ALBUM REVIEW: The Host – Portrait
After almost two decades of showcasing their brand of heavy metal across the world, PORTRAIT are back with their most ambitious project to date. The Host is a sprawling 13-track odyssey diving deep into Swedish folklore and one person’s quest for the truth. The central story leans on historical events but is far from a documentary, while the contrasting splashes of “sword and sorcery” add colour rather than guide the tale into the supernatural.
The Host is, for better and for worse, the quintessential heavy metal concept album. It’s occasionally ostentatious in the extreme, often self-indulgent, and features myriad styles and ideas. It also has a canny knack of getting lost in its own grandiose posturing. Despite assertions from lead singer Per Lengstedt that the band are “convinced that even the youngsters of today with an average attention span of five seconds will be able to let go of their phone for some focused quality listening,” the record is a challenge, and not just because of the length.
Things get going with the dark and moody intro Hoc Est Corpus Meum (a Latin phrase meaning ‘This is my body’). The piece sets the tone nicely before the band launch into the album proper with The Blood Covenant. As Lengstedt screeches “All my life I’ve swallowed the lies of the church” the journey of our protagonist begins and the band’s skilled rhythm section goes to work. The Sacrament and Oneiric Visions follow the same trend of supercharged riffs and ferocious drums, leaving the listener no time to breathe.
For many, the make-or-break factor on the album will be the vocals. Lengstedt is straight out of the Diamond King mould and his brand of high-pitched wailing, occasionally verging on the cartoonish, will be too much for some. It overpowers everything else and you’re left wondering what the album might sound like if things were dialled back. One Last Kiss initially slows things down and Lengstedt sings in a lower register, but by the halfway mark the experiment is discarded. The same happens again on Voice Of The Outsider, where the band try something different but quickly revert to type.
Despite the issues, there are some good moments. The songwriting sticks to the album’s central theme and concept well, creating a nicely signposted journey following the protagonist. Furthermore, there are flashes of real brilliance amid the chaos, with the JUDAS PRIEST-tinged Die In My Heart a real highlight. From The Urn is another moment of class as the tempo slows (briefly) as the lead character comes to terms with having more in common with the dead than the living. The majority of songs have moments to enjoy, but the band often undo their own good work.
Each song is an epic endeavour, and appears as big and sprawling as possible. But as the album barrels towards its conclusion the spark has worn off. The final track The Passions Of Sophia is an 11-minute rollercoaster, and in isolation, one hell of a finish. But when every song is a mini-epic of its own, it comes off as overblown and overly long. It’s easy to see what PORTRAIT have tried to do with The Host, and those intentions are admirable. A concept album is a difficult thing to pull off, and the band met the challenge head-on. However, there’s no escaping that it lacks in execution. The Host is an experiment that doesn’t work.
Rating: 6/10
The Host is set for release on June 21st via Metal Blade Records.
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