Portal
Lurker At The Threshold (Reissue)
7.4
It always perplexes me when labels reissue demos for non-legendary bands, mostly because I’m not sure who buys them. That said, Portal attracts the kind of people who obsess over rarities and ephemera, so maybe there’s a market for Lurker At the Threshold after all.
This 2006 demo features three songs that appeared on the band’s 2007 full-length Outré—“13 Globes,” “Omnipotent Crawling Chaos” and “Sourlows.” These recordings don’t differ wildly from the final versions—they still sound like Immolation’s ‘backwards’ riffs being played backwards. At the time, Portal hadn’t receded quite so far into their trademark occult murk. The tonal quality is more conventional and less bleak, except for the completely nihilistic racket that introduces “Sourlows.”
Ultimately, though, Lurker At the Threshold is exactly what says—the sound of a band dangling on the edge of what it would become. For creepy completists (read: Portal fans) only.
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