(Today is the day when Dark Descent Records releases the second album by the death metal band Castrator, and to help spotlight the event we present DGR‘s review and a full stream of the album.)

Sometimes, you just have an extrasensory idea that an album is going to be one you’re going to enjoy. It’s not enough to launch your own late night hotline to allow people to speak to dead relatives but wow, does it feel close to it. The combination of artwork, genre, musicianship involved if you’re extra nerdy like us around here, and sometimes even the cover song in the tracklisting manage to align the planets just right and you just know that this is one you’ll like.

Listening to such an album then becomes an exercise in watching a detonation cord burn. The lead up to the final explosion is exciting but it’s a tense exercise watching it burn down when you’re waiting ever so intently for that moment when the album catches fire for you and becomes one that you lock in with. In the case of Castrator and their new album Coronation Of The Grotesque, thankfully that wait is not tremendously long. In fact, a rough estimate would place that initial explosion around song two, and if not then, by song four, and if not then there’s a pretty good one at song six and if not… well you can guess how this is going to go. Continue reading »

(Our man DGR prepared the following review of a long-awaited debut album by NY-based Castrator, which is out now on the Dark Descent label.)

This is one that’s been hovering in the periphery for some time now, so it’s good to have the chance to finally dive into it.

Castrator are a project we’ve been watching for a while around these here parts. Although their activities have had long quiet periods – including those within this site’s general lifespan – there was never a sense that the group had split. The 2015 No Victim release has always lurked somewhere just off the purview but within sight, in part because the members of this particular death metal project were in so many bands that we have crossed paths with. For instance, their bassist R.M has time spent in both Derkéta and Gruesome.

In the timeframe between No Victim and the group’s newest album Defiled In Oblivion – released at the tail end of July – Castrator‘s lineup has changed somewhat, localizing its musicians a bit closer, but there is no question about it when it comes to the music. Castrator‘s death metal bona fides are fully realized, and the ten rumbling songs here – nine originals and one tackling of Venom‘s “Countess Bathory” – are demonstrations of that fact time and time again. Continue reading »