From Bandcamp, "The new opus is a harrowing journey into the depths of human nature. On "Portraits," AODON introduces us to nine individuals, one for each track on the album; fictitious or real, guided towards their fall by a different element: misery, ego, addiction, belief, violence, obedience, abuse, destruction or love. The work of Alex Eckman Law perfectly represents this reflection on the unsuspected elements present in each one of us beyond appearances, leading us to nothingness." The album has nine songs.

"Swen" is the first. The opening chaos is consistent with the genre. There are also plenty of depressive tones to go along with the angry ones. The song is constantly locked in battle between the two. "Egon" opens with clean, solemn tones, and the guitars echo a valley of death. From there, it descends into more madness, with raging vocals and a wall of guitars. Yet, some melody is present as well. "Mayerson" has a similar sound. Three songs in, and we have three similar tracks. I was hoping for more diversity considering the band's label and excellent album art.

"Adam" is just a bit darker and perhaps more aggressive as well. The songs are beginning to run together too much. "Miquella" is even darker. The band does a nice job of developing these tones. There is some vocal variation as well as some more ambient moments from the music. This is what I am talking about. "Andreas" has a tense opening sequence. But from there, it is more of the same. The band has talent, but I am left wondering why they would want to make the same song over and over again. "Liza" has more power at its core. The anger turns to blinding rage, but there are also hopeless elements present.

"Inaki" has a nice balance between elements of despair and elements of hatred. No one is doubting the band's ability to straddle these two, but again, it sounds too much like the other songs on the album. "Sheelagh" closes the album. The mood is black, and nearly devoid of feeling. The drums roll into double time, and then some. Overall, this wasn't a bad album at all. The main problem however is that too many of the songs sounded nearly identical. I encounter this mostly in the genre of Black Metal, but in others genres like Doom and AOR as well, and it always makes me scratch my head...why?