Band of the week 29/2025
Origin: Koblenz, Germany
Genre: Experimental/ Avant-garde Black Metal
Hier geht’s zur deutschen Version.
The band about itself:
„[…]People wear uniforms and only function as recyclers of long-outdated ideas. The goal for Porta Nigra was to create something that is completely free of politics, religion and anything you can hide your true self behind.
So I asked myself which topics and thoughts define me and occupy my mind.
And that happend to be decay. My own and that of my immediate environment.
[…]
Regarding our philosophical concept: I firmly believe that human beings are not made for freedom. Generations before us have bled to death in the fields of war for freedom, and what are we doing with this supposedly high good? We trample on it. I, for one, am trampling on it, and I have many friends who are doing the same. We can’t cope with our ultimate freedom. We do strange things.This current supposedly “bright” episode in human history will be followed by a very dark one. The party of the western states, characterized by capitalism, will soon come to a very violent end. The breathtakingly fast developments in the field of communication technology have created a completely transparent human being who knows everything and reveals everything about himself, but who finds no peace and satisfaction in doing so, and instead seems more and more like a hunted animal.“
„I wanted a name that sounded good and hadn’t been used before. That’s all. It has nothing to do with Trier.“
Editorial commentary:
Some of the most beautiful, fascinating and artistic literary anthologies I know are Porta Nigra albums.
Each has its own thematic focus and overall concept; the latter so intensely, consistently and comprehensively realized on all levels of musical design that, even without visual elements, it seems appropriate to liken them to a stage play.
All of this happens without any physical stage presence – the only reason why I can’t talk about a Porta Nigra concert at this point is the fact that the band unfortunately doesn’t perform live.
„Fascinating“ because the lyrics have a very high degree of literariness without tipping the scale too much in the direction of full on artificiality or becoming a pure formal exercise.
„Artistic“, because language is used as a means of expression not only on a textual, semantic level, but also on an instrumental and emotional level. It is also interwoven with the music in a highly coherent and expressive way, so closely and intimately, that the result is a complete work of art that is more than the sum of its parts.
I mentioned all of this is deliberately, at this point, before an assessment is made whether the whole thing is musically „pleasing“ or not.
That is because, personally, I am of the opinion that music (or literature, or paintings, etc.) does not always have to be pleasant in order to be considered art, or to be impressive, or to be touching.
I would even go as far as to say that pleasantness can sometimes be an afterthought.
Accordingly, the definition applied here is: Something isn’t neccesseraliy „art“ if it’s beautiful according to the norm; but it’s art if it does something to the recipient; if it makes them feel something or causes some kind of reaction.
And in the case of Porta Nigra’s music, well, it does.
Of course, it is not „nice“ or pretty in the classical sense to listen to the facets of human and overall existential decay on Fin de siècle (2012), or to slaughter your way through German imperialist nightmares and all the madness that goes with them on Kaiserschnitt (2015). Even Schöpfungswut (2020) doesn’t bring any comforting pleasantness or harmony, but merely other, perhaps somewhat more abstract, faces of madness and loss. And the current album Weltende (2023) also delivers exactly what the title suggests.
Of course, this music is not „beautiful“, just as the poems of the early Gottfried Benn, for example, are not „beautiful“.
But it is powerful, visually and emotionally strong. And it succeeds in exploring extremes and expressing them without compromise and completely independently of the patterns of provocation that have become standard in black metal.
The band at Dark-Art:
Music recommendations:
Links:
Band of the week is our weekly posting about a band we recommend and is posted every Tuesday at 8pm (CEST). These are bands that are just at the beginning of their career and that we think should receive more attention.
You can also find all the bands we’ve featured this year in our playlist on Spotify!
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