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Portal, released on December 2, is the most recent album by German instrumental stoner rock group Pyrior. With seven tracks, being them In To, Untitled, Portal, SR388, Zebes, Earth and Winter Is Coming, Portal is the typical stoner rock album: with heavy distorted guitars, a somber yet visual sonorous collision, a psychedelic vibe and a diffuse, yet coherent and precise set of melodies, this album stands in the middle of a normal confluence of stoner metal elements.
A little lazy and monotonous at times, with some generic melodies along the way, Portal is a good album, but is incapable of achieving more than a traditional satisfactory status. Too common ground and ordinary – which is not exactly a synonymous of bad, or mediocre – Pyrior relies too much on the basic traits of the genre. Nonetheless, if you like a very traditional stoner rock album – with slow melodies being a little above the normal rates – you may like Portal, despite its usual commonalities. With its fair share of qualities, Portal does have some heaviness, abrasive guitars, hostile tunes and devotional cadences. With rhythms that break up the inner basis of the songs, the technical instrumentation is solid, and secures the axis of the melodies that compounds the intensity that heavily emanates from the songs.
While I particularly evaluate this album as too ordinary, Portal is indeed very faithful to the most promising elements of the genre, securing a pattern that, although seems to be very obvious at first, is sincere and legitimate. Appointing the senseless introspection of a derisive coherence that defines the harmonies and the unusual patience that deconstruct the tolerant protuberance of the rhythms in question, Portal absorbs the most prominent components of the genre, but abstains itself from aggressive friction and savage rapture, components that could ignite a more interesting and flaming spark in their style.
Unfortunately, too calm and too ecstatic, being too monotonous sometimes, Portal is a little insipid. Satisfactory in some passages, and with a major domain of musical technique, this album doesn’t aggregate anything new to the genre, nor repaginates the old stylistic features into something original. While it is a good minor album, it is too ordinary to make a difference. Incapable of surprising enthusiasts of stoner rock, Portal has what it takes to be considered worthwhile listening; nonetheless, you will hardly feel motivated to listen to this album a second time. Too much orthodox and unexpressive, it lacks audacity and identity. But Pyrior certainly has the talent to do better the next time, with more impact and meaning.
Wagner