Composer Reacts to Portal - Glumurphonel (REACTION & ANALYSIS)
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- čas přidán 17. 07. 2024
- Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on PORTAL - Glumurphonel
ORIGINAL VIDEO // • PORTAL - Glumurphonel
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0:00 Intro
00:51 Reaction
05:07 Analysis - A Loose Performance
12:48 Analysis - Greatness From This
18:04 Analysis - Lyrical Dive
21:46 Outro
#reaction #metal #portal
and.... thats the face everyone makes when they first hear portal
I kinda like playing stuff that makes individuals clueless. let's them know there's more out there beyond their box.
I love to make music that people don't have a clue what just happened. There's an art to it
I read an interview with I believe the guitarist of Portal and he said that part of what he’s trying to do is recreate the feeling of sleep paralysis that he experiences. The absolute fear that something is trying to get in the room but you’re paralyzed and helpless.
That's an eerily accurate way to describe this music.
I used to suffer from sleep paralysis on a regular basis, and occasionally was able to astro project myself. I absolutely believe in the reality of the demonic entities as 4th dimensional beings. Being attacked by those entities while outside of your physical body is terrifying. The thing is, this only stopped after I started going back to church and finally went to confession for the first time since I was a child.
Just seeing Bryan is reacting to Portal, I'm like "Oh damn, he's in for some shit now"
Portal makes ASMR music for people who want nightmares. I'm not the biggest fan but I do understand and appreciate there artist approach.
as a huge Portal fan I appreciate this potted analysis
I listen to them to help me sleep
As a long time fan of this band, i can help you out with some of the lyrics regarding this song
The whole lyrical concept of the band is about a cult called the Olde Guarde which lives in a Dimension called the vint-age
which is inspired by the Victorian time period
In this dimension exists various dark artifacts, like Gramophones, Windmills and grandfather clocks
the purpose of these artifacts are to siphon the lifeforce, called Seepia from unsuspecting victims
It is this lifeforce which sustains the Vint-Age
Regarding the name Glumurphonel, it is supposed to be a Gramophone which siphons ether, also known as Seepia from the victims
while it does this it lets out a cacophony of horrible sound
down below i will explain some of the words in the song
Dread Keep = this Keep is the headquarters of the Olde Guarde in the Vint'Age
Heir's Masters voice = The Vint- age is ruled by a person named the Curator, Heir Master is another word for him, he is basically like a cult leader/dictator
Wailing maudlin cacophony= refers to the sound the Glumurphonel makes
Conjure awoken dire sequence = The siphoning done by the Glumurphonel summons a worm hole which is used
to travel between points in the dimension
Wermhole to reapus nova = Wormholes are used to travel in the dimension, after use, they turn into a reapus nova,
Thee vision bestowed = The Glumurphonel has the ability to grant it's user's the knowledge of time and visions of the future,
but at a deadly price, since those who use it die a slow horrible death, being grinded to carbon in the Maw of the Glumurphonel
Apparatus of the swey = The Swey refers to a giant pendulum on a grandfather clock, It ensures that everything in the Vint-Age goes according to the Olde Guarde's wishes
Usher of outré = Outre refers to a liquid amorphous lifeform which can be summoned by the Glumurphonel
Siphoning the ether = The Glumurphonel basically drains lifeforce from it's victims, Ether is the name of the lifeforce, which is then turned into seepia
by sucking in the users of the glumurphonel into it's massive jaw.
Ululant piper = The Glumurphonel reminds one of a pied piper leading rats, Ululant basically means wailing or having a horrible sound
Archi vingtillions = Clever wordplay, combination of archiving and millions
Basically meaning that the glumurphonel has archived millions of humans in it's maw
Where did you get that info?
@@dimifisher7942 I spoke with the Curator, the singer of Portal, and he was kind enough to divulge
@@mackaus1 wow nice 🤘
@@mackaus1ask him if they are ever gonna tour the states again 😩
Holy shit this is great. I've been listening to this band for over 10 years, and I never knew any of this shit.
What I wanna know is how do they know when they've made a mistake? I mean, are they practicing in the drummer's garage, knocking out this song for the 4th time and that dude with the clock on his head throws his hands up and says, 'ok, stop, stop, everyone, just stop. Bob, wtf was that? Are you even playing the same song as the rest of us?!'
That’s hilarious to imagine
@@roadkillanonymous4807 Kinda what I was goin' for ;)
Ah yes, the portal costumes are something. Someone once descripbed them as "ambient death metal", and I gotta say, I like that description. Love this band when I'm in the mood for soundscapes.
I wish I had made that connection. It's definitely ambient adjacent and that puts it in line with stuff like Blut Aus Nord. I don't think it's a coincidence that both create atmospherically rich metal with cosmic horror themes.
All dirty and dissonant - one of my favorite bands.
Portal is the sound of you being forced to listen to every sound ever conceived while your eyes are held open for you to watch the death of every human that has ever lived. All while being dosed with the strongest acid of all time.
You liked this a lot more than I did the first time I heard it and Portal was my top artist on Spotify this year. Thanks for the vid!
To be fair, my enjoyment of this comes from both a completely artistic perspective on it and being wildly under informed and ill-equipped to understand it. It's likely something I'll never listen to again but I doubt I'll forget this experience.
05:09 the existential dread started kicking in
I’m not sure sloppy or even loose is the right descriptor- Portal have stated themselves that every note they play is planned and often over analyzed. The music is extremely carefully crafted, it’s just crafted to sound like… *that*. Which is weird to think about.
Hahaha, love that "What the hay was that?"-face. I was the same, now I'll never be same again.
Thank you for being so open minded and respectful. Most people would just mock this kind of music.
In my eyes all music is art and not only has something to tell but something for us to learn. There's been too much music that I didn't enjoy listening to but adapted something from it into my own writing for me to be dismissive of anything.
Watching his reaction when the song ended all I could hear in my head was "Somebody, oh lawd..HE NEED SOME MILK"😂😂
The thoughts in my head when listening, was "What is the definition of music?
Is this inside or outside?"
To many it definitely is outside.
To me it is borderline. It challenges me. And that is in a way a good thing.
It certainly pushes the boundaries. That "what is the definition of music" line had me rolling though 🤣
Have you heard their newest album, Hagbulbia? It’s not music at all I would say, more like horror sound…but it has musical elements…I don’t know. I love it b
Portal is pure chaos.
Here I got India portal fan❤❤..
this is like extreme metal equivalent of an uncanny background sound from a horror videogame
On their metal archives, it says there mainly lyrics themes is around: Abstract horror, Occultism, Cthulhu Mythos
Saying that portal plays one of the wildest music out there wouldnt be an understatement
Long time fan of Portal 👌By no means a recreational listen 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
wow this is interesting. it's like free-metal instead of free-jazz where they're all completely winging it without any restrictions but just in this very dark intense style and tone. definitely would be hard to sit through a whole album or concert though without some serious drugs.
oh come on a little weed is all it takes
Well I think it would be hard to sit through this ON some serious drugs. Awesome band tho!
No drugs for me, just love Portal!
No drug required. Stare at a brick wall for an hour.
Funny enough, this live recording is kinda more clear sounding than the actual album version. Portal are very well known for their muffled vacuum cleaner sound, although their most recent albums like Vexovoid and ION are a bit more accessible (in terms of production; they're still, uh, an acquired taste). Still not anywhere near what other Tech Death bands usually go for, but well, that's Portal.
If you think the lyrics are hard to understand you should try having an actual conversation with the vocalist of this band. That dudes mind is out of this world
Please share any info on this emcounter🙏🙏🙏
Portal and their 8 string guitars lovecraftian symphonies
In the same vein you have Imperial Triumphant, a bit more structured and with a sprinkle of jazz
Even more boring.
@@patrickbertlein4626 name some of the most boring music you know
wanna bet the vocalist found that grandfather clock head at a goodwill store.
I love this band, interesting hearing your thoughts. The guitarist has said in an interview they're going for more of an atmosphere rather than pulling off precise playing. I've never dug technical metal that was always perfectly on time and in tune, this does it for me. Those fingernails have sooo much dirt under them
No different from what Sun Ra and the free jazz guys were doing in the 60’s and 70’s just in metal. I love it.
Your face at the end...:D I think it was an appropriate reaction;)
Portal is not much about BM -- although, BM is sometimes eclectically included into their music. I'm no DM expert, but they, along with Qrixkuor, can be called atmospheric DM, I guess. Their other relatively popular music video, Curtain, would be way more palatable (much blacker, though).
I have seen other people call them Black metal and I swear when they started, and when I saw them, people called them Death metal.
I really liked your take aon the lyrics
I was looking forward to see this, Bryan, lol....your listeners keep challenging you (but I suggested this band too). You got it around the 20 to 21 mn finally....They are inspired by Poe, Lovecraft & Horror (Fantastic genre) with a language of their own...I have to say that this song (& yes it was live) is possibly at the same time the worst & the best introduction to this band (from Australia, playing since 1994) for a new listener....You had no context so you couldn't really "get it".... Grounded into a kinda post-Extreme Death Metal with often the production of a Punk/Northern Black Metal band (at least at the beginning of their career), they managed to create a kinda Horror-Metal meets Experimental Ambient/Noise which defies categories at some point...The recording of this is "ok" to make you feel the typically "Hectic Dark Wall of Sound" they have, but is crap to make you feel the subtleties of some of their compositions & skills.... For instance, even if some of their albums have a fully muffled/compressed sound ("Outre", or "Swarth", which are among my favorite ones) there is still some fascinating sound/atmospheres there, once passed the initial repulsion, and leads to something quite unique even with time signatures for me & about percussive attacks that almost no one else does in Metal, to the point of I think there is an industrial touch in it...
Now to understand more what they are doing, you have to check out songs like "Phreqs", "Revault of Volts" (from the album "Ion" & its futurist cover & themes), or the song "Eye" (from album "Avow" ) and you will see how the production is way cleaner (ok hum everything is relative, mind you, this is not Tech-Death or Prog), at least for the overall "understanding" (if possible) of what they are trying to do... I also do love the "total art" in them (the look, the covers, the cryptic lyrics, etc) & in general-for me they have, a bit like Igorrr, an artsy touch, even if it is overwhelming & unbearable for many & even for me at moments. Also their video for the song "Curtain" is quite something to see & to hear at the same time....Anyway it was a brave review !....Maybe I'm too fascinated by those "End of the World sounding" bands...? (besides I don't agree about what you said here on Funeral Doom lacking of precision....check out works from Evoken, or more recent Skepticism, you'll see...). Cheers !
Between the Horror-Metal aesthetic and the complete dedication to the art, I'm coming around to really appreciating them. The music still isn't quite my cup of tea but I love how the music, the lyrics, the outfits, the audio -- just everything comes together in a sort of cohesive performance art of (as Piet called it elsewhere in the comments) "a [dark] ritual that is not within human [understanding]."
@@CriticalReactions Agreed, and there is for me (who was mainly an abstract painter for a long time) something "abstract" about this music (if you listen to the title track "Swarth" for instance, in studio, it is still muddy & otherwordly, but there is I believe something dark & freaky that expresses itself through speed lived as a vehicle for horror. The drums in there are shockingly minimal, and the bass guitar manages to give some subtle layering). You won't believe but I discover new layers almost each time I listen to it, like today for answering to you I did had to relisten to this song....Sometimes they manage to keep this in slower tracks (again "Curtain"), besides, I agree about Piet's comment...Thanks for answering to my comment...
I saw them at The Globe 11.11.11 and the day after we could not listen to anything other than Ornette Coleman. My son who is friends with a couple of the guys tells me they've had formal training in jazz and modern classical composition, but they do like a drink, and this is a likely explanation for their looseness. I'm looking forward to the next Impetuous Ritual (half of Portal +) gig in Brisbane, I hear they may be getting a sober bass player (if he doesn't succumb to peer group pressure).
Check out the video for "Curtain". It is a professionally done video/studio recording.
Favorite band
I remember buying this album back when it was released and getting home and thinking what the fuck is this wall of pure noise and was disappointed in my purchase. Then after a few more listens through something just clicks and your brain tunes into it and suddenly it all makes sense. Especially when listening to the entire album through
Portal is otherworldly live. So glad I saw them in Germany and they are a top 5 do not recommend to people who aren't diehard underground fans haha. Kudos for giving them a go!
Oh hell yes!
My first time listening to Portal lead me to think I was missing something or there was something I just didn't get. Vexavoid is where they clicked almost instantly for me and repeat listens make you realise they're extremely well crafted songs with some absolutely wild playing. Their live stuff on CZcams isn't great but there's a few pro shot videos that are absolutely crushing.. the ones from 2004 being the best example of that.
For me, Portal are a constantly unravelling mystery wrapped in old, stale blood soaked bandages.
Glad you checked them out.
Check out
COAST CONTRA
song
Breathe and Stop
For the rhythms vocally
And the insane wordplay
Super chaotic. Definitely on the punkier side of death metal, maybe with some influence of the early black metal bands like Venom. Their heavy use of dissonances as almost an atmospheric/textural element vaguely reminds me of Ulcerate, but Ulcerate are as precise and technical as Portal are... well, the opposite, lol. I've seen a lot of comments mentioning how they're influences by "cosmic horror" (Lovecraft et al.) and I can totally see that, since if you're going to try to translate that genre into music you need the chaos that comes from imprecise playing. I can appreciate the artistic intention/execution on that front, but like you it's just not the kind of music I'd be inclined to listen to.
I love portal so much. Incredible band one of Australia’s finest
Are the guitars imprecise/ out of time, OR are they so low/detuned (and drenched in reverb ? [edit: it might be reverb in the room, ie this is a live recording]) that the individual pick strokes become 'drone like'. I think ION is a little tighter. Other bands such as Morbid Angel sometimes DO seem like the guitars are not in sync w the drums, and I'm not sure if that's an artistic choice w this genre, or just a skill limitation, players trying to be "as tight as they can be", and any shortcomings just become "their sound". Am I making sense?
You should've checked out the album version of the track.. Still insane, but you can actually hear the guitar parts.. Been a fan for almost 20 years now, never seen a live video of Portal that managed to not sound like total white noise crap heh.
This is an awesome band. You really have to listen to it to hear the tempo.
Been waiting for Portal for a long time! Their album 'Vexavoid' is more of their... easy listening... album
I like to think of the sloppiness and unorthodox vocabulary/lexicon as being part of the internal universe of the band. They are very cosmically horrific band in their imagery, and if one considers them as cultists of some cosmic entity beyond human comprehension it all kind of makes sense to me. They are practicing a rite that is not within human capability, thus the sloppiness of the playing, they are simply not physically nor mentally capable of perfectly replicating the performance that the entity demands, they are invoking prayers not truly translateable to human language, thus the warping of the english lexicon to fit closer. They definitely have some wild stuff, and I definitely prefer their albums, which have a layer of noise to them that further obscures the actual playing, allowing for the imagination to wander even more in search of the imagery they are trying to provoke in the mind.
I love every bit of this perspective. It bleeds their themes from just the music to outside of it, into their performance. In that sense it's elevated into a type of performance art where every single aspect supports the others.
I find this quite relaxing for me. What I don’t like is the jump scare in GlumurPhonel. But when I fell into their music, it is now an influence and my favorite band! ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
portal is definitely an, intriguing band if you will. i would probably recommend checking one a track from a newer album to get a full scope of them (and probably a studio recording). i would say something off of the album Vexovoid (I would recommend Curtain) or my favorite, Ion (I recommend Phreqs).
This needed to be a studio recording.
Not that it changes much.
20:48 i see you've been working on lore for your own board game
their artist approach is second to none...but its just black metal chord progressions played thru hi gain amps for the main part and whatever they want to play in between .Not denying the artistic endeavors because to some it would be entertainment.
It’s horrific chaos! If it had melody it would lose the shocking horror from another dimension
this song is about torturous death and it sounds like it
of course there is no full resolution
Welcome to Queensland. Beautiful one day, Portal the next
Bolt Thrower:
The garage days.
If you review this.
You might as well review this one....
Ceremony: Inner Demon.
Give him something to work with/context goddam xD
I Wana be pissed and sober and go to a live show all by myself then drop some acid etc... Or whatever and hit repeat then write my own album there music actual challenges me I play this type of stuff on guitar it's all over the place I don't really even need them but there really doing it for me
I love classical music and a negative sounding dissonance with simple happier type riffs to bridge shit together to make it more bipolar
Do Hobo Johnson on NPRs tiny desk next
You need some sick wrists to pull this off playing guitar
Edit:
For my taste them being a little bit off makes it good, I feel like if everything was spot on rhythmically could create a chaos. It would be too much meat at once. That's just my taste though.
i fucking love 4:12 and on
Just threw you in blind? It's not for everyone.
Una de las mejores bandas de Metal del mundo. Pero su música no es para todo el mundo. Sólo para unos cuantos.
This song to me sounds like if blackened goregrind was a genre.
the next step is jute gyte.
or maybe khlyst if you’re feeling more free-jazzy
All is based on Edgar Allan Poe
Portal made it to the channel? Oh boy. Never been the biggest fan but they are something... They're kinda the forerunners for the brand of blackened death metal they seem to be calling "voidgaze" these days, that I personally think Abyssal and Tchornobog excel at.
Voidgaze? 😂
@@RDB93 yeah, it sounds ridiculous 😂 I'm not even sure if it's a proper thing but I've heard the term being used for this kinda sound. Spotify uses it too. 😂
It's a bit more succinct than cavernous/atonal blackened death metal tho
@@sVieira151 Jesus. I’ll never get over people wanting to categorise music, just so they have a dumb buzzword to throw around at parties 😂
Thrash n grind. The good stuff
So... when it comes to Lovecraftian themed music, I get Blut Aus Nord you listened just a while back. Hell, the whole album is amazing. But Portal? I have tried to listen them multiple times but never succeeded. Way too weird.
I think you have the wrong end of the stick.
HAHAHA THIS POOR SOUL
It's definitely imprecise and not tight playing, probably because of the fast tempo. But if you make that comment all the Portal edgelords will say you're not listening properly or some such shit. As many comments here 😊
I got there after searching for the Glumurphonel link to scare another friend and became curious about the "composer's reaction" so I watched the video. I must say (no offense) that the reaction is not much different from the common folk I already saw a lot. I expected a deep composition analysis but got nothing. Desapointer.
First, Portal is not black metal. Not everything with tremolo picking is black metal. Not every black metal song uses tremolo picking. And so on. Considering the "if the music is dark enough, it can be considered a black metal" quote (I heard it from Wroth [Tobias Möckl], but I'm not sure about the original author), there is some truth in it, but just some. Portal is death metal. Period. With any prefix you want - experimental, chaotic, atmospheric, whatever.
Second. Picking on performance issues during the live show is not very sporting, I'd say. Especially, without understanding the purpose. If you listen to other Portal works (studio recordings!), you may understand that this is a consciously used tool to create more chaos. The lag (i.e. variable tempo for each guitar, in a seemingly Illogium [internal joke] pattern) is intended. You even couldn't determine the meter (it's variable, not "the drummer hits randomly"!), nor if those are triplets or not (it's triplets, quintuplets, septuplets, etc, when needed - different for each guitar), which can 'cause unexperienced listener to hear it as "guitars play ignoring each other, drums and bass". I understand that it's not a composer's role to see the whole picture of the performance, it's rather a conductor's job. But there are only three tonal instruments...
I don't get a point about picking on funeral doom bands, either. Their put-on-display "sloppiness" (not for all bands) is a feature, not a bug. I urge you to try playing quarter notes at 60 bpm with a metronome (recording both) and then compare peaks. Oopsie. Without hearing the metronome? Ouch. Decrease the tempo to 59, 58, 57, 56, 55, 54, etc, and try again. Euw. Playing extremely slowly requires a lot of effort and constant practice due to an imperfect human's brain.
Third. Lyrics. Why bother? Lyrics, using ancient words, are here just to add more fear of the unknown, and it works. No point in analyzing it.
Bonus. Someone in the comments wrote that it "isn't hard" to play like that. He's right. 10-12 years, focusing at least 5 years on the picking and right-hand stamina to survive a 40-minute gig - and it'll be easy.
I hope everything above didn't sound too harsh. But I didn't see a composer-level reaction at all, sorry, just a clickbait, therefore I'm disappointed about wasted time.
With best regards, a fellow composer (the course was absolutely useless) with a classical piano background, guitar/bass instructor, sound engineer, and live performer from 54 to 240 bpm.
portal is f**** up
I wanted to give you my first downvote for this, but it's really not your fault. I wonder if this deserved 25 minutes though. I'm sorry but I've got too much else to catch up on to watch this analysis.
Not all of the work from this band is quite so dissonant. I definitely would not have given you this song to start with. Omega Curtain, in my opinion, is a better song that is a lot more true to traditional black metal with melodic influences. You should give it a listen in your own time, let me know what you think of it.
You mean “Curtain”?
For a second I thought there was a Portal song I didn’t know about, haha,
i'm out
Baby steps towards Gnaw Their Tongues. This band isn't even metal, just pure horror and hellscape. All about unpleasant atmosphere.
Dude you don't have to be neutral, they're just garbage. I've been playing guitar for 30 plus years, i could pull that crap out of my ass at anytime... but that's where that "music" should stay.
Sooo....where is your music?
It’s the elevator music you hear on the way to hell 😂
cant believe these guys ripped off Ghost smh