Portal’s debut full-length Seepia remains one of the most bizarre and arresting statements in death metal history. Released in 2003, it captures the band at their most primal yet conceptually rich stage. What unfolds across these tracks is not a conventional extreme metal album, but a corrosive spiral into surreal horror, channeled through broken riffs, unsettling production, and a disfigured sense of structure that pushes music into something closer to abstract performance art. At the heart of this sonic chaos is The Curator. His vocal delivery on Seepia is more incantation than roar. Instead of overpowering the listener, his voice creeps in, muttering beneath the surface, adding a sense of dread that’s far more unsettling than sheer volume could ever be. It suits the album’s atmosphere of rotting elegance, where every piece feels carefully unhinged. What makes Seepia so striking is its dual nature. On one hand, it is grotesque and impenetrable, difficult to understand by design. On the other, there is a theatrical intelligence guiding every moment. The band’s sense of timing, texture, and mood betrays a deliberate artistic vision. This is not chaos for chaos’s sake. Portal controls their madness with the poise of master performers, pulling from the language of classic horror cinema and twisted experimentalism to craft something uniquely menacing. Two decades on, Seepia still holds power as a disturbing artifact. It offers no comfort, no catharsis, only an invitation to witness music unravel and reform in the hands of madmen. Whether viewed as a warped tribute to the legacy of underground death metal or a declaration of artistic war against it, Seepia remains unmatched in its vision.