NE OBLIVISCARIS — Portal Of I (review)

NE OBLIVISCARIS — Portal Of I album cover

Album · 2012 · Progressive Metal

5/5 · 2012-06-28
adg211288

Portal of I is the debut full-length studio album by Australian extreme progressive metal act Ne Obliviscaris. The album was released in 2012, a lengthy amount of time after the band’s only prior release, the demo The Aurora Veil (2007), from which all the tracks reappear on Portal of I.

Now I suspect that like me, when one thinks of the term ‘extreme progressive metal’, the band that people most likely think of first is Opeth, but Ne Obliviscaris brings with them a very different sound to the Swedish act. It’s much wilder and I dare say adventurous. The principle behind the music is the same though – take an extreme metal genre as the base for the music, then stretch the boundaries of that genre so much that in essence the end product barely resembles it. With the case of Portal of I, there are strong black metal vibes to be found within but more glaringly is just how progressive the release is. One is expect mostly long over ten minute compositions (the shortest here is just shy of six), a mix of harsh and clean vocals from the band’s vocal double team of Xenoyr (harsh) and Tim Charles (clean) and lots and lots of violin, also played by Tim Charles. More than that the band draws in a lot of influences from both within and outside of the metal spectrum, so aside from progressive and black metal expect the odd passage to put you in mind of death metal, folk music, flamenco, and more. The band holds nothing back.

And to cut a long story short Ne Obliviscaris have brought all of this together into what I feel is one of the most unique sounding progressive metal releases I’ve heard for some time. The violin in particular makes a lot of difference in this respect, but I can’t help not give big nods to the remainder of the band as well who are all clearly musicians of high calibre. Even with such long tracks the band does not waste a single second of playing time and they fully justify the over seventy minute total running time that the seven tracks on the album make. Picking favourites in a case like this is pretty much impossible, as everything is of a total masterpiece level of quality.

With so many different sounds and moods in the album it’s near impossible to even begin to do it justice with a review. What I will say to close is that I found the album exceptional after just one listen, and further plays have just cemented my regard for it as one of 2012’s very best albums. I honestly cannot find a single fault within it, so not only is a masterpiece level rating deserved, but I unashamedly deem Portal of I worthy of full marks. With this Ne Obliviscaris fully deserves to be counted among the greats of progressive metal, or progressive music in general even.

10.0/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Oh hell yeah. That demo set expectations very high and fortunately for Ne Obliviscaris they´ve fulfilled those expectations.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Although it's a different style, this album does everything I wanted that Bilocate album to do. It grabs me straight away and then doesn't let go right until the end. Can't believe I never heard of them before, I gather the demo was pretty highly regarded as well.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I might not be quite as enthusiastic as you are about the album, but it´s certainly a very good album.