PORTA NIGRA : "Weltende"

This German band has always been OK in my book. They blast into your face from the get go, establishing them as more of a black metal band than the previous two albums we reviewed here. While this really intense display of raw aggression hits you sonically, how well the will grow on you from a songwriting perspective is another story. "Gotterblut" also blasts at you with rapid fire determination. However in doing so they offer some more varied elements in the guitars and vocals to make it more interesting then the opening track that works off sheer intensity alone. They prove on "Volerbrand' that they can come out and rock the fuck out from every angle as each instrument is played to the best of their ability, even the vocals are more varied. All this is done with cohesive songwriting. 

There is some experimentation with the odd time signatures that jerk the groove around on "Verlorena..." The snarl of the vocals is varying degrees of full fledged growl. When we get into the thick of this album they are good at being thoughtful and aggressive, which does into blast beats more, though they prove themselves capable of deviating from the single shade of black. "Weltende" is more feral, though also more restrained in the taunt nature of it's attack.  They are a finely tuned machined for sure. I hope this brings them more recognition. 

I had to give "Triebgeschwame" as second listen to fully form an opinion of it. The drummer is racing through the song and has their double bass game dialed in. The song moves with a gallop without getting Iron Maiden like at all. I also had to give the last song another listen for a similar reason though there is a lot more on on there. It is way more melodic .While I do not know how many more listens I am going to give this album, I have enjoyed the ones I indulged in tonight , and believe this is a step forward for the band and deserves me to give it a 9.  

Black Metal History - Porta Nigra : "Schopfungswut'

It is not politically correct to say the region, culture and nationality effects music made. It is assumed black metal can be created from anywhere. For a genre supposedly steeped in the occult it's fan base has very little knowledge of it if they do not know about egregore. Animism factors into the energy held in certain places . The embodiment of it by a culture is reflected. Germans have a cold stark way of doing thing and are unable to escape their militant energy. This was felt in the thrash that came from the region in the 80s and in today's black metal. It is why industrial music always works from here. If you can not tell the difference in the feel of black metal from Germany and Norway you should not be listening to it in the first place. There are more guitar solos than I remember coming from these guys and for a band that was once more experimental this is very straight forward blasting. The atmosphere is not until the 30 seconds exiting the song.

The second song finds their sonic spectrum improving with increasing darkness and melody coming from the guitars. Vocally German is a guttural language. Very little is require to make it sound heavy. He could just read from a dictionary and it would work, though here is some added rasp. They begin to get more experimental adding layers of chanting . The guitars ride a tense throb over static drums. They continue into the third song with a similar vibe and tremolo guitars. The vocals multilayered. Sung vocals crop up on what is the chorus by their standard. These are not a Killswitch Engage type of good cop dynamic , but more like drunken soldiers singing old pirate songs.  This marks their first album with vocalist Tongue, though not a huge expansion of vocal colors . The band's third album in 8 years so they know themselves by now. By the 4th song  things are being to sound similar. This is after they have let up on the blast beats .  By the 5th song they have defaulted back to blasting and the once novel multi tracked vocals are beginning to wear on me.   They are well played and the guitar solos are an all to under deployed element of black metal I like hearing used tastefully.

The album closes with the title track. It is pretty much a blast fest. It is certainly measures up to all the other bands that do this, but I want to hear who they are not something I can hear from everyone with a bullet belt these days Though I get blast beats can feel obligatory when you are a black metal band . With that said it might not always be my favorite flavor of black metal but there is no denying that These guys are good at what they do. It's a solid album I will give it an 8. 

Porta Nigra : "Kaisershnitt

This German duo sounds more French than German to me. They do not carry the stiff militant  nature of most German metal bands instead opting for a much more experimental approach not unlike Peste Noire. The blast you into a sample heavy freak out with an almost industrial feel shadowing the groove. "Femme Fatale" might not be as extreme as the opener of any where close to black or death metal, instead falling in line with what the "decadent dark metal" label the band gives themselves, it does show the duo carries a wide range of musicality. They keep their heads way above the waters of becoming another Rammstein, the tight chugged syncopation still holds plenty of head banging appeal for fans of more mainstream metal.

They shift from groove to groove sometimes jerking you back from one more violently than they do from others. Choruses of clean vocals ooh and ahh in the back ground. They can lock into tight head banging chug fests just a deftly as any more mainstream metal band, but have a dirty edge to the ambiance. The stomp to a song like " In Stahlgewittern" might come across as monotonous if that is what this band was limited to but that is not the case."Mata Hari" almost feels like something from the most recent Mayhem album. It's oddly timed with a spoken German narrative on the verse. The rest of the song it's a throaty but not totally growled bellow and a few bars of clean singing tossed about. The oddly named "Hepatitis Libido" is more straight forward than it's name might imply, almost like Angel Dust era Faith No More.

There is more of a rock groove to " Ich -Zerfall" . There is one really straight ahead riff that doesn't do much for me. The song is well written and they continue to throw clever samples in not just to fill the gaps , but to coat the songs in a manner similar to old Ministry, even though I would not really say this is industrial, just industrial influenced. There is enough shreddy guitar on this album to make most aspiring guitarists happy. The closing song which leads off with the clean vocals reminds me of Enslaved. The initial listens had a little more impact as I did not know what to expect now after hearing this one a few times it's settled in and I am not as blown away with it as I was a few weeks ago. This is more off beat than mainstream metal, but in comparison to some of the stuff we review around here not so much.This also is not black metal, but it is a fun listen I'll give it an 8.5.