Live Review: Portal - Rebellion, Manchester
18th September 2025
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price
I was at this very venue but forty-eight hours previous, for King 810’s furious Welcome to the Rustbelt show, but tonight’s offering couldn’t be further removed. The spat vitriol of the Flint crew replaced by the measured, ritualistic experimental death metal of Australia’s most mysterious Lovercraftians, pitching up to play their first gig on English soil for a decade.
Derby black metal crew, Abduction face the unenviable task of having to build atmosphere as the expectant crowd is delayed outside the venue. Unfortunate, as the Rebellion staff usually manage the inflow with consummate ease. However, the band haven’t just crawled from the darkest pits of Hades and have been at this for almost a decade, so the disruption is nothing new. As it is, they create a dark atmosphere within the venue, mixing their Mayhem-inspired blasphemy with symphonic elements and the occasional moments of bleak depression. Despite the disruption, Abduction set the tone for the evening in an impressive manner.
Fellow Antipodeans, Impetuous Ritual, feature members of the headlining band - if the Encyclopaedia Metallum band page is to be believed - and hit the stage clad only in budgie-smugglers and spikes. However ludicrous their stage wear might be, this four-piece are here to blast us back to the musical stone age with some of the most brutal and rawblackened death metal you’ll hear.
The band have steadily and consistently been releasing product since their Relentless Execution of Ceremonial Excrescence debut in 2009, up to the fourth full-length in 2023: Iniquitous Barbarik Synthesis. From the opening Verboten Genesis to the closing Intramural Axiom, it’s clear that these Brisbane berserkers mean business. After a while, the stage attire becomes obvious, not as a point of humour, but as a declaration of the uncompromisingly primitive nature of Impetuous Ritual’s musical stance.
Lauded as a band with no weak albums, Queensland’s masked marauders, Portal have been absent from these shores for far too long. Blending death and black metals, experimental sounds and a dark ambience, theirs’ is a somewhat rare kind of music that almost scars your very soul.
Beginning back in 1994, Portal’s music is not tied to any specific era, rather is as timeless as the Lovecraftian Elder Gods who inspire the likes of Glumurphonel’s ancient rhythms and prehistoric progression, and Olde Guarde’s avant-garde and dissonant approach.
It is difficult to conceive that Portal have been absent from British stages for nearly ten-years and, walking back to my car, I cannot help but ruminate on the power of their performance. More than just the music, it felt like there was something in the air at the Rebellion Bar tonight, something unidentifiable, but something most definitely there.
Hopefully it won’t be another decade before they darken our door again. They’d be perfect for Damnation, though. Eh, Gav, got a band for you…
Photo Credits: Rich Price Photography
