In quite an impressive series of 7”-releases, Hells Headbangers Records did add some splits too. Surprised? No, I wasn’t either.
One of these split-EP’s is a collaboration in between Australia’s Portal and Ukraine’s Blood Of Kingu, both of them being highly influential within the underground scene of the darkest and most morbid Death Metal spectrum.
Since this review deals with a single with one single track by each of both bands, I won’t dive into an extended discography / biography. The .net will help you out, or check any former review by one of these bands (or any other project the members are or were involved with).
One part of the split brings Trapezohedron by Portal. This four-minute song sounds like razor wire unsoftly caressing your grandmother’s haemorrhoids… Fast and brutal, nasty and filthy, yet highly technical and ultra-morbid too; it’s this band’s trademark for quite some time, and once again they know how to surprise the audience with a mostly own-faced f*ckin’-fist-on-the-nose anti-lullaby.
Blood Of Kingu’s contribution is called Destroyer Of Everything Infinite And Timeless, and it lasts for just over five minutes. After a minimal yet eerie one-minute introduction, this project convinces once again with a mostly brutal and aggressive, yet firmly abyssal and obscuring Black / Death assault, reminding me a lot to the glorious excellence of Ævangelist’s debut album. The energy and obscurity behind this track is truly remarkable!
Conclusion: Portal does not necessarily disappoint, but they did create better things in the past. Blood Of Kingu, at the other hand, once again convince, and show why they are considered protagonists of a highly influential kind.