Xasthur - Portal of Sorrow - (2010)

Genre: Ambient/Depressive Black Metal

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I'm going to go ahead and say this album is somewhat average. Nothing blew me away here and it's not a necessary listen, however by no means is it a "bad" album. The tracks "This Abyss Holds the Mirror" and "Hiver De Glace" did stand out to me. Despite not being overly impressed by this album I thought I would share this though since I made an earlier post about the addition of Marissa Nadler to Xasthur in this album.

According to Scott Conner's blog this is the last Xasthur album that will be released. I honestly don't have a problem with that. He's been doing the same thing for years now, and I think branching out of the black metal genre will prove to be an interesting listen.

This album prominently features a non-black metal artist, Marissa Nadler. Her ethereal vocals add a haunting, dreamy atmosphere to the music. She was definitely a good choice to add on this album. I'm not sure how much I would like it if she wasn't on it, but then again I've never been a huge Xasthur fan in the first place.