If there’s one thing that was always awesome about Australia’s Portal, it’s just how, well, confusing they were. Not only did they wear masks and cloaks long before Ghost, but the combination of two eight string guitars and bass, all with weird tunings led them to be more an experiment in noise and heaviness than it did a band who’s songs you’d air guitar or sing along to. And while that’s still relatively unlikely to happen, the band have a new album, Ion, coming out on Profound Lore in January, and the first song, “Phreqs,” that they’ve released from it is as close to traditional black metal as they’ve ever made. 

That could be traced back to a guitar – with a mere six strings, that axeman Horror Illogium bought. He actually bought back his old guitar, a Carvin Ultra Flying V, that he first had in 1995. As Metal Sucks hilariously complains, they’ve sold out and introduced music into their music. It’s still brutally heavy, and most Portal fans won’t complain, even if they do pick up some new ones.

Ion will be out on January 26th on Profound Lore, and can be pre-ordered here. Check the track listing below:

1. Nth
2. ESP ION AGE
3. Husk
4. Phreqs
5. Crone
6. Revault Of Volts
7. Spores
8. Phathom
9. Olde Guarde