Portrait are kind of a mystery to me, as they have been around for twenty years and this is their sixth full-length album, but even though I have heard them before, I can never remember what they sound like, and this latest album kind of solidifies the fact that they don't sound like anything. Not that they are bad, they just don't have any identity. They obviously got their name from King Diamond, but they don't sound at all like KD or Mercyful Fate. Their riffs are just kind of there, without any character or flavor, and the vocals are similarly faceless, drifting between a boring clean tone and a boring rough tone. This is the kind of band I should like, with their veneer of '80s influences and their obtuse lyrical themes, but nothing about any of their albums ever sticks with me, and this one is no different.
