Khaos

Even when the talk turns to underrated local black metal scenes, the Austrian one is rarely included. Of course, you might know the big names, like Belphegor, Summoning, Abigor or Harakiri for the Sky, but apart from that there still seems to be a need for enlightenment. One band that can easily compete with their international peers are Portae Obscuritas from the beautiful province of Tyrol. Founded back in 2007, they only released their first album “Sapientia Occulta” in 2016 and followed it up with their second album “Lvx Atra Aeterna” in 2019.

In 2024 the gentlemen have now released album number three. It goes by the simple name of “Khaos” and offers a 45-minute excursion into pitch-black musical abysses. While the album starts on a mellow note it does not take long before the band ups the intensity. With raging fury Portae Obscuritas sweep through the first track "Key to the Cosmic Gates". The bone-chilling guitars create a pervasive atmosphere that makes the room temperature drop and the breath freeze. The rhythm section whips through the song with machine-like precision but also leaves room for breathers. It speaks for the band that the music never lacks a certain groove. While technically acting on a high level there is never the danger that complexity stands in the way of listening pleasure.

A slower tempo and incantatory vocals with the ritualistic basic orientation let the listener slip into a trance-like state in the second cut “Hegemony: Heralding the Golden Dawn”. You do not notice how you are slowly sucked into a dark hole with the music progressing further. Especially with sensible headphones this song unfolds its hypnotic effect in impressive manner. “A Gaze to the Stars” is the shortest track with a bit more than six minutes playing time but still has a lot of details that wait to be discovered in several spins. An insidious, peeking melancholy, provoked by melodic riffs and slower tempos in some parts of the song, attempts to bleed through, quickly broken down into chunks of eerie harsh vocals and a drum wave of classic black metal ferocity.

The music in general can be classified as simultaneously fiery and icy. Attractive and repulsive, cold but always exciting. If you endure the percussive sonic invasion and crushing riff walls, you are in for a harmonious, full-blooded, beautiful album that has all the qualities to make it onto your year-end list. Each track has to offer something unique, bringing not only theatricality and heaviness, but addictive and twisted harmonies. The guitars are very treble-heavy and have fine pressure in the mid register, so that the bass can push fine melodic accents in between and emerges well.

What comes out on top most significantly are the arrangements and the construction of the songs. The compositions are quite long, but well-articulated and hardly ever bore the listener. A strong indication of the success of the whole lies in wanting more and more each time the track list comes to fruition, and considering the genre proposed this is by no means to be underestimated. Balancing the great shockwave generated, there are also moments when things are slowed down and arpeggios take over, creating alienating atmospheres with great impact. Thanks to a very transparent and organic yet buzzing production job “Khaos” is an outstanding album for each fan of ritualistic and occult black metal.