Band: PORTA NIGRA
Title: Schöpfungswut
Label: Soulseller Records
Country: Germany
Release date: January 17, 2020
Format reviewed: (high-rate) mp3 promo
German avant-garde black metallists PORTA NIGRA are releasing their 3rd full-length effort, "Schöpfungswut", available worldwide on January 17th 2020. The band's founding duo: O. (drums/vocals) and Gilles de Rais (guitar/bass) have recruited Tongue (André Meyrink, vocalist, guitarist and founder of German black metal outfit Chaos Invocation) to provide the necessary vocals for the forthcoming release.
A couple of important milestones in the band's history for those not familiar:
2012
The first album "Fin de Siècle" was written and recorded within a year, lyrically heavily inspired by european decadent literature from the likes of Oscar Schmitz, Joris-Karl Huysmans and Oscar Wilde. Musically it draws inspiration from doom, black metal as well as rock and ambient. The recordings coughs attention of various labels and the French company Debemur Morti Productions was chosen to handle the release.
Listen to it on Spotify.
2015
Saw the release of the second album, again with Debemur Morti Productions. The album was called "Kaiserschnitt", which is a word play (referring to "cesarean" as well as to the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II). The rather unusual lyrical (again completely in German language) and musical approach, that removed the band more and more from more common styles like black metal, divided the critics, as did the rather radical cover artwork and band photos.
Listen to it on Spotify.
According to the band's press release: "Tensions within the band rose as to how to develop the sound with one side going more into the direction of "Kaiserschnitt" pushing the rock and punk edges even further, while the other half wanted to go back to a more traditional black metal sound. Over the years the latter group would push trough and so it came that the third output "Schöpfungswut" (anger of creation) goes back to the musical roots of the members of the band that lies in traditional 1990s Norwegian/Swedish and German black metal with a lyrical concept that still would carry traces of its decadent DNA ("Die Kosmiker" or "Unser Weg nach Elysium") but would also touch upon more traditional metal topics."
The listener will find "Schöpfungswut"urgent, wasting no time, like life itself relays upon it. It is clear and to the band's own point, the upcoming effort, while retaining the stunning dark decadent metal (A/N: a term coined by the band) atmosphere, tilts the scale heavily towards the blacker side of metal, however, maintaining a high level of musicality and delivering aggressive but intelligible vocals, often combined with clean singing and choir. Again, in the band's native German, which adds gravity to the vocals and narration. There is something about the sincerity of German sang metal, can't put my finger on why actually that is, but it's there. Don't let my comment about the album's musicality deter you: O.'s absolutely relentless blast beats, fast as the sound of a helicopter's rotor blades, harmonize perfectly with Gilles de Rais' masterful tremolo picking and hooks!
Clocking as a sum at about fifty minutes in length, the six compositions on "Schöpfungswut" were all well crafted, sectioned and arranged with the help of German producer/musician Markus Stock. A collaboration that would prove rather fruitful.
Agonizing and merciless, PORTA NIGRA's forthcoming opus, "Schöpfungswut" is sure to please even the most avid black metal enthusiasts. Hell, I'll go even further: this album has already made my next year's "end of the year" list, and it's a great preview of what 2020 has in the bag for us, music fans. Absolut empfehlenswert! 9/10
Album's first single, "Die Kosmiker":
Connect with PORTA NIGRA on Facebook.
Visit PORTA NIGRA's Bandcamp page for previous releases.
Album's Bandcamp page.
Soulsellers Records Facebook page.
© 2019 by Emil Chiru
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