photo by Jorge Riaño
It is fair to say that the focus of plenty of the carnage and brutality cast by extreme metal songs protagonists are women; ‘weak’ dispensable victims to suffer and be abused as a theme. But now they have a voice and a just as lethal instigator to lead an uprising in the shape of death metallers Castrator, a band turning the tables and dishing out their own unrelenting revenge and creative ruin. The band consists of five pissed-off ladies, but each is also a skilled musician creating a voracious sound and in the shape of the No Victim EP, a debut release to match.
NYC based Castrator is made up of an international and prolific musicians hailing from Colombia, Florida, Mexico, Massachusetts, and Norway. Identities and background are scarce to be honest but the line-up of the band is vocalist M.S., lead guitarist/vocalist P. Serrano, rhythm guitarist M.D. Åkesson, bassist Robin Mazen, and drummer C. Perez. Their sound is sheer death metal ravishment which has led to references to Cannibal Corpse, Cerebral Bore, Dying Fetus, Incantation, Obituary and the likes coming their way. They expel an emasculating extreme brutality which certainly on No Victim rages lyrically, sonically, and emotionally on the listener like a primal tsunami.
The first intensive examination comes with Honor Killing, a fury of ravenous riffs and excruciating rhythms from its first breath. There is no escaping its ferocious and rabid onslaught, or the melodic enterprise which subsequently veins the tirade of viciousness. The song also has a core swing to its tempest which is as contagious as the predatory riffery driving the incitement, whilst vocally the venomous deliveries have an intensity and uncompromising expression which instils even greater hostility in every syllable spilled. It is fair to say that the band is not worrying the outskirts of originality with the song but it barely matters in the thrilling abusing of ears and igniting of pleasure.
The following Brood has an even heavier destructive breath to its raging, every riff seeming more rabid and rhythm malevolent than the one before, a potency matched by the guttural vocal confrontations. Featuring a guest solo from Immolation guitarist Robert Vigna, the track grows in stature and dark devilry with every minute of every listen, bass imagination and guitar grooves especially flavoursome with their toxic endeavours.
The Emasculator opens on a sample from the film Hostel 2, male destruction the fuse to an unbridled and corrosive sonic devastation of the senses. Hooks and grooves again add inviting spices to the wall of rabid maliciousness but it is an avalanche of sound and rancor unafraid to twist and turn with unpredictable ideation and at times doom bred enmity. It is an outstanding track quickly matched by the EPs title track, itself a cancerous trespass of sound entangled in wiry grooves and blistering sonic spite aligned to a rhythmic tirade and discordance. As its predecessor, the track is a web of at times understated imagination, little turns and sparks of invention swallowed by the onrush of sonic and rhythmic violence but bold enough to still reveal their qualities.
The final two songs offer the strongest uniqueness upon the EP, and all leave appetite and bruised senses hungry for more. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ the saying goes, and now armed with the craft and attitude of Castrator, the worm has turned within extreme metal with exciting results.
The No Victim EP is available on CD now via Horror Pain Gore Death Productions @ http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/store/hpgd109.html and digitally @ https://castrator.bandcamp.com/album/no-victim-ep
https://www.facebook.com/CastratorBand
RingMaster 06/05/2015
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
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with overwhelms but definitely sets the senses and imagination on edge ready for the coarse guttural growls of the vocals. They are as bestial as the sounds and unafraid to twist their delivery with varied guises. It has to be admitted we have a soft spot for porcine squeals within metal and they do not come any finer and more riveting than those offered by the song and album. The song continues to examine and test ears and senses, rewarding them with strenuous slab of extreme provocation before making way for the outstanding Feast Of Death. Irresistible grooves bind ears from its first second, intensifying with every second as their virulently nagging toxins work on the senses and passions. The track snarls and grinds vocally and sonically with irresistible hostility and merciless rhythmic provocation but it is that deliciously nagging of grooves which seduces and enslaves the passions.
imminent fate that will consume us all and lead the remnants of civilization to fight for survival, the result of mankind’s own doing by unnecessary wars because of religion, over harvesting, over spawning like a cancerous infection upon the earth and depleting the world’s life force.” It is an ominous if slightly underwhelming menace which is soon trampled beneath the rapacious entrance of Doctrine Of Malevolence, the track and vocals roaring with guttural animosity from its opening breath. Grooved riffery scorches the air whilst the drums provide a tsunami of breath stealing intensity and violence, and with the vocal squalling buffeting the senses whilst the sonic enterprise singes synapses like a shower of hot coals, it is a scintillating assassination of the thoughts and resistance.
thrust aside by ravaging riffs, sadistic rhythms, and a deceptively addictive groove to vein the heavy intensity. The vocals exhaust the air with their caustic breath and intrusive tones bringing a full malevolence to the already overpowering and contagious sounds. Having already secured a strong persuasion with its destructive presence the track hands over to the equally vindictive I Am One, I Am All. With riffs gnawing the ear with potent malice from the off, the song prowls and seduces with bulging rhythms from the drums and a resonating snarl from bass whilst further riffing chews with a presence which is as primal as it is addictive. Continuing the immense start the song, like the release, is arguably not stretching barriers but undoubtedly it casts a creative presence which impacts with accomplished craft and invention alongside an imaginative violence posing as temptation.
