Patrons of the Rotting Gate (PotRG) is a band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. I never heard about them or their music. I mean his music. Against all odds, this is a one-man band! I wouldn’t have guessed, given how much the sound is full-bodied, with so many layers at the same time. This is quite the work! The project is active since 2013 and the first album is also from that year. The person behind it: Andrew Millar and a guest guitarist that must have helped in additional layers.
The Rose Coil consists of 10 tracks plus two bonus tracks. One of them is a cover from the classical wonder that is “The Battle of Chamdo” by Gorguts, from the 2013 album Colored Sands and the other cover is from Orgone, “Caress of Vines”, from a 2008 demo called The Joyless Parson. The last band is totally unknown to me but the cover from PotRG fits very well into the album as a whole as much as “The Battle of Chamdo” which was made as a metal version of the classical original instrumentation made by Gorguts.
Covers aside, PotRG delivers bludgeoning metal heaviness all over, by means of the massive riffing, providing an enormous ominous feeling all-over enclosed in rather cryptic lyrics. Bass guitar is sometimes a powerful drone where the other instruments are laying upon. PotRG screams post-black metal but on the Bandcamp page we read “progressive black metal”, which is also fine, because the music doesn’t stay at the same place every time: it fluctuates between slow and fast tempo, low and high aggressive bursts, blasting noise and almost silence. There are just some moments where the sound is a bit circular, somewhere between the second part of the album and “A Perfect Suicide”, which is your reviewer’s favorite from the lot because of its natural crescendo.
The last two tracks are short instrumentals and show a very classical (music) sensibility from the one-man that divides himself to come up with such elevated piece of metal, perhaps a little too technical to grab our attention for that much time but definitely interesting for someone looking for metal with a very wide spectrum of influences.
Notes:
The Rose Coil was self-released on September 13 2013 in digital format.
Tracklist:
1. Tři Tváře
2. Tři Závěti
3. Carnassial
4. Secrets in the Soil
5. Pride in Descent
6. Chest of Light
7. Clandestine Fractures
8. A Perfect Suicide
9. His Crimson Painting
10. ...of All Eyes
11. The Battle of Chamdo (Gorguts cover)
12. Caress of Vines (Orgone cover)
Personnel:
Andrew Millar: Vocals, guitar, bass, drums, synths, artwork, lyrics.
Adam Irwin - Additional guitars
Text by Vetrarnótt
The Rose Coil consists of 10 tracks plus two bonus tracks. One of them is a cover from the classical wonder that is “The Battle of Chamdo” by Gorguts, from the 2013 album Colored Sands and the other cover is from Orgone, “Caress of Vines”, from a 2008 demo called The Joyless Parson. The last band is totally unknown to me but the cover from PotRG fits very well into the album as a whole as much as “The Battle of Chamdo” which was made as a metal version of the classical original instrumentation made by Gorguts.
Covers aside, PotRG delivers bludgeoning metal heaviness all over, by means of the massive riffing, providing an enormous ominous feeling all-over enclosed in rather cryptic lyrics. Bass guitar is sometimes a powerful drone where the other instruments are laying upon. PotRG screams post-black metal but on the Bandcamp page we read “progressive black metal”, which is also fine, because the music doesn’t stay at the same place every time: it fluctuates between slow and fast tempo, low and high aggressive bursts, blasting noise and almost silence. There are just some moments where the sound is a bit circular, somewhere between the second part of the album and “A Perfect Suicide”, which is your reviewer’s favorite from the lot because of its natural crescendo.
The last two tracks are short instrumentals and show a very classical (music) sensibility from the one-man that divides himself to come up with such elevated piece of metal, perhaps a little too technical to grab our attention for that much time but definitely interesting for someone looking for metal with a very wide spectrum of influences.
Notes:
The Rose Coil was self-released on September 13 2013 in digital format.
Tracklist:
1. Tři Tváře
2. Tři Závěti
3. Carnassial
4. Secrets in the Soil
5. Pride in Descent
6. Chest of Light
7. Clandestine Fractures
8. A Perfect Suicide
9. His Crimson Painting
10. ...of All Eyes
11. The Battle of Chamdo (Gorguts cover)
12. Caress of Vines (Orgone cover)
Personnel:
Andrew Millar: Vocals, guitar, bass, drums, synths, artwork, lyrics.
Adam Irwin - Additional guitars
Text by Vetrarnótt
