UMUR "Lurker at the Threshold" is a demo release by Australian death metal act Portal. The demo was released through Beer in Your Ear Records in 2006. It´s the follow-up release to "The Sweyy" EP from July 2004, but the demo is ultimately more connected to Portal´s then upcoming second full-length studio album "Outre'" (September 2007) as all three tracks from the 15:33 minutes long demo would be re-recorded and included on "Outre'".

The tracks however appear on "Lurker at the Threshold" in quite different versions than the versions which are featured on "Outre'". Here they appear in more detailed, less chaotic/dark atmospheric, and much less abstract versions, which are arguably easier to follow. I would never call Portal accessible, but this is by far one of their most accessible releases as a result of how defined the instruments are in the soundscape and the generally less murky nature of the sound production. The riffs are still chaotic, brutal, and dissonant, so in that respect Portal are as unconventional and sometimes downright odd as usual. The growling vocals appear low in the mix and they ultimately add more texture than punch and aggression.

So upon conclusion "Lurker at the Threshold" is for those who are interested in Portal, but just can´t penetrate and appreciate their usual murky and suffocating take on death metal. This is still a highly experimental, and at times avant-garde type of death metal (..."The Sourlows" is for example a really weird track), but the sound production makes this sound a little more normal...at least occasionally. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "The Sweyy" is an EP release by Australian death metal act Portal. The EP was released through Blacktalon Media in July 2004. It bridges the gap between the band´s debut- and sophomore full-length studio albums "Seepia" (November 2003) and "Outre'" (September 2007). "The Sweyy" consists of 3 studio tracks and 2 live tracks (recorded at the Bloodlust II Festival in 2003). Both live tracks were featured in their studio versions on "Seepia". The 3 studio tracks were also released on a split with Rites of Thy Degringolade the same year. Otherwise the material is exclusive to this EP release, and doesn´t appear on the two full-length releases surrounding the EP.

Stylistically Portal continue to play their cacophonous, dissonant, murky, and almost avant-garde death metal style and "The Sweyy" is a natural successor to "Seepia". The sound production is maybe a little more clear than the case was on the preceding album, but since it´s Portal we´re talking about, you should of course not expect anything clean or sterile sounding. This is still murky, brutal, raw, and filthy death metal, which is both unusual in structure, and anarchistic in the way it´s performed. Think how Incantation would sound if they were put through an avant-garde grinder and played even more raw and extreme death metal than they already do. Both the opening title track and "Werships" sound like that, but "Doors" is an experimental noise/sound effect track. An eerie atmospheric instrumental track which could well be used as a horror movie soundtrack. The two live tracks are lo-fi recorded and they are so murky and raw that you´re not really able to hear what´s going on. Not a great way to end the EP.

"The Sweyy" is both a hard and a harsh listen and like everything Portal have ever done it´ll make some people confused and terrified, while others will devour the foulness, the chaos, and the adventurous progressive nature of the music. The two new original studio tracks are great, "Doors" is dragging and lasts too long, while the two live tracks feature a sub par live recording quality, so the EP is actually a bit hard to rate, but a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.

UMUR "The End Mills" is an EP release by Australian death metal act Portal. The EP was released through Blacktalon Media in 2002 and it´s the band´s first label release. It features 2 tracks and a total playing time of 8:19 minutes (some versions feature an additional outro track). Both tracks would be re-recorded and included on Portal´s debut full-length studio album "Seepia" (November 2003).

So the versions of "Tempus Fugit" and "The End Mills" found on this EP can be viewed as rough early versions of the tracks. No less powerful, dark, chaotic, and mysterious than the versions found on "Seepia" though, as Portal already this early on presented their listeners with a dark, brutal, gloomy, and chatic take on death metal. dissonant, abstract, and suffocating in nature, Portal sought to break down boundaries, and they succeed pretty well doing that with the material featured on "The End Mills". Although I wrote rough early versions of the full-length studio versions of the tracks found on "Seepia", these EP versions are actually a bit more accessible and "normal" than the even more chaotic and murky produced versions on "Seepia".

"The End Mills" is a great introduction to early Portal, although it´s mostly for the completists since both tracks from the EP are also available on "Seepia". As mentioned these early versions are also quite interesting and great too though, so in my opinion "The End Mills" is still worth a listen or two. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "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.

siLLy puPPy Along with Gorguts, Australia’s PORTAL was one of the earliest avant-garde extreme metal bands that started to expand the ever evolving world of death metal into ever weirder, creepier and more surreal territories. Founded in 1994 in the city of Brisbane, PORTAL developed a kindred penchant with Gorguts in experimenting with extreme dissonance, eerie down-tuned rhythms and a completely unorthodox methodology of composing its musical flow. While Gorguts embraced the more technical aspects of death metal, PORTAL favored dark depressive atmospheres that took a cue from the world of black metal and dark ambient music. The band also curated a surreal persona which kept the members shrouded in anonymity. The band’s unusual stage costumes were inspired by 1920s silent films with the intent of steering the focus on the music itself which included musical themes steeped in Lovecraftian concepts such as Nyalathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth and Cthulhu.

While the band would release its first self-titled demo as early as 1998, it wouldn’t be until 2003 that PORTAL its first bonafide album “Seepia” hit the scene which showcased the band’s unique display of seamlessly merging the worlds of technical death metal with the atmospheric bleakness of black metal. Unconventional arrangements, eerie atmospheric backdrops and a bombastic explosive delivery of blitzkrieg instrumentation made “Seepia” stand out like a sore thumb in the world of death metal that had in many ways become more formulaic as it became more popular. While the debut delivered a thunderous display of avant-garde death metal wizardry, the band was not happy with the outcome citing that the desire to weave in the atmospheric elements was unsuccessful due to the incessant pummelation of the senses displayed by guitarist Horror Illogium, original bassist Werm and drum abuser Ignis Fatuus.

The band spent the next few years honing its craft with a couple EPs before unleashing its masterwork, OUTRE, a title that literally means bizarre, eccentric and freakishly bizarre. This sophomore album found PORTAL coming of age with a much more expansive approach that took the world of technical death metal even further down the avant-garde rabbit hole. By this time the band had expanded to a quintet fronted by the eccentric chief growler The Curator who freakishly donned an executioner’s mask. Aphotic Mote joined Horror Illogium as the second guitarist and likewise bassist Elsewhere and newbie drummer Monocular joined the PORTAL team to craft one of the most startlingly mondo bizarro death metal dominant albums that the early 2000s had to offer. While initially inspired by the likes of Morbid Angel, Beherit and Immolation, PORTAL had expanded its sound into a world all its own which was as dystopian and far removed from what many would deem traditional old school death metal as one could possibly fathom at this point.

OUTRE wastes no time establishing its atmospheric presence with the short dark ambient intro “Moil” which cedes to the dissonant noise ferocity of “Abysmill” by implementing the same aggressive bombast as “Seepia” but with more nuance. While “Seepia” was a blitzkrieg of excesses, OUTRE immediately establishes an immediate emphasis on crafting a streamlined horrorscape of sound that features a more controlled restraint. A concerted effort to give each instrument its own role is the biggest leap of ingenuity on OUTRE with slow creeping bass lines, snare drum repetition and twin guitar dualities including slow slinking moments closer to doom metal than the world of frenetic death metal. The album also offers dark ambient interludes that connect tracks and place them into a more logical cohesive context which allows the Lovecraftian themes to bask in their own marinated ebullience. While the focus on atmosphere may have been firmly established, OUTRE refused to jettison the bantering sonic onslaught of fast reckless guitar riffing and resolute devotion to adrenalized speed rushes.

The band also developed menacing guitar tones that coupled with noisy production values offered and even further detachment from conventional death metal techniques, a term that some have referred to as “caverncore.”. Even The Curator’s vocal growls defied death metal conventionalities and lay somewhere between the emphatic raspiness of avant-garde black metal bands like Deathspell Omega and the guttural growls that death metal enthusiasts had become accustomed to. Attention to slower oozing bleakness as the emphasis allowed the aggressive elements to offer a more intricate contrast which heightened the surreal soundscapes even further. The use of varying tempos and moments of sluggish vagrancy allowed the atmospheric constructs to pierce the din and cast an overall tension that “Seepia” lacked. The album finds oddball moments such as the 2 1/2 minute title track that escape the world of all established metal norms and features a noisy display of unnerving chaotic din only to be followed by the most aggressive moments on “13 Globes” which reprise the “Seepia” styled pummelation effect only dripping in compositional unconventionalities and atonal dissonant guitar assaults.

In all its aggressive dissonant din OUTRE proved revolutionary in crafting a strange new style of death metal based extremism that utilized the technical aspects and abrasiveness of the world of death metal and married it with the atmospheric potentials that the world of black metal offered. The album straddles a strange line between many strains of metal and even adopts some of the characteristic of war metal in a battle-like procession into strange Lovecraftian realities where everything familiar seems twisted, mangled and intangibly mutilated into unrecognizable yet discernible patterns of technical wizardry. OUTRE is the album that put PORTAL on the world’s stage and it has become one of those landmark moments that prognosticated an entirely new strain of dissonant death metal bands that would follow. In the 2020s this may not sound as extreme with bands like Ulcerate, Gigan, Pyrrhon and Ad Nauseam having followed the lead but back in 2007 when this was released it really did take extreme metal into some of the strangest places yet experienced. This one is a grower. It took me a while and many listening experiences to wrap my ahead around it but after several years of soaking it in, i have to say that is is a cream of the crop release in the world of avant-garde metal.