If it hasn't become blatantly obvious, I have come to really love Portal. Something about the tightly coiled tentacles of choking, blackened, technical death just does it for me. It seems pretty clear that Vorage shares my joy in Lovecraftian black holes. This self-titled EP is chock full of dissonant, rumbling guitar lines, abusive drums, and cavernous vocals.
Really, there's little more that you need to know. But I am incredibly impressed in this young group's ability to contort these cacophonic compositions into extremely ordered chaos (say that 3 times fast). To the untrained ear, Vorage is likely to sound little more than a wood-chipper being used in an abandoned warehouse. This is not at all the case. Each of these three tracks bare the mark of careful planning and concise execution.
Take, for example, “Deatheodidact.” Each tectonic shift of the drums seems to happen right at the exact moment my brain is ready for a change of pace. And things aren't always quite as impenetrable as they may seem. The mostly inharmonious guitars grind out the occasional, perfectly-placed remnants of what might be called a hook. It sounds as if the melody is literally being smothered or drowned, and is fighting to surface for air. The endlessly satisfying bass notes that ring out a la Portal's “Curtain” are Vorage forcing it back into submission.
To be quite honest, I get a lot of email requests, and not all of them are great. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every submission I receive, but I lack the time or resources to share them all. That being said, decisions are made. With Vorage, it was an easy one. These guys have a future ahead of them, and that future is bright...er “dark” I guess is more appropriate in this case. I would like to see them branch out and step out of Portal's long-standing shadow, but everything else about this debut is done perfectly. From the raw, yet balanced production to the excellent showmanship; where most build their foundation with concrete, Vorage's is forged in Adamantium.
