Portentous

Portentous has been on the scene for awhile now and have finally put out a new demo in
"Death Rivers".They can't be put in any catagory because you have a mix of Thrash,
Doom and with Death Vocals,And their tunes are very long for starters.So I decided to get more info on the band from the their original member Ruben(Mistico)Arias.

ECM:For starters tell us a bit about the band and your style?
Mistico:The band started in 93, when I (mistico) and two friends more decided to form a band of death tecnico metal. With time the band went deriving to death thrash a rather quick sound, this because we liked many the bands like Exodus, Kreator and Destructi�n. With the passage of time the original members went retiring and entering endless of new personels, deriving all this in a inclinante fiasco from the group by the little stability as a band so now we are reaffirmed, with a stable line up and desire to make good things and to present to us little by little. On the style I never like to speak of our music, no longer is like before single tracks death thrash,I don't like to classify it in some determined style, single I say that it is metal, because as we have riffs slow, also we have fast, we even have songs with a woman's voice, as I say it is a mixture of styles that to us pleases and we hoped to us that to bangers also the lyrics of the songs generally always have spoken on the same, blood, blood and but blood, and any type of blasphemy against Christian hordes.
ECM:So how has the demo been taken by The Metal Community in Chile?
Mistico:In Iquique our city the answer has been good, now in the rest of Chile not yet you could say since we are in the period of promotion, but until now we have received several orders,right now I can't say clearly if the answer is good or bad also we have orders from Mexico, Spain, the USA and Colombia and we hope that more countires will be added to the list.
ECM:Your songs are long,are they gonna be shorter in the future or stay the same way?
Mistico:From the beginning of PORTENTOUS, our songs have been, generally on the 7 minutes, not yet we have created a song that is below that time. The problem mainly is mine,I compose the music and I cannot avoid that the subjects extended to me, I always have something new to put to them, I have always been criticized by the length of the songs, In the future perhaps will do a short one. since we spoke on this,I will tell you a tale that formerly when our music was more influenced by thrash than any another style, We would tear ourselves apart playing, since the riffs were super fast and we had to play 7 minutes without stopping,we would finish pale ass, with tendonitis and desire to play doom, that was just a joke, but it was a hard attempt to play to for a short while, now our songs are more relaxed.
ECM:Since their is only three songs on the demo what others do you have to play live?
Mistico:We play the three songs that come in the demo, aside we have several more formerly we have gotten like about 20 songs, but all have been rejected with time, now always we defend ourselves with which we have left and continued composing more material.On the demo three songs are studio and three bonus tracks live,two repeated songs on demo and one new one.

ECM:Of all the gigs you played which one is most memorable?
Mistico:I love to play live and to see the crowd get going to our music,If were talking about the best I'd say the ones in Arica,I would love to play other cities,will see now that the demo is out maybe it will open new doors in other towns so they can see our live show.
ECM:I see that you have played shows with Necrodemon how are they live and are they still active? because if not it's sad thing that a good band like that went to waste.
Mistico:We played with them many times,well I have although were talking the years 96,97 that time has passed,In those years nobody knew them like now,truthfully I never saw a musical difference between them and us.What I recognized is their determination to achiving their goal and I cheer them for everything they have accomplished.I hope that one day their vocalist will do a song with us,I think the band is still active though I haven'e heard much from them in awhile,their website is down so I really can't say much on whats up with them.
ECM:Back to Portentous what bands gave you inspiration?
Mistico:Formerly as I said it at the beginning of the interview, we were influenced alot by those thrash bands especially Kreator, they were my first inspiration and I wanted my music to sounded similar, now no longer we look for this sound we try to make up something nobody has ever heard which is very difficult thing to obtain, but we continue on trying until we get our own style. Closest influences that I could say to you,is what people with respect to our songs think and they find us close to bands like Amorphis, Katatonia, Paradise and bands of that wave,once i got a commentary of which Opeth played something similar to us and I in my dog life have never listened to Opeth.
ECM:Whats your opinion on the Chilean scene?
Mistico: Moving up, already with a few bands arriving at the European market, which makes notice to the world that we have good bands, that there have always had them and keep having.. Let us hope that in years they are more Chilean bands that leave to give tours to other countries and continents. The only thing I can think of that is bad is the little tolerance some will give to the bands that open new horizons,mixing styles and trying to give Metal new life.
ECM:Thanks for the interview any last words for the Metal community outside of Chile? Mistico:Thanks to you Hector for the interview and your unconditional support,to bangers I can say to them that if they listen to Chilean metal, were not defrauded, you will see that the level is high and although we do not gain a miserable cent for what we do, we put all the heart and the desire to do something that is worth the trouble and not to end up playing shit for the masses. Also I'd like to take advantage of the opportunity to invite everybody to visit our page http://www.portentous.cl.kz and if you want to buy our demo to write us, our mail [email protected] to put us in contact. Also to other bands interested in making change of material or changing links, contact themselves.