Album Review: Portrait - Crossroads

Plenty of bands worship Mercyful Fate, but few do it as well as Swedish upstarts Portrait. Crossroads is the quartet's third full-length release, and easily their most accomplished. The riffage-driving, pummeling epics such as At The Ghost Gate and In Time are instantly memorable, and vocalist Per Karlsson's King Diamond-meets-Rob Halford histrionics will make you want to jump up and clutch the proverbial invisible oranges (try not to do that on public transport though). Portrait may be derivative, but their catchy and well-constructed metal anthems are damn good fun.