Interview with Portrait 2009

By Bradley Smith

Your debut album has been making waves within the underground lately.  What do you think is special about it and what does it represent to you as one of its creators?

I’d say it represents us as a band from 2007 to 2008 (well, a lot of the material goes further back than that of course), and as such it is special in many ways. I think it has very little in common with most metal albums coming out these days. Yet, to those who liked this record, I can only say you have seen nothing yet…

Portrait has a new Vocalist with Per Karlsson.  What does he bring to Portrait and how does he differ from Philip?  How will it affect your style on future recordings, if at all?

First of all he brings one hell of a voice. It still is a revelation to hear him sing our songs. We first and foremost had to get the band back on stage and thus have not yet had so much time to go deeper into our new material with him, but I really look forward to that. Well Per differs a lot from the one we had before. It’s a different (better) singer and a different voice. But I don’t think that this fact in itself will affect the style of our songwriting.

Portrait is one of several bands currently Keeping the spirit of old school metal alive.  What makes this style so special and what actions do you take to make sure it does not die? 

What makes heavy metal special? That is a hard question to answer even when we limit ourselves to the 80s spectra of classic heavy metal, simply because it can be and express so many different things. I mean there are huge differences between plenty of all the bands you will put under the same umbrella and think of when you say “old school metal”. Maybe this in itself could be one answer to your question. Also, not to forget, the kind of music we play is very powerful...

Personally I take absolutely no direct actions in order not to make “old school metal” die, though. With “die” I suppose you mean it ceasing to interest people? My first thought is I could care less.

 

There appears to be a New Swedish old school scene with band like Enforcer, In Solitude, and of course Portrait.  Do you see this scene developing within Sweden and do you think your country is once again leading the way in the eyes of the international underground? 

I don’t know; honestly I don’t really like all this scene and “new wave” talk. We are not a part of anything. And it’s not like there weren’t any bands around playing classic HM before people started to talk about this. But OK, there has been this handful of bands here for some time that all happened to get a little bit of underground recognition in the recent years… I have not heard of any new Swedish “old school heavy metal” act coming up since these five or six bands, but I think the audience has been growing. You clearly see more people in their mid-teens nowadays, which is cool. In a way it’s almost even better to see people at that age like our music.

On a similar topic Sweden has a loooong history of old school bands that were mostly overlooked during their initial incarnation such as Gotham City, Proud, Heavy Load, etc.  What album(s) from Sweden’s past do you think deserved more attention? 

We sure had some good bands here in the 80s, but let’s not exaggerate about the amount of them. Many of these “overlooked” albums have sort of been in the spotlight lately, it’s a little bit trendy I have understood, so what should I say…
Concerning fullength albums, I would almost say Heavy Load, Gotham City and Silver Mountain were the only among these bands to make truly great ones. Smaller releases is another subject completely, then we have things like the godly “Master of Evil” 12” by Mindless Sinner, the Parasite “s/t” one and Axewitch “Pray for Metal” (that band was never as good on their LPs). Some very fine singles are Zone Zero “Win or Die”, 220 Volt “Prisoner of War” (there’s another band whose albums I never cared for), Onyx “s/t” and Nattsvart “Vargarna”.

It seems that the current cycle of metal is heading further and further into the past.  Why do you think that is?  I mean there was a thrash resurgence and now a rediscovery of the magic of old NWOBHM and the early 80s sound.  Where will metal go next?

Well everything is bound to come back sooner or later. Musically, guitar based hard rock/metal probably went full cycle long ago. In a way everything is made. This century didn’t really bring anything new to the table when it came to the music in itself, did it? (Yes, I would say the 90s did) So this heavy metal thing was quite easy to foresee, with the thrash/speed resurgence freshly in mind (a product of people realising modern black and death metal were going nowhere in the end of the last century). And also, haven’t we just seen real doom metal finally become a bit hip as well? I can’t really say what’s next, and I seldom think about this either. In the end it’s just people and their clothes…

Are you tired of the King Diamond/Mercyful Fate comparisons yet?  Your sound, as you so rightly have stated, is more similar to Judas Priest.  Do you think in the future you will get more recognized for the songwriting rather than for the vocals?

It would be a flattering comparison, wasn’t it for getting the feeling it was all about the vocals. This makes the comparison feel so primitive and superficial. Like, what are people hearing when they listen to our music? I don’t know if we are so damn close to Judas Priest either, but Christian sure likes to talk about Judas Priest…

You mentioned that Oscar Wilde was the inspiration for the choice of Portrait.  I am assuming it is from A Portrait of Dorian Grey.  Anyways, why him and what do you think of his writing style?  Are you into literature at all and if so what do you consider some of your favourite works/authors?

I think the name Portrait originally came from a friend of Christian’s, so that’s hard for me to say. But that is a fine book; I sure like the language and feel of it. I always have a book I’m reading, but it’s all kinds of stuff and it would somehow feel pretentious to say I’m into literature. Plus, I just couldn’t stand myself starting to namedrop maybe-you-could-figure-which-authors-and-books commonly praised by metal musicians… Even though some of them are held in high regard here.

Do you see a philosophical and aesthetic connection to the more black metal area of your country?  Especially early Dissection, Nifelheim and so on.  What I mean is that the image and feeling I get when hearing your music and looking upon the lyrics and band photos it seems there is a much more dark occult mood to it all rather than just your average Rock N Roll musicians.  Do you agree?

In many ways, yes. I would say we have a lot more in common with that than with any of the other bands in this “new wave of traditional heavy metal”, for instance… And what we write about is important to us.

Your album has some great cover art done by Dimitar Nikolov.  What were you trying to achieve when giving him input for the art?  What makes for good cover art and what do you think are some of the greatest album covers of all time?

We had a rather clear vision for this cover and what it was going to symbolize. The artist standing in a church, before an empty coffin, transferring his view onto a canvas and in the process adding his own body to the coffin.

What makes for good cover art, well, I really like so many different kinds of pictures and styles it’s hard to find the common denominator. And in metal there are so many fantastic covers. I’ll just namedrop some cool ones coming to mind right now: “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “To Mega Therion”, “Don’t Break the Oath”, “Live after Death” (well from Maiden you could pick just about any cover)… Also I always had a soft spot for this basic, iconic style of many early death/black/evil metal artworks for instance, like the first Venom ones, the Bathory debut (the LP, not the CD), Onslaught “Power from Hell”, Grotesque “Incantation”, Witchfynde “Give ‘em Hell”… And as soon as a new band tries to do that thing today it just looks pathetic or cheap.

I see there is an upcoming tour can you tell a little bit about this?  What can and Audience expect when they see Portrait live?  What makes a good performance to you?

Now that I finally hand you the answers for this interview the tour has already taken place, and it must be regarded a success. We did eleven dates in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Belgium, finishing off with the Up the Hammers festival in Athens. A good performance to me is that where everything is right (or should I say wrong) to the degree that both us and the audience can enter a kind of ritual state, and really become one with the music, the powers and the darkness.

What are your other near term future Plans for Portrait?  Any new recordings or special releases coming our way?

We are now working on our second album.

Thanks again for the interview.  Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank you. Bow unto the Devil!