{"id":43582,"date":"2014-08-06T19:15:13","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T00:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=43582"},"modified":"2014-08-06T19:15:13","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T00:15:13","slug":"portrait-crossroads-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/portrait-crossroads-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait | Crossroads<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"PortraitSwedish traditional heavy metal band Portrait is back with a new album, their third overall and second for Metal Blade, titled Crossroads<\/em>. Portrait\u2019s previous album (2011\u2019s Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae) was a big breakthrough for the band, besides being one of the best examples of King Diamond\/Mercyful Fate worship done right in recent years. With Crossroads<\/em>, they continue with that approach.<\/p>\n

Now that you know what you\u2019re going to get here \u2013 namely King Diamond worship and lots of it \u2013 it\u2019s just a matter of how good the Portrait guys are at it. Fortunately, they play this kind of music very well. Between the blistering twin lead guitar assault of Christian Lindell and David Olofsson and Per Lengstedt\u2019s piercing vocal delivery, they definitely channel that classic Andy LaRoque\/Michael Denner on Abigail sound. So much so that when you factor in the production and even the band photo you may find yourself double checking to see if maybe Crossroads<\/em> was a long lost 1987 release. Beyond the basics of high speed heavy metal with high-pitched vocals, Portrait also nails the atmospheric horror vibe in their lyrics and the overall tone of the album.<\/p>\n

Crossroads<\/em> doesn\u2019t appear to be a concept album, but it does maintain a unifying atmosphere throughout the album\u2019s eight tracks. Highlights include \u201cWe Were Not Alone,\u201d \u201cAgeless Rites\u201d and the epic closing song \u201cLily,\u201d which really shows the full range of Portrait\u2019s musicianship and songwriting skills. The whole album is strong though, and at just under 43 minutes never really has time to drag, and aside from the instrumental opener is essentially filler-free.<\/p>\n

Assuming you don\u2019t mind the obvious King Diamond\/Mercyful Fate worship \u2013 and again, Portrait does it extremely well \u2013 Crossroads<\/em> is unlikely to disappoint many fans of darker traditional metal. If you enjoyed Crimen Laesae<\/em> Majestatis Divinae<\/em>, you will enjoy Crossroads<\/em> as well. Fans of Attic, In Solitude, Satan\u2019s Host and Ghost especially should grab a copy of this one.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nAnders Persson (d)
\nChristian Lindell (g)
\nPer Lengstedt (v)
\nDavid Olofsson (g)
\nMikael Castervall (b)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tLiberation
\n2.\tAt the Ghost Gate
\n3.\tWe Were Not Alone
\n4.\tIn Time
\n5.\tBlack Easter
\n6.\tAgeless Rites
\n7.\tOur Roads Must Never Cross
\n8.\tLily<\/p>\n

Label: Metal Blade<\/p>\n

Website: www.facebook.com\/portraitsweden<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Swedish traditional heavy metal band Portrait is back with a new album, their third overall and second for Metal Blade, titled Crossroads. Portrait\u2019s previous album (2011\u2019s Crimen […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":43583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,9781,2491,2255,9780],"class_list":{"0":"post-43582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-crossroads","10":"tag-heavy-metal","11":"tag-metal-blade-records","12":"tag-portrait"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}