I knew the name Aodon sounded familiar, but when I signed up for this promo, I couldn’t place my finger on why. I picked it because I like atmospheric black metal and I like Willowtip Records, but in trying to figure out why Portraits called to me, I discovered that back in 2020 I listened to their new (at the time) album 11069 and really enjoyed it. Blame it on the fact that 2020 feels like a decade ago, but once I remembered that factoid, a lot about Portraits just made sense, and the rather daunting amount of pieces started to put themselves together.
Nine Circles 