Is it fair to call a modern heavy metal band “old-school”, even when their music is rooted in the traditional form of the genre? Christian Lindell, guitarist of Sweden’s Portrait, takes issue with the term, and after hearing his argument, it has me rethinking my own usage of it. We discuss this, as well as the band’s inspirations and evolution between Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae and their newest album Crossroads.
(((o))): What would you say is the biggest difference between Crossroads and Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae? Was there anything you wanted to do differently, and do you think you succeeded?
Christian: The biggest differences are that we have simply developed ourselves as musicians and learned a lot from our past efforts, and also there is a big difference on the lyrical side, but very few people are interested in that anyway so I will not go into detail. We are working much more as a unit nowadays and everybody is more involved than before. We know what we want and we know how to get it.
(((o))): The songs on Crossroads are, on average, about a minute shorter than on Crimen Laesae. Was there a conscious decision to go shorter, or did it happen naturally?
Christian: It happened naturally. The songs that ended up on the album was the first seven ones that we wrote after Crimen… was released and no song ideas were scratched this time. I do think that some songs on Crimen… maybe are a bit too long but the songs on that album fit better so also. I don’t see any reason for why songs like for example ‘Our Roads Must Never Cross’, ‘In Time’ or ‘We Were Not Alone’ should be 7-8 minutes long. There’s just no reason and it would only drain the energy out of them if we had added more parts.
(((o))): Crossroads was recorded across three different studios, with drums in one, guitar/bass in another, and vocals in a third. Why split it up?
Christian: Basically because the studios we used are located near our respective homes. For example I could put down some guitars one day, listen to the recording for a week while Per was doing his vocals in another studio and then go back and change a few things that I wasn’t satisfied with later on etc. It was a really smooth way to work actually.
(((o))): Obviously, Portrait is heavily rooted in old-school heavy metal. What is it about this style that speaks so strongly to you?
Christian: The mere fact that it is not “old school” – it is timeless, and even though this style came in the beginning of the eighties, it has always been there since then, uncaring of what the media have been focusing on. I have said this in so many interviews now that I almost puke at myself when writing it, but it is important – heavy metal has never been dead – the media has, and the rest of the music scene has, but not heavy metal. Just because a man gets blind and can no longer see his girlfriend, it doesn’t mean that she cease to exist, you know. Just look at the 90’s releases from Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Saxon, Anvil, UDO, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dio, Running Wild… About the music style itself, it is just the music that channels the strongest feelings in me and I can’t explain why, and I don’t feel I need to either.
(((o))): A lot of listeners (myself included) hear some black metal influence on your riffs. While you've never directly cited any extreme metal as a direct influence, you've mentioned that you're all big fans of the death/black metal genres. Would it be fair to that some of it has rubbed off on you, or are we mistaking it for something else?
Christian: I like some black and death metal bands and I believe everything I listen to inspires me in some way, be it Jethro Tull or Sadistik Exekution.
(((o))): What would you say are Portrait's most unexpected influences? Are there any hidden gems that you hold close to your heart that heavily impacted Portrait's sound?
Christian: Not really anything I could think of right now. Our aim is not to write music that somebody else has already done before. It has to come directly from ourselves and the influences should remain unconscious, at least to a certain extent. It is just impossible to push forth a good riff for me, it has to just… come, you know. But with that being said, of course we have our musical influences like everybody else, but we never think like “Here we should put a Master’s Hammer sounding riff” or “We need a Hell Awaits drum break here”. It just doesn’t work out that way for us.
(((o))): What bands - new or old - are not enough people listening to?
Christian: Portrait! Haha… I don’t care too much about such things but I really think that some current big black metal bands would not be as big if younger people took the chance to listen to old Ulver, Emperor, Katatonia and some other 90’s stuff. I can’t understand what people find interesting about new extreme metal releases. There were some great albums in the past but to me, both the black and death metal genres are so diluted nowadays…
