Porta Daemonium - Serpent of Chaos.
Review by Trevor Proctor.
Underground metal from South America features on a fairly regular basis here at The Lair of Filth as it’s very rare a promo referencing South America that disappoints in any way. Chile is a country that’s contributed its share of bands to South America’s legacy with Pentagram, Hellish and Oraculum being only a few of the many bands hailing from there which have graced our speakers in recent times.
Porta Daemonium is from Santiago in Chile and released this debut full length, Serpent of Chaos, last year when it was initially released on digital formats by the Iron, Blood and Death Corporation and on CD by Chilean label Insidious Co. The band was originally formed under the name Porta Salominiis in 1998 and released one demo under this name on cassette via Chilean label Arte Pagano – a label that also brought us music from other Chilean bands such as Ammit, Black Ceremonial Kult and Sempiternal. Very little information is currently available regarding the activity of Porta Salominiis from the release of the demo until 2011 when the band changed its name to Porta Daemonium.Two original members from Porta Salominiis remain in the current line up - Avitchi and Ignigarak.
Since changing the name to Porta Daemonium the band has independently released five singles on digital formats and a demo which they also released independently on CD. Since its release last May Serpent of Chaos has received a lot of positive praise and attention with the result being it’s set to receive a higher profile release from Blood Harvest Records on vinyl and digital formats at the end of March.
Until now Porta Daemonium has been a band that’s kept a fairly low profile, rarely releasing music in physical formats and keeping live appearances to a minimum but hopefully this will change on the wider release of Serpent of Chaos. The album was recorded at Torture Chamber Studios and mastered by the legend that is Tomas Skogsberg.
Since changing their name to Porta Daemonium the band has maintained elements of their original sound, a sound that has drawn comparison with the likes of Immolation, Autopsy, early Morbid Angel and Angelcorpse.
Serpent of Chaos begins with the intro, ‘Zazas Zazas Nasatanada Zazas’ which is a chant apparently used in demonic rituals and roughly translated is said to mean, “Open, open, gates of Hell open,” and once they dispense with this demonic chant there’s no remorse for the rest of the album. Porta Daemonium’s sound is extremely dense and savage with elements of bestial Death Metal frequently at play combining occasionally with elements of Black Metal to create some potent blackened occult Death. By and large the pace is fairly up-tempo with some almost inhuman drumming dictating this pace and Avitchi’s harsh guttural vocal adding to the foray. There’s an occasional exception and one track that sees the tempo drop to mid-pace is “The Apep’s Chaotic Dreams,” which adopts an Incantation-like stride that serves well as a counter measure to the rest of the album. Solos are few and far between but those that are present are exceptional and fast, showing there’s more to Porta Daemonium’s music than just an all-out barrage of noise.
Admittedly I hadn’t heard of Porta Daemonium prior to receiving the promotional email but I’m glad Blood Harvest Records is bringing them to a bigger audience as there’s some lethal music to be heard here and they definitely deserve a greater degree of prominence than they’ve enjoyed to date. Via Sinistra and Porta Daemonium from Serpent of Chaos are both available to stream below to give you a good idea as what to expect from the rest of the album.
Ferocious and coarse blackened Death Metal 8.5/10.
Tracklist:
01 - Zazas Zazas Nasatanada Zazas
02 - Via Sinistra
03 - The Blood of the Dark Madness
04 - To the Left of God
05 - A las primordiales serpientes del caos
06 - The Apep's Chaotic Dreams
07 - Porta Daemonium
08 - Under the Sigils of the Fallen Angels.
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