Blackened doom artist Mizmor teaming up with multi-platinum alternative rockers Portugal. The Man is the latest unexpected genre crossover to emerge this year. Mizmor took on the GRAMMY Award-winning outfits 2023 track “Doubt“, with the assistance of Bell Witch‘s Jesse Shreibman on drums.
An official video was shot with Michael Ragen and features Mizmor‘s A.L.N. alongside members of Portugal. The Man. That clip concludes a trilogy of videos shot for Portugal. The Man‘s latest release, “Chris Black Changed My Life“.
A.L.N. commented:
“Collaborating with John and Mike was a lot of fun. My brother, Ryan, used to play in Portugal. The Man, and I was the kid brother who played heavy music; I think John always thought that was kind of cool… but it wasn’t until Mike’s music video trilogy idea that it clicked on exactly how to meld the Mizmor sound with the PTM sound…
Instead of stripping everything away and rebuilding from the ground up, like many remixes do, I was able to almost directly adapt the chords into my style. I also wrote a doom metal outro, to make sure we showcased the slower side of Mizmor, and I was able to put one of John’s vocal melodies on top of it in the form of lead guitar (blended with one of Zoe’s vocal takes). I’m really proud of how the song came out.
It totally rips, and it’s also really interesting to hear a more traditional pop structure (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, outro) behind a black metal song, because the genre doesn’t typically do that. This results in a certain catchiness that, though most black metallers would be tempted to resist, I find undeniable in this context (since the song still shreds)…
And I think a lot of non- metal artists either have a soft spot for metal, or are just intrigued by the genre, because it allows for a very cathartic expression of dark or negative emotions (like depression, anxiety, and existential dread), which ends up being therapeutic and positive for both the artist and their listeners.”
