PORTRAIT

A little late on the review, but no reason for you to overlook PORTRAIT's "Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae". Stop all the petty bickering and inconsequential quibbling over the value placed upon originality in assessing a heavy metal recording because when the material is this well played, well written, and possessed of an old-school evil energy that raises the neck hairs, your attention should be focused on lapping it up like a dehydrated desert dog.

An apology Sweden's PORTRAIT owe to no one for modeling its sound after MERCYFUL FATE, especially when the eight originals of "Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae" are arranged to near perfection, then engulfed in the flames set by a guitar tandem in Richard Lagergren and Christian Lindell rivaled only by Michael Denner and Hank Shermann. Oh yeah, powerful riffs, awesome transitions, and hellish soloing abound, no question about it, but there is that extra indefinable layer in the sound produced by the pair that tingle the spine in a way that has rarely been heard outside of the golden age of heavy metal. Then toss Per Karlson's thicker, screamier version of KING DIAMOND's falsetto and shuddering mid-range and those not prepared for itmay experience a draining of facial color.

And damn does PORTRAIT make very note count during six, seven, or eight minute songs that lesser bands would ruin with slapped together arrangements that go on for far too long. Right from the get-go "Beast of Fire" explodes through the gates with Di'Anno-era IRON MAIDEN wailing before settling into more of a MERCYFUL FATE mode. It is the first — perhaps the most memorable, right along with the equally brilliant "Infinite Descension" - anthem after of numerous heavy fucking metal anthems. With the possible exception (and a tiny one at that) of instrumental "The Wilderness Beyond", the album never "settles down," never relaxes, never pauses for reflection — it just kills and kills, and then kills again with an enormous arsenal of superior riffs and impeccable compositional values. The highlights are too many to recount here, but include so many of the little things that separate the good from the great. Take, for example, the tempo shift around the four-minute mark of "Bloodbath" during which the riff and beat seem to be working at cross purposes, yet in a way that is deliciously wicked or the classical instrumental touch during the last minute of the eight-minute "Darkness Forever". Everything PORTRAIT does here is successful.

Even with the aforementioned arguments for setting aside expectations or originality, it is not as though PORTRAIT doesn't bring its own personality into the music of "Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae". Oh, it's in there alright, so much so that the album's last cut, "Der Todesking", begins to sound like a departure, if a slight one, from the MERCYFUL FATE template. Still, there remains one point of concern with what PORTRAIT has done here, as best phrased in the form of a question. How in the hell are they ever going to top "Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae"?