PORTAL — Hagbulbia (review)

Album · 2021 · Non-Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-06-24
siLLy puPPy

PORTAL isn’t exactly the world’s most prolific metal band ranging from three to five years between releases but 2021 has produced a shocking surprise from this most unorthodox extreme and expeirmental metal act, namely this freaky noise making band from Brisbane, Australia has released two albums in one year! Well before you get too excited, that is if you get excited at all about one of the most obnoxiously atonal and dissonant tech extreme metal bands in the market, i have to break it to you that HAGBULBIA is not a proper album but rather a companion release of sort.

Many bands have released ambient and industrial albums under alter egos. Neurosis did it with the Tribes of Neurot albums, Burzum released entire albums of just dungeon synth and Ulver went one further by dropping its metal persona altogether and transmogrifying into an electronic experimental band completely. Whatever the case, this is really nothing out of the ordinary but i doubt anyone was expecting a wildly electric and eclectic band like PORTAL to go this route. Unlike some such albums released simultaneously with a more standard album, HAGBULBIA isn’t really one to be played with the primary album as it sounds completely independent in its own little world.

Basically what we have here is PORTAL’s chaotic ambient and atmospheric sound effects without the accompanying technical death metal. It’s the closest thing you get to naked and unstripped PORTAL as you can imagine and HAGBULBIA gives a bit of insight into the sound effects and production techniques that often are accompanied by the extreme metal which give it that hazed over atmospheric doom and gloom effect. Given that PORTAL’s music is basically a mix of chaos meets some sort of order albeit complex avant-garde order, HAGBULBIA features the chaotic side of the equation and is really nothing more than 38 minutes of dark ambient fueled blackened death industrial sounds with swirling and often gurgling motifs of swarming sonorities accompanied by what sounds like vocal gargling and eerie splashes, looped static serving as percussion and other scary sound effects.

There is really no rhyme or reason to this one as it is simply a length procession of dark and disturbing sounds that are tweaked to emulate the scariest sounds possible and if there was ever a perfect candidate for a soundtrack for a Halloween party or dungeon then this is probably it. There are very faint aspects of metal especially on the track “Weptune” where you can here a death metal guitar riff try to break free from the turbulent noise above it but it is quickly subdued and thus thrown back into its cage. Really, the whole thing sounds like a frequency war in the bowels of hell! The scant vocal utterances keep it all from sounding too pointless and subdued aspects of “regular” PORTAL albums seem to provide just enough support from beneath the surface to keep this existing in the PORTAL universe.

This one is probably too much for even hardcore PORTAL fans and i have to admit that this is not the PORTAL i signed up for but to be fair, as a creepy ambient industrial album that evokes death and disease and utter despair, this one is quite a nasty sounding beast and therefore it has me intrigued to say the least! While i don’t consider this form of “music” my main staple, as supplemental sound it does have its appeal and if you are one of the tiny few who finds PORTAL’s regularly scheduled program to be a bit tame (does anyone think that?!!) then this will take all those deranged atmospheric mind fucks to the next level. Disturbing and deranged, this really does hit the spot for the most manic and chaotic swarms of sound ever recorded and for that i kinda like it but for your own safety do not listen on a regular basis or else!