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Portal​/​Well

United States Country of Origin: United States

Portal​/​Well
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Type: Full-Length
Release Date: June 8th, 2015
Label: Independent
Genre: Doom, Drone, Experimental
1. Portal/Well
3. Lowlands
4. Octavia
5. Crater Lake
6. Taalith
7. Parallel Twin
8. Low Moon


Review by JD on May 18, 2017.

I am one who likes odd albums… but they have to be heavy as shit also. I think this review might be an odd one at best. Welcome to a review of a one woman (now has become a duo) project that just might be the strangest yet interesting thing I have ever reviewed.

Heavy, very ethereal, eclectic as hell and simply some of the most original things I have heard ever … Insect Ark has gotten me curious from the first go.  It is not doom or avant-garde metal in the way we have seen it before, yet the pondering spirit of it is still in there… and that speaks to the talent that Dana Schechter as man writer has.  Now with the addition of drummer Ashley Spungin, the power has been amplified.

Dark, slow and depressive… this is almost artistic doom metal without the pounding drone of guitars that flows out. This has some melancholy keyboards which haunt your very soul and take you into the world of mist and depression, the bass guitar adds that touch of utter despair and makes the album even gloomier.  Cuts like ‘The Collector’ and ‘Low Moon’ are melodic, mournful and yet show some signs of life as well… all done brilliantly.

This is doom metal in a whole new way… it may not be metal in the traditional sense… but the depressive heaviness, the bleak feeling lines with the truly disturbingly haunting melodies - say otherwise. I just think it is more than worth hearing… it may not be what your use to, but it is brutal in both form and function.  

Rating: 9.9 out of 10

 

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