PORTRAIT

Heavy Metal • Sweden

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Portrait are a Swedish heavy metal band from Kristianstad. They formed in 2004 and released their self-titled debut full-length studio album in 2008.

Thanks to Time Signature for the addition and UMUR for the updates

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PORTRAIT Discography

PORTRAIT albums / top albums

3.69 | 4 ratings

Portrait
Heavy Metal 2008

PORTRAIT Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae album cover

3.81 | 5 ratings

Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae
Heavy Metal 2011

3.50 | 2 ratings

Crossroads
Heavy Metal 2014

3.57 | 3 ratings

Burn the World
Heavy Metal 2017

4.00 | 1 ratings

At One With None
Heavy Metal 2021

4.00 | 1 ratings

The Host
Heavy Metal 2024

PORTRAIT EPs & splits

PORTRAIT New Age of Iron Vol. 1 - Teutonic-Swedish Alliance album cover

0.00 | 0 ratings

New Age of Iron Vol. 1 - Teutonic-Swedish Alliance
Heavy Metal 2007

PORTRAIT New Wave Of Swedish Heavy Metal album cover

0.00 | 0 ratings

New Wave Of Swedish Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal 2012

0.00 | 0 ratings

Under Command
Heavy Metal 2014

PORTRAIT live albums

PORTRAIT demos, promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs)

PORTRAIT Welcome to My Funeral album cover

0.00 | 0 ratings

Welcome to My Funeral
Heavy Metal 2006

0.00 | 0 ratings

We Were Not Alone
Heavy Metal 2014

PORTRAIT re-issues & compilations

PORTRAIT singles (2)

0.00 | 0 ratings

Into the Nothingness
Heavy Metal 2007

4.50 | 1 ratings

The Murder of All Things Righteous
Heavy Metal 2010

PORTRAIT movies (DVD, Blu-Ray or VHS)

PORTRAIT Reviews

PORTRAIT Burn the World

Album · 2017 · Heavy Metal

UMUR

"Burn the World" is the fourth full-length studio album by Swedish heavy metal act Portrait. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in August 2017. It´s the successor to "Crossroads" from 2014. The band are down to the trio of Anders Persson (drums), Christian Lindell (guitars, bass), and Per Lengstedt (vocals) after guitarist David Olofsson and bassist Mikael Castervall have jumped ship.

The material on "Burn the World" pretty much continue in the Mercyful Fate/King Diamond influenced heavy metal style of the preceding releases, but Lengstedt do have other things in his vocal repetoire than sounding like a clone of King Diamond. So while the music certainly features enough high pitched vocals and harmonies to keep the King Diamond fanboys happy, Lengstedt´s mid-range vocals and some of his screams are slightly more unique sounding. The tracks feature very traditional sounding heavy metal riffs, solos, harmonies, and rhythm work, although some of the tracks are more adventurous in nature than just consisting of vers/chorus sections. Best examplified by the 8:49 minutes long closing track "Pure of Heart".

"Burn the World" is a well produced release, featuring a powerful, organic, and detailed sound production, which suits the material well. It´s not an album which is much better or much different than what they have released before, but it´s another solid album release and Portrait can be proud of what they´ve produced here. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

9 days ago
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PORTRAIT Crossroads

Album · 2014 · Heavy Metal

UMUR

"Crossroads" is the third full-length studio album by Swedish heavy metal act Portrait. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in April 2014. It´s the successor to "Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae" from 2011 and there have been a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor as guitarist Richard Lagergren has been replaced by David Olofsson and bassist Joel Pälvärinne has been replaced by Mikael Castervall. Lead vocalist Per Karlsson has changed his surname to Lengstedt through marriage, but it´s still the same man singing.

Both the band´s eponymously titled 2008 debut album and "Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae (2011)" were strongly Mercyful Fate/King Diamond influenced heavy metal releases, and "Crossroads" continues down a similar path. Everything from the riffs, the rhythms, the bass, the vocals, and even the sound production scream 1983/1984 Mercyful Fate. Fortunately Portrait are both skilled composers and musicians, so they can pull off writing and playing what in many ways is a tribute to the Danish heavy metal legends.

"Crossroads" opens with the beautiful acoustic guitar intro track "Liberation", but from then on you can expect to be treated to hard pounding heavy metal featuring a dark and occult atmosphere (at least until the closing track "Lily", which also features an acoustic opening). Loads of harmony and lead guitar work, an organic playing rhythm section, and the quite varied vocals by Per Lengstedt. Often high pitched or screaming, but almost just as often mid-range and slightly more gloomy. The whole thing reeks a dark atmosphere which is further enhanced by the ghost/horror story lyrics.

So upon conclusion "Crossroads" is another strong heavy metal album by Portrait, which is probably primarely aimed at fans of 1983/1984 Mercyful Fate, but should be able to be enjoyed by fans of 80s heavy metal in general. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

4 months ago
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Report #880939

PORTRAIT Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae

Album · 2011 · Heavy Metal

UMUR

"Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish heavy metal act Portrait. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in May 2011. Since the release of their 2008 self-titled debut album, Per Karlsson has replaced Phillip Svennefelt as the band´s new lead vocalist.

Phillip Svennefelt was close to being King Diamond incarnate, and as a consequence the band´s debut album was more or less a Mercyful Fate worship album, but Per Karlsson is a less King Diamond worshipping lead vocalist. I say less though, because there are still clear references to Mercyful Fate/King Diamond in both the vocal department and in the instrumental parts of the music. So this is still what I would characterize as a worship album.

The atmosphere reeks occultism and horror and the band play powerful and energetic traditional heavy metal with both raw riffing and melodic leads and themes. Per Karlsson is a skilled vocalist and his vocal style is varied and powerful. The rest of the band are well playing too. The material is generally well composed and overall "Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae" is a pretty strong album. That feeling is only further enhanced by the suitingly raw and powerful sound production. If you can live with the clone factor or maybe even look for acts that sound like Mercyful Fate, I can highly recommend a purchase. If you look for something a little more original sounding, look somewhere else. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #312893

PORTRAIT Portrait

Album · 2008 · Heavy Metal

UMUR

"Portrait" is the self-titled debut full-length studio album by Swedish heavy metal act Portrait. The album was released through Iron Kodex Records in April 2008. The original release was on CD, but the album has subsequently been released on cassette tape and vinyl too.

The music on the album is traditional heavy metal with a high pitched lead vocalist in front. Quite frankly this is one of the most blatant Mercyful Fate ripp-offs I´ve ever heard. Similar artists like Germany´s Attic and India´s Albatross, who are also strongly influenced by Mercyful Fate/King Diamond are not even close to the clone status of Portrait. The music features the right occult atmosphere (and songtitles like "Bow Unto the Devil" and "Beware the Demons"), the organic playing, the raw and unpolished sound production, raw and harmonic/melodic riffing, and of course an almost perfect impersonation of King Diamond in the vocal department.

This one is in other words an ocean divider. Some people will probably be completely turned off because of the clone factor, while others will find it somewhat charming. One thing is certain and that is that Portrait do one hell of a good job on this album. Clone factor or not, they are still a very well playing band with some pretty good songwriting skills. If you ask me the sound production leaves a bit to be desired, but if you like them raw and unpolished this one applies. There´s great energy in the music and tracks like "Hell" and "The Adversary" are also relatively hook laden. While the tracks are generally well written it is in the "hooks" department that the band can still improve their songwriting though.

Overall "Portrait" is a pretty good album, and while I can´t help recommend the band that they work on a more personal style in the future, I still find this album quite enjoyable as it is. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #312168

PORTRAIT Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae

Album · 2011 · Heavy Metal

Time Signature

Beast of metal...

Genre: traditional heavy metal

Portrait is another one of those Swedish retro metal bands, and portrait are very good at what they do. It seems to me that, while a lot of retro metal bands go back to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Portrait are more inspired by the legends in Mercyful Fate - even to the point that their vocalist Per Karlsson emulates King Diamond's singing techniques, but without being a rip-off. Karlsson is an excellent singer, and he has his own sound.

In addition to the king Diamond influences, Portrait also appear to drawn on 80s power metal and speed metal. There are a couple of neoclassical guitar patterns to be heard, and some tracks are played at early speed metal tempo.

While inheriting stylistic traits from Mercyful Fate, Portrait strike me as being less progressive than Mercyful Fate in the sense that Portrait have not adopted Mercyful Fate's complete disregard for traditional song structures, which means that the verse-chorus configuration appears on this album - not that that's a problem really.

Production-wise, Portrait manage to emulate a mid 80s sound, which is both good and bad. The good thing is that the sound is less polished than what we may be used to nowadays. The bad thing, to me, is that a lot of metal releases back then were drowned in reverb, and that also applies to this release.

Still, I think that this release is very good, and Portrait succeed in bringing back to life the weird and wonderful character of traditional 80s metal.