From their origins in the hardcore scene of Austin, Texas, Portrayal Of Guilt – now completed by drummer James Beveridge and bassist Alex Stanfield – have pursued varied lines of musical attack, setting their controls in contrary directions from black metal to screamo. Outside of their full-length catalogue, parallel releases have even incorporated orchestral elements (Devil Music) or put their material into the path of electronic remixers (Christfucker II). …Beginning Of The End continues the process of experimentation, with hip-hop and nu-metal being subsumed into the band’s menacing grooves.
“Every song is different,” says Matt, agreeing when K! suggests that no single tune can sum up the album. “The faster or heavier ones, we all wrote together as a band. I have some other projects that I mess with, kind of like an exercise, but a couple of the songs that I had written on my computer ended up making sense for Portrayal Of Guilt.
“As we continue, I feel like you can only do so many of the same songs, and you can only scream so many times. I just felt like doing something else.”
This means the aggro blastcore of Heaven’s Gate and Under Siege co-exists with the bleak moodiness of Object Of Pain and Death From Above. Matt concurs that Ecstasy’s hip-hop beats carry a trace of Godflesh, while enthusing about Houston rapper Slim Guerilla’s unexpected cameo on Chamber Of Misery Pt. IV.
“I always wanted to get into producing for rappers, so I felt like I would shoot my shot on that one. I found his contact and I hit him up, and he turned the song around that same night! And I think he did a great job too. A lot of people probably aren’t gonna like that, or understand where we’re coming from, but I think it would be really interesting to collaborate more with rappers or pop artists.”