to the suffocating, claustrophobic feel of the music, instead of a combination of tone and recording quality, I feel.

Swarth was already pretty clear sounding and vexovoid even more so. It does sound less murky or something now. Vexovoid was like a HD pic of mud if you get me.

For me Portal esp Seepia felt very lovecraftian to me. I've a feeling that any mad piping flutes keeping Azathoth slumbering would sound a bit like Seepia.

I don't see why not, but that's a pretty simplistic way to look at it. That would be looking at it through the lens that all bands bring the exact same thing to the table - which isn't what I was thinking. For example, I enjoy P.H.O.B.O.S., but can absolutely understand why the typical metalhead might not be a fan.

Perhaps it would make more sense to you in a different context. I would be baffled for example if a horror fan didn't enjoy The Shining. It's not a matter of "you don't like what I like so I'm confused", it's a matter of "this piece of art is more or less universally acclaimed by horror fans so I don't understand why you don't share that view unless you explained your reasoning".

I could just project and say, "They probably can't stand the production", but most metalheads I know have never been particularly picky about production - so that's why I had to ask. People have asked me many times why I don't like a band (e.g. Opeth) and they were surprised by my answer so maybe I'd be surprised by his. There are also times in the past I've been asked to explain why I don't like something, and after further reflection, I'd realize it's harder to critique than my first impression led on.

The first three albums were so weird. Never ever could get into it. Compared to these I call Old Kataklysm pure order.
Though I admit, I didn't even listen to the new song who sounds very different in a good way to me.

Yes, the movie analogy does clear up the point you are making. I can definitely agree with that sentiment, but not in the specific case of Portal. If we were talking about something more basic like Iron Maiden or Slayer I could definitely declare that anyone who was legitimately into metal should find something (if not multiple things) they like about their music regardless of whether or not they care for the bands as a whole because the individual elements in their work are significant to metal as a whole. Portal, on the other hand, is more of a niche band who also happen to give even hardcore harsh noise fans and power electronics fans headaches.

Portal does get pretty uniform praise from people who care to talk about them, but that's because they aren't really facing critique from anyone except their own niche audience. Metalheads who aren't into that style don't have any reason to comment on them because Portal, and what they do, isn't as important to metal as a whole.

Tjolgtjar is a comparable band that I happen to like. Almost everyone I know who has things to say about Tjolgtjar freakin' love it (except Nightgaunt of course), but that's because people who aren't inclined to be into that particular obscure brand of metal aren't bothering. If you actually did a cross section of all metaldom, I believe both Tjolgtjar and Portal would get more "dislikes" and "don't cares" than "likes" and "loves".

excellent post, why!

This style does, in fact, move metal closer to pure noise. There's only so far you can move towards a "cavernous" and "dissonant" sound before you start breaching the threshold of noise music. It's true our parents say the same thing about Morbid Angel, but the difference is that they were closer to being entirely wrong than A Backwards 6 is. Just because our parents can't make as fine distinctions as we can doesn't mean that there are no distinctions.

It is also a fallacy to equate greater harshness with a higher level of achievement in metal artistry. Death metal and black metal weren't on a higher level than thrash and heavy metal because they were more extreme, rather their extremity was merely one aspect of the many things that made them interesting and artistically significant enough to become co-equal branches of metal alongside those antecedent styles.

I suspect the same people making the opposite case, however, are the ones who would also argue that anyone who ever liked a Led Zeppelin song should definitely be into Mitochondrion.

My post was a bit exaggerated of course, but it's how I often get into new music. It's a matter of feeling "wow, this is quite... challenging". I can clearly distiguish the feeling from "wow, this sounds quite shit". The former peaks my interest, the latter makes me turn the music off. It's of course true that Portal/Caverncore is more in the direction of noise than Morbid Angel, but I always try to completely dismiss the notion that it's worthless just because it's fucking abrasive and hard to swallow at first glance. A lot of appreciation for my favorite artists came about in this way, hell, I guess this is how most everyone got into (extreme) metal one way or the other. So I try to keep this spirit I regard as youthful and keep the "it's just noise" argument out the door. Except for Merzbow et al. Now that's just noise (ask me again in 20 years)

That new song is dope. A good start to the new year coming up.

New track "Phathom" has been unleashed.

https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/phathom

A quick one, but super solid just like the last. Shaping up to be a promising release.

honestly like it a lot, still sounds weird but i think it works, love the drums especially