Australia’s Portal are one of the heaviest, most transgressive, most nightmarish metal acts of all time. Their music truly pushes the boundaries of what most people would even consider to BE “music.”
Little wonder that it’s the ultimate alienator: crank Portal loudly enough and no one is coming within a hundred feet of your front door. Their music is a protective forcefield for misanthropes.
“Eye,” the band’s new single, has that protective forcefield effect as much as anything they’ve ever released. There is no melody. There is no chorus. There is no soft part of the song, no moment to breathe, no valley in which to rest before once again ascending a perilously steep mountain. The structure is loose at best. The vocals could be a man bellowing or they could be a grizzly bear getting its brains removed through its ass. It sounds equally plausible that the band’s members are the best or the worst musicians ever born. Critics will say “That’s just noise,” and even if you love this shit (as I very much do), it will be hard to argue with them.
Then again, those critics are missing the point. So. Fuck ’em.
Listen to “Eye” below.
It’s the first single from Portal’s new album, Avow, which is out May 28 on Profound Lore. Pre-order here. The track list and album art as below as well.
Avow Track List
- “Catafalque “
- “Eye “
- “Offune “
- “Manor of Speaking “
- “Bode “
- “Drain”
