PORTAL, NATTVERD Among Gimme Metal's Top Tracks of the Week

Gimme Metal Program Director Brian Turner delivers the week's top 5 office buzz-worthy tracks.

PORTAL – Eye

This teaser from the forthcoming 'Avow' (out May on Profound Lore) is exactly what Portal's fans are waiting for. These Aussies have been know for technical flash compounded with a warped and heaping dose of surrealism: bent structures, hyperspeed attack, creepy imagery and the feeling of hurtling in a busted vehicle directly to the edge of a chasm. Can't wait for the new LP if this is the preview.

NATTVERD – Naar Taaken Fortaerer Alt

'Vandring' is the third LP in a trilogy from this black metal combo that took a number of years getting going, but now in rapid-fire action. This track especially showcases the band's reach between heavy attack and its grandiose way with melancholic atmospheres: Geir Bratland (Gerlioz of Dimmu Borgir, ex-God Seed) checks in on piano, and the band has a certain command in creating swelling, emotional backdrops to their furious buzzing.

SPECTRAL LORE – The Golden Armor

Progressive black metal from Greece hails a fire rain of buzzing blackened thrash, tortured vocals, frenetic Middle-Eastern/Greek guitar blaze and dark apocalyptic overtones, some quite astounding stuff. 'Ετερόφωτος' (translated 'The One Whose Light Comes From Others') is a genre-encompassing blast of deep dedication to outsider vision.

EXTINGUISH – Unconquered

More greatness from the Creator-Destructor gang. Where is all the great political hardcore now that the world is fucked up more than under Ronnie Reagan? Well, it's everywhere, and not only are today's ranks getting more up in arms, but the cross-metal-thrash hybird factor is seeping more and more into the vocab of today's disgruntled youth. Sacramento's Extinguish fall squarely into this camp, with 7 tracks in 16 minutes on their self-titled EP and it's full of ferocious social content to match the instrumental battery at hand.

VALDAUDR – Tross Og Vrede

Around the beginning of the millennium Satyricon's axeman Død split off and started Cobolt 60, which is pretty much in continued form in Valdaudr albeit with a new vocalist. Some scabby and furious remininiscences of peak 90's Norway, a gutteral sounding hybrid of black and thrash, great song structures and attack. Their new LP is called 'Drapsdalen' (out on Soulseller label).

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