PORTRAIT — Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae (review)

PORTRAIT — Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae album cover Album · 2011 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Beast of metal...

Genre: traditional heavy metal

Portrait is another one of those Swedish retro metal bands, and portrait are very good at what they do. It seems to me that, while a lot of retro metal bands go back to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Portrait are more inspired by the legends in Mercyful Fate - even to the point that their vocalist Per Karlsson emulates King Diamond's singing techniques, but without being a rip-off. Karlsson is an excellent singer, and he has his own sound.

In addition to the king Diamond influences, Portrait also appear to drawn on 80s power metal and speed metal. There are a couple of neoclassical guitar patterns to be heard, and some tracks are played at early speed metal tempo.

While inheriting stylistic traits from Mercyful Fate, Portrait strike me as being less progressive than Mercyful Fate in the sense that Portrait have not adopted Mercyful Fate's complete disregard for traditional song structures, which means that the verse-chorus configuration appears on this album - not that that's a problem really.

Production-wise, Portrait manage to emulate a mid 80s sound, which is both good and bad. The good thing is that the sound is less polished than what we may be used to nowadays. The bad thing, to me, is that a lot of metal releases back then were drowned in reverb, and that also applies to this release.

Still, I think that this release is very good, and Portrait succeed in bringing back to life the weird and wonderful character of traditional 80s metal.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Live In Riverside Melodic Metalcore
ICE NINE KILLS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Reminiscence Melodic Metalcore
DATE BACK TO DAWN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Save Me From Myself Metal Related
VALAINA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Live At The Metro Hardcore Punk
THE ARMED
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mirror's Edge Alternative Metal
NORTHLANE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

SETYØURSAILS - Bad Company (Official Video) | Napalm Records
SETYØURSAILS
Bosh66· 22 hours ago
SETYØURSAILS - Lately (Official Video) | Napalm Records
SETYØURSAILS
Bosh66· 22 hours ago
SETYØURSAILS - Bad Blood (feat. Adrian Estrella) (Official Video) | Napalm Records
SETYØURSAILS
Bosh66· 22 hours ago
Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper - Shallow (Metal Cover by SETYØURSAILS feat. Mike Perez)
SETYØURSAILS
Bosh66· 22 hours ago
SETYØURSAILS - Best Of Me (Official Video) | Napalm Records
SETYØURSAILS
Bosh66· 22 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed