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ProgBagel View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Portal (USA)
    Posted: May 26 2008 at 10:38
Well some should know who this band is...I was suprised they weren't here already. Anyway, this band was formed from the ashes of Death Metal/Jazz Fusion outlet of Cynic who released the legendary 'Focus' album. Features 3 members of Cynic (guitars and drums) and has female vocals. I like this A LOT, sounds aren't as metal but great songs.
They have only and only will release a demo. But it does have ten songs. Here is the band's bio...taken from the homepage.

In the fall of 1994, after the transformation of Cynic, Paul Masvidal, Jason Gobel and Sean Reinert started a new project named Portal. The band name was Sean's idea and was inspired by a Robert Venosa painting which the band loved, entitled "Portal". The new band's music, however, was far from the technical metal that Cynic fan's had come to know. It was more in the style of Dead Can Dance and My Bloody Valentine meets a jazz fusion group, but still a complex and layered sound without the heavy guitars and fast tempos. Portal was a five piece, consisting of the above three ex-members of Cynic and completed by bassist Chris Kringel, who had toured with Cynic pre-post Focus, and lastly, by singer/keyboardist Aruna Abrams who came from Berkeley College of Music to join the band.


Portal demoed a total of ten songs, which were never officially released. There wasn't any form of packaging or artwork for the demo other than the Venosa painting entitled "Return To Source" (used unofficially), as a black and white CD imprint for promo copies. The ten songs were recorded in two five song sessions, first in late 1994 and early 1995 which ultimately became one big demo under the name Portal.


The common misnomer is that these ten songs were actually two separate demos, the second of which being under the name Aeon Spoke. The demo was, in fact, entirely under the name of Portal. Aeon Spoke was a working title for a moment at the time of the Portal demo, but the band just decided to call it "Portal" for the sake of avoiding any confusion. The year of release for the ten song Portal demo (had it been released) would have been 1995.


The lyrics to the first five songs of the Portal demo appeared to be an extension of the Cynic lyric line to a degree, dealing with spiritual awakenings and the celestial nature of being. This is very apparent in the prayer which appears in the song "Cosmos" and goes as follows:





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mithrandir View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 26 2008 at 19:46
pretty good stuff, I have both those demos taped, I also assumed Aeon Spoke was a different band at first, it'd be nice if they'd release all that stuff officially, 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 26 2008 at 20:48
Aeon Spoke is infact a different band. Two official albums. Portal just coughed up a demo...unfortunately.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 29 2008 at 17:13
Nothing at all?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 29 2008 at 17:14
Nothing at all?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 30 2008 at 01:19
Im pretty sure there are many Cynic and Gordian Knot fans on this board,  it would be silly not to show some interest towards Portal which was kind of a work in progress between these 2 bands, like I said it would be good to have an official release, although Im sure you can DL this stuff pretty easy nowadays an official CD would garner much more attention, 
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