Portal

Hecatoncheir – Nightmare Utopia Review

By Dear Hollow on March 15, 2024 in Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, 42 comments

“The journey begins by following a dark silhouette, each installment describes surreal and dreamlike landscapes, strange characters, and objects—with monolithic importance attached in the strange way that dreams do. In the latter tracks, ever-vigilant eyes watch from the stars and assume a more horrific face as they emerge from the darkness as the cruel pelagic and empyrean deities and monsters among Lovecraft’s multitudes. Hecatoncheir’s uniquely dreamlike take on chthonic horror, balanced by its ambitions in liminal spaces, set one hell of a precedent for the music contained herein.” Fear and loathing in Slovakia.

Pestilength – Solar Clorex Review

By Dear Hollow on February 12, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, 23 comments

“Last we met the secretive Basque duo Pestilength, they had released their second full-length Basom Gryphos, an album that was appropriately slimy and punishing but fell by the wayside due to its scattershot compositions and unashamed Portal worship. Its potential was there, lurking beneath the surface like eldritch grandiosity yet to be awoken, but the right combination of incantations and blasphemies were needed to truly wreak havoc on mankind. In many ways, what Pestilength does is braver than dissodeath acts of similar ilk, refusing to shroud its riffs in murk or atmosphere and letting the chord progressions do the talking – putting added pressure on the string attack.” Clorexing the murk.

Knoll – As Spoken Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on February 1, 2024 in Reviews, 39 comments

“I got a chance to see Knoll live in 2022 shortly after the manic Metempiric dropped. All in all, only twenty people scattered about my favorite hometown venue—a homely bar with a solid stage attached to a bowling alley. This ragtag group of kids who looked to be no older than high school graduates gave the performance of a lifetime—gut-churning rhythms, sudden breakaways from ripping guitar phrases to crying trumpet blares, a vocalist whose life depended on the successful bleeding of the audience’s ears. Knoll represents the ideal of youthful ambition. As Spoken is the result.” Young horrors.

Dear Hollow’s Prava Kollektiv Collection [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Dear Hollow on January 8, 2024 in Black Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2023, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 43 comments

Is releasing 5 records at the same time a good idea? Well, when you’re not a band, but rather a “kollektiv”, no one tells you what to do! Dear Hollow is here to fill you in on what you probably missed.

Victory Over the Sun – Dance You Monster to My Soft Song! [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Dear Hollow on January 3, 2024 in Things You Might Have Missed 2023, 29 comments

“Victory Over the Sun is a project of the Portland-based multi-instrumentalist Vivian Tylińska who, along with Jute Gyte’s Adam Kalmbach and Kostnatění’s D.L., represents the diversity and power of the unorthodox take of microtonal black metal. You’ll find Tylińska is more inspired by Liturgy than Darkthrone, touches upon Kayo Dot more than Mayhem, actualizing a more triumphant and avant-garde take on black metal – although her more blackened passages are nothing short of vicious.” Wictory in black.

Outergods – A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven Review

By Dear Hollow on September 11, 2023 in Reviews, Ambient Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, 13 comments

“Outergods is a quintet from Nottingham, founded by guitarist and jack-of-all-trades Nathe Sinfield and vocalist Sam Strachan, two singles in 2021 heralding the release of debut A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven. It offers a vicious blend of black metal, death metal, and grindcore, with the rot of dissonance and ambiance aching in its bones.” Outer in the cold.

Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis Review

By Thus Spoke on May 30, 2023 in Reviews, Black Metal, 49 comments

“Thantifaxath have never been accessible and easy listening, but here they seem to have turned a corner into both a clarifying and an intensifying of their sound. Setting aside much of the noise influences that characterized their earlier work, they now sharpen their dissonant death edge, and sound somewhat like Portal, if Portal were accessible, with a crisper production, and forward, barbed vocals.” Facsimile of evil.

Atemporal – Thorn Genesis Review

By Dear Hollow on April 13, 2023 in Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, 8 comments

“A project of Sebastian Montesi of Auroch, Egregore, and Mitochrondrion, Atemporal offers death/black insanity with Thorn Genesis. Featuring homage to the blasphemous Scandinavian greats, twisted Lovecraftian apathy, and blazing death heft in equal and lethal doses, expect dissonance and intensity at every blind turn.” Atemporal parking only.

Abest – Molten Husk Review

By Dear Hollow on August 16, 2022 in Reviews, Ambient Metal, Black Metal, Hardcore, Post-Metal, 22 comments

“Molten Husk is an album built on a balance of synchrony and glitches, a duel of cohesive riffs and splattering experimentation. We embark on a journey with Abest, witnessing this dichotomy and wondering what the hell we do with its lesson. As the journey dwindles to its final moments, Molten Husk fully succumbs to the chaos. A corrosive and unforgiving beast, whose growls are abruptly interrupted by a spare moment of humanity in the haunting “Possessor,” it pummels and unnerves in a soundtrack of breathing darkness. But this is no black metal, though it makes sporadic appearances. This is not death metal, although listeners may be reminded of it. Although based in sludge, density is eschewed for a palpable crunch instead of earth-shaking weight. At the end of Molten Husk, Abest will challenge what you think about post-metal.” Abeast.

Hissing – Hypervirulence Architecture Review

By Thus Spoke on July 20, 2022 in Reviews, 23 comments

“To non-metal listeners, all metal sounds hostile. Stray far to the edges of the dissonant and avant-garde in the genre, and you’ll find a breed that even experienced acolytes can struggle with. One’s first Portal experience is a conceptual case in point. From out of this dark corner of disturbing and unfriendly sounds, Hissing has emerged.” Crawling dread and slithering heads.