Artist: PORTRAIT
Album: CRIMEN LAESAE MAJESTATIS DIVINAE (CD)

Year: 2011
Media type: CD

‘Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae’ is an album transcending the most glorious moments of 80s Heavy Metal. PORTRAIT are turning something great into something greater -  ‘Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae’ is Metal in its purest form – relentless, energy-driven, complex, dark, catchy and. HEAVY!

The relentless, Swedish heavy metal monster known as PORTRAIT spawned in the year 2006 with the intention of bringing back the dark energy that once was the cornerstone of CLASSIC HEAVY METAL albums.  After the demo cassette ‘Welcome to My Funeral’ and the release of an equally successful 7” EP Into the Nothingness took the  underground by storm, PORTRAIT closed a one-album deal with German underground label Iron Kodex Records. Two years later their self-titled debut album had sold 5,000 copies making it a high selling release for the label which has also released albums from cult bands such as Manilla Road, Metal Church, Darkness, and Trouble. The self- titled album received rave reviews in Terrorizer (8.5/10), Rock Hard (8/10) and Sweden Rock Magazine (8/10) as well as in the underground press.

In the autumn of 2009 the writing process for the follow-up to the debut full-length album had started. Three songs were recorded in Berno Studio (Malmo, Sweden) in December 2009, of which two were released on a 7” EP titled The Murder of All Things Righteous, through High Roller Records in March 2010. Since joining the  Metal Blade roster in the summer of 2010, PORTRAIT have finished the material for the band’s second full-length album ‘Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae’ and entered the studio in November 2010.   Comments PORTRAIT guitarist Richard Lagergren: "The eight songs on 'Crimen  Laesae Majestatis Divinae' constitutes Portrait's by far darkest, hardest and most intense material to date. This album is an outburst of a long time of targeted hard work, an intense creative process and pure black magic. To Hell and back and to Hell again! To achieve the goals we had for this album, working with someone not being the obvious choice for our type of music proved to be just the right (or if you will, wrong) decision. 'Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae' sounds like Portrait was always meant to. It is hate, and it is love. And in many ways, it is our true debut album."

PORTRAIT guitarist Christian Lindell about the recordings: "Outside the walls  danced the plague that is man its one-way dance, so blindly strutting about the path that leads to its ever-hungry end. Inside the fires burned and the  cauldron bubbled, enhancing forever the fierce opus that is 'Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae'. A beastly support was present in the Necromorbus Studio, pointing us in the right direction all the way through those dark days in  November. The songs could not have materialized in a more satisfying way than they have on this album. Prepare to get burnt to ash by its fires, swallowed by its darkness and forever trapped in its boundless abyss, in anguish trying  to convince yourself that what you've gone through was only music. If this one doesn't kill you, you’re already dead!"

TRACKLIST:

1. Beast of Fire
2. Infinite Descension
3. The Wilderness Beyond
4. Bloodbath
5. Darkness Forever
6. The Nightcomers
7. The Passion
8. Der Todesking