Portal Tombs

Album review

This album is the very definition of “tension at its peak". When it comes to keeping the pressure high, this Swedish band’s second album is the perfect tool: destructive, heavy, and dirty. The tracks contained within it are stunning, and they immediately reveal an undeniable individuality, a sign of a band that has thoroughly digested and understood the work of its forefathers. They’ve recycled existing music into something even better without ever needing to secretly exploit or plagiarise their inspirations. Portal Tombs harnesses both the power of Death Metal and the intensity of Black Metal (Dunes of Bones), and utilises visceral vocals, such as those found in Cult of Luna or Neurosis, accompanied with some heavy sludge and doom (for example, the monumental closing track Deliverance). It also features riffs that clearly allude to Meshuggah (Scorched Earth), and it’s all topped off with a good sprinkle of At The Gates and Masodon.

A pitch-black anger dwells in this album, taking the listener on a stifling voyage where every sound seems saturated. It’s as if the sound is on the brink of stalling, like everything had been recorded with the VU metres perpetually in the red. Amid this horde of relentless riffs, the incredible melodic work of the guitars somehow brings a semblance of light into this otherwise dark place. A must-have album by a band that’s shattering genre boundaries and has already won over the founding fathers from whom they’ve drawn so much inspiration. The presence of distinguished guests such as Barney Greenway from Napalm Death, Jonas Renkse from Katatonia and Jonas Stålhammar from At The Gates only serves to hammer this point home. It’s as unstoppable as it is unmissable. © Chief Brody/Qobuz