Following 2021’s critically adored At One With None, Sweden’s PORTRAIT returns with their sixth album The Host, their first ever concept album, set for release on June 21st through Metal Blade Records. In advance of its official unveiling, today the band reveals the latest single, “From The Urn.”
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.’”
On the musical side, PORTRAIT’s co-founding drummer Anders Persson adds that the album, “is a versatile entity, showing all sides of what has become our own style of heavy metal, identity, and sense of melody, yet with some new areas explored in several directions. There are songs that are our fastest and most ‘extreme’ so far along with songs of an almost semi ballad feeling. It blends perfectly together musically and fits the dramaturgy of the story.”
Elaborates Lindell on the band’s latest single, “‘From The Urn’ is a song in which the main character of the story realizes that he has stronger connections with the realm of the dead than with any person still alive. A lot of stuff going on in this one musically, showcasing a bit of our progressive side, but still filled with hooks that shall leave incurable wounds.”
