The relentless, Swedish heavy metal monster known as PORTRAIT spawned in the year 2006 with the intention to bring back the dark energy that once was the cornerstone in many a classic metal release, but was long gone, raped by the hippie-infested power metal and retro- as well as modern “thrash” metal outfits of the day, whose entire existence the band spat whole-heartedly upon, hungry to take back the flag of hate, and then exterminate the entire world.
After the demo tape Welcome to My Funeral took the underground by storm and the release of an equally successful 7” EP Into the Nothingness (New Iron Age Records, 2007), PORTRAIT closed a one-album deal with German underground label Iron Kodex Records, who licensed the vinyl edition of the self-titled album to High-Roller Records. Two years later the self-titled debut album sold approximately 5000 copies making it a high selling release for the label who has also released albums from cult bands such as Manilla Road, Metal Church, Darkness, and Trouble. The self-titled album received rave reviews in big magazines like Terrorizer (8.5/10), Rock Hard (8/10) and Sweden Rock Magazine (8/10) as well as in the underground press.
After the release of the self-titled album the decision was made to no longer continue with the vocalist. Vocalist Per Karlsson stepped into the picture as he shares the same hardworking attitude as PORTRAIT and his musical and vocal abilities are to par with the rest of the group. Stronger than ever before, an 11-date European tour and additional festival appearances (including stops at Sweden Rock Festival, Hole in the Sky, Headbangers Open Air, Up the Hammers and Hell’s Pleasure) followed the joining of Per Karlsson as PORTRAIT set out in support of the group’s self-titled release.
In the autumn of 2009 the writing process for the follow-up to the debut full-length album had started. Three songs were recorded in Berno Studio (Malmö, Sweden) in December 2009, of which two were released on a 7” EP titled The Murder of All Things Righteous, through High Roller Records in March 2010. Since joining the Metal Blade roster in the summer of 2010, PORTRAIT have finished the material for the band’s second full-length album, Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae, and entered the studio in November 2010. “We take pride in signing to a label with a legacy like that of Metal Blade,” comments guitarist Richard Lagergren, “and in a way I’d like to say this will be our first ‘real’ album… You ain’t seen nothing yet! Hell awaits!”
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