Portrayal of Guilt - ...Beginning of the End

...Beginning of the End finds Austin's Portrayal of Guilt pushing their blackened screamo into stranger, heavier corners on a short, punishing 2026 album.

Matt King, Alex Stanfield and James Beveridge have made a name with music that feels genuinely dangerous, mixing black metal, hardcore and noise into bursts of controlled chaos. Recorded and mixed by Phillip Odom between March and June 2025 and released on Run For Cover, this record keeps that menace while widening the palette in unexpected directions.

Across eleven tracks and barely more than half an hour, groove and avant-garde ideas sit beside traces of nu-metal, alternative rock, trip hop and dark ambient texture. Opener "Backstabber" is a brutal minute-long jolt, while "Heaven's Gate" and "The Last Judgement" lean on electronics and noise to deepen the dread.

On "God Will Never Hear Me," Jenna Rose adds extra vocals and lyrics, offering a haunting counterpoint to King's ragged screams. The words stay pitch-black throughout, circling despair, violence and religious imagery with no easy way out.

It's an uncompromising listen, best played loud and all at once, from one of heavy music's most restless bands. Fans who followed them through Devil Music will find the same intensity here, just pointed somewhere even darker.