We have lived the concept behind this album more than most people could imagine. I have risked my health and the health of other people. And I am not proud of that. But I am proud that this album is 100 % authentic and no fake. The next album will be a bit brighter maybe. Or let me say: Hopefully. Because I realized that I am not ready to die. I want to find a way out of the way I have lived. Rammstein is good entertainment, but we are no entertainers. We mean it.
Porta Nigra - Fin De Siècle (Debemur Morti Productions)
Phew. When Ghost Cult’s editor told me “Porta Nigra” sounded like sludgy doom crossed with black metal, a thrill of ice-cold panic went through me. Not really, of course; that would be grotesque. But on that description, I assumed it was going to be, at best, half-good and half-laughable. Now, I’m no black metal expert, so it’s probably my own idiotic bias that conjures up corpsepainted feline screeching at the mere mention of the letters ‘B’ and ‘M’ in proximity to each other, Are things really that bleak for us? Could but if that’s wrong, I’ll just take it on my rugged society hope for salvation, do you think? chin. I can now report that what little feline screeching Not this generation which has declared ‘Fin De Siècle’ does contain, corpsepainted or otherwise, is handily counterbalanced by Apple, Facebook and Youtube to it's new everything else that’s going on here. In this way, rather than quickly becoming a grating gods. This generation must fall and a new nuisance, the shrieking screams mark points of progression in the record’s sound. era has to come. But I won't be a leader or In fairness to “Porta Nigra”, they are described by their label as ‘Decadent Dark Metal’ idealist. I just watch how the world sets itself (caps theirs), so it was wrong for me to judge them on the BM moniker. Judging things is on fire and get lost in these cathartic flames. my favourite hobby, but we all have to rein in our enthusiasm sometimes. You can see where the label might apply, though, as silly as it sounds (though no sillier Which bands were inspiring you as you than ‘doomed blackened sludgecore’ or whatever). You can hear the uncaring industrial wrote this record? post-black metal bulk of “Samael”; the gunged-up, filthy riffs of “Capricorns”; the weirdly apt drunken gang-vocals of more-recent “Baroness” outings; and thanks to the snarled Killing Joke and muttered German epithets - as well as the thematic bent of the record - I often find myself thinking of “Rammstein” who embody a similar attitude of complete moral abandon. Are you touring with the record? When Bands all united in debauched and deviant cruelty. and where can we see you? There’s certainly a sinister atmosphere around this album. It’s densely orchestrated, and thick with ideas, skipping nimbly between them like a figure skater on her toes. All the There are no such plans, but who knows? more impressive that this is Porta Nigra’s debut, then; and doubly so, considering they’re Maybe one day in Europe. I guess that toura two-piece. One assumes they had a bit of help, especially when the choristers come in, ing in the US is unlikely for us. but still, it’s a fair achievement. Opener ‘Dekadente Nächte’ embodies the principle as it marches relentlessly through Give us a quick picture of 2013 for Porta gloomy slow-motion riffs and doubletime chugs. Sampled voices fade in and out, a wailing Nigra. What’s the next big thing on baby is heard and ignored. The song builds to an agressively-bellowed crescendo, then the horizon? rides its own momentum back down to a more stately pace for some outrageously baroque shredding. ‘Megalomaniac’ tacks a different We are working heavily on the new songs way, stacking the aforementioned anthemic gang and our second album which will be an outvocals against harrowing shrieks, all over a put with impact, I can assure you. Beside lilting sea shanty swing. A spasmodic midthat we will prepare for our first live-show. dle section that sounds like a full-fat mental Also there is a second video at the horizon. breakdown in action delivers us gently back into the chorus theme, this time janwww.facebook.com/PortaNigraBand gled out by acoustic guitars. That’s when they fire up the choir. Completely absurd, and yet somehow engrossing. Further down the playlist, ‘Absinthfee’ sticks in the mind for its creepy minimalism, a percussive bass note underlines a supremely catchy, yet pissed-up guitar line played with a tinge of fuzz. It’s really weird and hypnotic and yet there’s a tension; you’re waiting for the moment it creeps up on you and does something utterly unexpected. The unexpected thing is that I really like this. It doesn’t blow my mind, but it’s unusual and “This generation must fall enough to score a solid hit on my radar, and a new era has to come. But I it’s deep enough that I’d expect it to stay there for a while. I st. ideali or leader a be won't But that doesn’t make me a black metal just watch how the world sets fan, please remember that. Noel Oxford itself on fire and get lost in
these cathartic flames.”
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