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False - Portent review



Reviewer:
N/A

32 users:
7.09
Band: False
Album: Portent
Release date: July 2019


01. A Victual To Our Dead Selves
02. Rime On The Song Of Returning
03. The Serpent Sting, The Smell Of Goat
04. Postlude

Three long epics of riff-heavy USBM (and a postlude) from a Gilead Media band. And also look at that cover art. Get on fucking board.

Coming from the very metal city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, False is a sextet whose debut full length aptly titled Untitled rode the waves of their debut EP released four years earlier, also aptly titled Untitled. So for clarity's sake, from now on by Untitled I will refer to the 2015 LP not the 2011 EP. Untitled seemed to have turned a lot of heads in the black metal community with its dense epics, and Portent seems to promise to deliver the same goods again. Will they be able to follow-up their stellar debut or will titling their album be their downfall?

Yes and no, there are things Portent does different to Untitled, some to its benefit, some to its hindrance, but none really to severe either way to alter their path to a future cult status. For one, the production on Portent makes the music feel a bit too clean for a sound that is supposed to sound so dense, one where the production of Untitled seemed to make it more immersive. On the other hand, Portent cuts a lot of extra fat (about 20 minutes compared to Untitled) that really makes it a much less imposing listen that sometimes felt long for the sake of being long, which also helps with some of the issues I have with the lack of variation in the vocals and in pace.

The music of Portent relies a lot on melody, riffs and technicality instead of just channeling a dense trance-like black metal. It still sounds dense even without the focus on atmosphere, less so than their debut, but this does make the technical aspect of the album much easier to observe and appreciate. The music always moves and crafts melody, albeit not the melody one would associate with melodic black metal. Both through the production, the songwriting and most of all the barky vocals, Portent maintains a truly vicious sound, one that often times borders on a thankfully-not-cheesy synth induced sense of grandiosity. One gets a sense that a lot of the songs on Portent could also work as either tech death or speed metal if slightly reworked (and with different vocals).

Overall, there are some things I would like to be different about Portent mainly a murkier production and more variation in the vocals. Making the album shorter was definitely a good decision on their part, as it also better showcases their songwriting abilities. What is certain, is that it bring False closer and closer to becoming a household name in USBM.






Written on 23.07.2019 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out.


Comments

Comments: 3   Visited by: 95 users
24.07.2019 - 01:18
nikarg

Definitely not my kind of black metal but the cover art is dope af.
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24.07.2019 - 09:58
Abattoir

Yeah, Mariusz Lewandowski is really a master artist.
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24.07.2019 - 18:56
MetalManic

Written by Abattoir on 24.07.2019 at 09:58

Yeah, Mariusz Lewandowski is really a master artist.

Zdzisław Beksiński reincarnate
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