Review by Adam M on May 21, 2012.

This is an interesting Progressive Black Metal album that incorporates violins most notably into the sound to create a very varied sound overall. It’s quite an innovative album overall, incorporating a number of new ideas to Avant-garde music.

The compositions are generally very long and involved with a barrage of variety throughout. The music is almost overly intricate at times, but for the most part this experiment is a very successful one. Some of the songs in particular stand out from the rest. These are 'Forget Not', 'And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope 1' and 'Of Petrichor Weaves Black Noise'. These songs are epics that contain more majestic moments than the remainder of the material on the album. Sometimes that band is almost in euphoric in nature, but the experimental nature of "Portal Of I" means that there are some moments that fall a bit flat as well.

Some early glowing reviews of the album are proclaiming it to be a work of genius and I must disagree with that assessment. It’s slightly too inconsistent to attain that status, but it is indeed quite an excellent album. Instrumentally, the work is fabulous with wonderfully inventive performances throughout. This is absolutely the best aspect of the work here overall. The vocals are more standard in the Black Metal vein and not nearly as noteworthy.

It’s the most interesting moments in some of those highlight songs that often involve the previously mentioned violins that make "Portal Of I" something of a special listen. It’s an album that has an abundance of originality and very stellar portions overall. Ne Obsliviscaris are gaining a great popularity amongst fans already with this their debut and you can find out why with a listen yourself.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9.5
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8
Originality: 9.5
Overall: 8.5

Rating: 8.7 out of 10