XASTHUR – Portal of Sorrow CD

XASTHUR – Portal of Sorrow CD
Disharmonic Variations

Supposedly this will be the very last release under the XASTHUR name. Poor Malefic aka: Scott Conner, I knew him well. How can I forget those late nights crashing out while Nocturnal Poisoning played on my stereo in the background slowly putting me to sleep. Not that it’s a bad thing of course because Funeral Black Metal is supposed to put your evening to a close. Not even your BURZUM rip-offs could keep my eyes open for long which is strange because for me listening to BURZUM is akin to snorting meth off a hooker’s ass in the morning. Yeah well you, Malefic, will be missed especially by the hipster crowd that in the past few years have jumped on your coattails. Unlike the rest of the Black Metal scene police I don’t blame you for that one. So what if some Alt. Country clown (who I once called a GREEN DAY fag before he became all Alt. Country famous when he tended bar at a place called Sadlack’s Heroes in Raleigh, NC) said he liked you on his blog which resulted in a bunch of Indie Rock Losers all running out to buy your stuff. Hey look on the bright side; you kept Moribund Records in the black, pardon the pun. Then there’s that “limited cassette thing” you had Hydra Head Records put out last year, All Reflections Drained, what a piece of crap that was. Thankfully the CD version had a bonus dink with that AUTOPSY cover.

So here you are with your swansong release, Portal of Sorrow, and it’s aptly titled. Is it just me or does anyone else believe that your last good release was the split with LEVIATHAN six years ago? Seriously this release sucks; it’s boring with the exception being Marissa Nadler’s added choir-like vocals on a few cuts. You can’t fall asleep to something that’s annoying trust me I tried and got out of bed to turn this off. If self-educed destruction was your motivation here then you have triumphed. I can only hope that you’ll get MORD back up and running on full blackened steam, leaving this shit behind you. Since Portal of Sorrow is out on your own label and not easily available to the general public, I’m wondering if you really fuckin cared. Some of the cuts on here sound upbeat as if you’re on meds for your depression. Yeah well we can’t expect another Telepathic with the Deceased even though your material does have a conveyer belt quality to it. We still have your classic stuff which put the US back on the Black Metal map. Yes Malefic you will be missed but not as Black Metal’s whipping boy since your early works are on par with genius. Although with Portal of Sorrow you do deserve a few lashes with a cat o nine tails. You would probably like that.

http://xasthur.mercurous.net/