Portrait announce new album ‘The Host’
PORTRAIT have announced a new album!
Titled The Host, the upcoming album from the Swedish heavy metal band is the follow-up to 2021’s At One With None, and is scheduled to be released in June this year, via Metal Blade Records.
The upcoming is the first to feature guitarist Karl Gustafsson as part of the band’s lineup and was recorded in JFK Studio in Sweden. Mixing and production tasks were handled by singer Per Lengstedt at his own Perilous Productions Studio.
Founding guitarist Christian Lindell describes the new offering as “an occult tale of sword and sorcery, accompanied by some of the most passionate heavy metal ever recorded. The story takes place in seventeenth century Sweden and revolves around an unnamed protagonist who, because of his experiences with the injustice and hypocrisy of this world, decides to seek truth and strength through its ‘Adversary’.”
Although partly inspired by historic events, the story should not be mistaken for a history lesson. “No, definitely not. There do exist court documents from that era in which people who were forced to join the army stood accused of having made pacts with the Devil, asking for luck, strength in battle and so on. That is what inspired us to place the story in that particular setting. I just caught that ball – or Baal – and ran away with it. That being said, it is no fantasy tale either, and the ‘sword and sorcery’ part will be understood by everyone reading the lyrics.”
Alongside the announcement of the new album, PORTRAIT have released a new music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; The Blood Covenant. Speaking about the new song, Lindell says, “this is the opening track of the album, in which the story’s main character enters an unbreakable pact and sets foot upon a path of no return. Musically, this is one of the fastest songs on the album and a straight-forward true PORTRAIT banger.”
Watch the official music video for The Blood Covenant here:
Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:
Track List:
1. Hoc Est Corpus Meum (Intro)
2. The Blood Covenant
3. The Sacrament
4. Oneiric Visions
5. One Last Kiss
6. Treachery
7. Sound The Horn
8. Dweller Of The Threshold
9. Die In My Heart
10. Voice Of The Outsider
11. From The Urn
12. The Men Of Renown
13. Sword Of Reason (The Steel Of Revenge)
14. The Passions Of Sophia
The Host is set for release on June 21st via Metal Blade Records. Pre-orders are available now and can be purchased here.
For more information on PORTRAIT like their official page on Facebook.
