ALBUM REVIEW – PORTRAIT

Portrait – The Host

Reviewed by: Blake Mossey

Review Score: 7.5

The Swedish band Portrait is poised to release their sixth full-length album, The Host. Formed in 2005, they infuse a modern flair into their classic heavy metal sound. For newcomers to Portrait, the influences of early Mercyful Fate and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal are evident. The vocals of Per Lengstedt resonate with the power and operatic quality reminiscent of Bruce Dickinson‘s solo work, with a hint of King Diamond‘s falsetto.

This album is the first concept album for the band. According to guitarist and founding member Christian Lindell it’s a story dating back to 17th century Sweden. “It’s an occult tale of sword and sorcery”.

Guitarist Karl Gustafsson makes his debut with Portrait on this album. Rounding out the band is Fredrik Petersson on bass and Anders Persson on drums.

The album begins with a slow instrumental that sets the tone, before diving into ‘The Blood Covenant,’ which bursts forth with energetic guitar leads, setting a rapid pace reminiscent of early Mercyful Fate. Vocalist Per Lengstedt unleashes Halford-esque screams, while the dual guitar work of Lindell and Gustafsson takes center stage in this explosive opening track.

‘Oneiric Visions’ blasts out some Maiden like galloping riffs and Lengstedt shows the King Diamond influences showing some falsetto vocals.

‘One Last Kiss’ begins as a gentle ballad before transitioning into a robust, melodic semi-ballad, reminiscent of Dickinson’s solo work. Lengstedt’s performance notably reaches epic heights. ‘Sound The Horn’ stands out as a fast, heavy track, characterized by galloping riffs and exuding the speed and emotion typical of Portrait’s classic sound.

The album concludes with the epic 11-minute track ‘The Passions of Sophia’. As one might anticipate, this track showcases a variety of tempo and mood shifts, demonstrating that the band’s skills extend beyond straightforward, tradition-rich metal songs. This particular song reveals their progressive tendencies more than any other on the album.

Spanning approximately 70 minutes and comprising 13 tracks (plus intro), the album is a testament to the band’s evolution, showcasing their maturing music and songwriting with each new release. Brimming with traditional metal sounds and exceptional musicianship, it features a dynamic range of tempos, from galloping riffs to melodic interludes and complex guitar solos. The album is sure to satisfy long-time fans and attract newcomers alike. The recording of the album took place at JFK Studio in Sweden, while singer Per Lengstedt oversaw the mixing and production at his Perilous Productions Studio.

The Host releases June 21st on Metal Blade Records. Pre Order HERE

ALBUM REVIEW – MY DYING BRIDE

My Dying Bride – A Mortal Binding

Reviewed By: Kenneth Gallant

Review Score: 9

It’s been four years since Ghost Of Orion was released by My Dying Bride. When the album was offered
up in 2020, the world was reeling with the start of COVID and all the subsequent lock downs that followed. As for the album, it hit at the right time; becoming a grim, oppressive, and powerful soundtrack to reflect the time we all found ourselves in.

The band has always been prone to sweeping you up into a deeply emotional voyage of sonic dirges;
embroiling your senses along the way into a whirlwind of doomed sounds. They truly are one of the more unique bands in the doom/death/gothic metal genre and it shows here on A Mortal Binding. This
represents the band’s fifteenth studio recording and it’s a stunning testament to an enduring legacy that began at the start of the 1990’s.

As I attempted to gather my initial thoughts, I noticed how tight and refined the production was on this release. Much like the last record, the songs here are crisp, engaging and moving. The first track ‘Her Domain’ is completely guitar-driven and is proceeded by thick and doomy tones. Aaron Stainthorpe’s vocals are raspy and tortured sounding, but quite pronounced throughout this piece. He doesn’t let up for any reason and it’s a big statement to make on an opening track of this magnitude. At least on the next track ‘Thornwyck Hymn’ the vocals are dominated by clean singing and followed by soaring melodies that drip nothing but melancholia.

‘The Second of Three Bells’ starts up slowly and continues to pull back, until the guitars grind hard and the growls are heard. The song falls back again into what I feel is a beautifully realized track. ‘Unthroned Creed’ features some beefy guitars and probably some of Andrew Craighan’s best lead work. The lyrics fall inline perfectly and I love the line “I won’t help you anymore” repeated several times throughout the song.

Following that is the eleven minute opus called ‘The Apocalyptist’ which twists and turns with violins, heavy guitars and Aaron’s guttural vocals. I love how it rips along and then slows down to slither at a menacing pace. My ears can pick out a Ride The Lighning vibe in the guitars in one part and then suddenly hear the brilliance of a Tony Iommi riff in another part. This is my favourite track by
the way.

The second to last track; ‘A Starving Heart’ again blisters along with a sweeping melody; allowing Aaron to provide clean and snarly vocals on top of it. This is a solid piece overall setting up the final track ‘Crushed Embers’ to be ushered in at a slow and deliberate pace. There’s heaping amounts of doomy goodness here, and I love the line “I waited such a long time and questioned my sanity.” The growls at this juncture work so well; punctuating the ending of the song soon after.

A Mortal Binding clocks in close to fifty-five minutes and becomes an epic long player in the process. I
simply love the guitar harmonies and crystal clear production brings all that on point. Aaron Stainthorpe continues writing poetically and morbidly; getting better on every album with his lyrics. He can also switch effortlessly from clean to gnarly vocals becoming old hat to him at this point. There’s not a bad song to be found here and you can easily slot this release along side The Ghost of Orion. My favourite track is ‘The Apocalyptist’, but other tracks like ‘Her Dominion’, ‘Thornwyck Hymn’ and ‘Unthroned Creed’ are all equally good.

A Mortal Binding will be released on April 19th via Nuclear Blast Records.

ALBUM REVIEW – THE RODS

The Rods – Rattle The Cage

Reviewed By: Tom Elke

Review Score: 8.5

The Rods are a U.S. metal band that was started in late 1979 by drummer Carl Canedy (who was the first drummer for Manowar) and lead vocalist/guitarist David “Rock” Feinstein (Ronnie James Dio’s cousin). Adding bassist Garry Bordonaro to complete the lineup, they put out six albums, one EP and one live album through the 80s. While still remaining friends and always keeping in touch (and perhaps playing a gig here and there) the band finally reunited in 2008 to play a festival in Norway (The Rods are one of those bands that has always had that “street-cred” aura attached to them.) This prompted them to record the album Vengeance in 2011 and Brotherhood of Metal in 2019.

The Rods are now joined by bassist Freddy Villano and have a new a studio album entitled Rattle The Cage, with a release date of January 19th, 2024 on Massacre Records. The album is produced by The Rods (which of course includes Carl Canedy, who has forty plus albums to his producer credits) while being mixed & mastered by Chris Collier… giving Rattle The Cage a modern sounding metal album that still possesses The Rods’ style of traditional metal music. It sounds great!

The album features ten tracks, with a running time of approximately forty-nine minutes. It’s a mixture of tempos from slower, to mid-paced, to up-tempo tracks. There’s even some organ/keyboards spots that are sprinkled in by guest musician Lonnie Park, but it does not take anything away from The Rods classic sound… and classic sounding The Rods it is! Whether it’s great songs like ‘Hell Or High Water’, ‘Play It Loud’, ‘Now And Forever’ or the excellent title track, The Rods bring the same passion and power they brought back in their early days of existence. This is an excellent album of modern-sounding, traditional metal music.

Rattle The Cage track-listing:

Now And Forever
Wolves At The Door
Cry Out Loud
Rattle The Cage
Can’t Slow Down
Metal Highways
Hell Or High Water
Play It Loud
Shockwave
Hearts Of Steel

DISTANT SHOWS THEIR HERITAGE

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: MARSWORTH

Brutal deathcore headbangers, Distant, are set to release their third full-length record under the name of Heritage via Century Media Records. The Netherlands and the Slovak Republic have produced some of the best and most notable death metal bands, and this is no exception. The group has been serving up pure metal to their loyal and trustworthy fans for nearly a decade and have no plans of stopping or slowing down. The band’s intensity travels through every word of their tracks to every one of their 266,000 Spotify listeners. Value of their music along with their listeners is truly unmatched and electrifying. Distant is fully prepared to show us their “Heritage” in the world in which they have single-handedly engineered.

Distant is:

Alan Grnja- Lead vocals

Elmer Maurits – Bass

Nouri Yetgin – Lead guitar

Vladimir Golic – Rhythm guitar

Jan Mato – Drums

Shall we talk about the elephant in the room? The band has broken standards and fought social norms by having a track with 16, you read that right SIXTEEN, guest vocalists. It’s absolutely unprecedented to have such a number of rockers on a track that isn’t charity related. Grnja said that the collaboration between the 16 singers was similar to the crossover between Spider-Man and the X-Men in the early 1990’s. Bringing such a fun anecdote to such a driven and virtuosic band makes the possible initial shock down a few notches to where it can be enjoyed by more than metal fans. In addition to such a powerful mid-record track, from track one all the way to twelve is such a journey in which no other downtempo band has done before and it feels monumental to be a part of history such as this. After having a whole pandemic to marinate in their tracks, the group had made their alterations until their masterpiece, Heritage, had wrapped production and is currently ready to hit the market in early February this year. Whilst using vivid imagery, the record comes to life before your very eyes which isn’t the easiest thing to master, but Distant makes it look easy.

The roar coming from Grnja is out of the world and gives me goosebumps every time I hear his voice come through my headphones. The genuine nature to the band as well as vocals is audible, especially embedded within this most recent record. Perhaps the heaviness behind the tracks goes to show the bona fide, unadulterated complexion of a world renowned metal group. The journey from “Acid Rain” to “Plaguebreeder” is a story in which will be put on stage in the coming months when they join Bodysnatcher, Angelmaker, and Paleface on tour. They all hope to see fellow metalheads throwin’ up their horns at a show near you!

MARSWORTH SAYS: 8/10

TRACK LIST:

1. Acid Rain
2. Paradigm Shift
3. Born Of Blood
4. The Grief Manifest
5. Exofilth
6. Argent Justice
7. The Gnostic Uprising
8. A Sentence To Suffer
9. Human Scum
10. Heritage
11. Orphan Of Blight
12. Plaguebreeder