PORTAL

"Portal" is the eponymously titled first demo recording by Australian death metal act Portal. The demo was recorded on the 6th of June 1998 and that point Portal were the duo of The Curator (vocals) and Horror Illogium (guitars, drum programming).

It´s obvious from the lo-fi sound quality, and the fact that the music only features guitars, low-in-the mix drum programming (I didn´t even notice that the demo featured drums until the middle of the first track, when the guitars took a break. They mostly just sound like a distant rumble), and gruff growling vocals. There are signs in the unconventional nature of the guitar riffs that Portal were on to something unique already this early on, but other than that, this is probably not a demo originally meant for the public ear, but more for the band members to hear their songwriting ideas on tape.

Featuring 3 tracks and a total playing time of 10:01 minutes the listener is given enough time to evaluate and understand Portal´s brutal, dissonant, chaotic, and suffocating vision of how death metal should be played. The fact that it sounds mostly like a guitar only demo with the occassional vocals on top, makes it a bit hard to listen to for enjoyment, so this is more an interesting release than a great one. A 1.5 star (30%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).