Welcome back metal heads to another episode of The Great Metal Debate podcast. I'm Xander and today we are going to be talking about the brand new death metal band called Castrator from New York City.
This is the band's debut album titled Defiled In Oblivion. Just like Introtyl from Mexico City, this is yet another all female band and they kick just as much ass! The bassist of this band – R.M. – is also the bassist of the band known as Derkéta, which is also another death metal band that features all females in the lineup. Personally, I think that women in metal fucking rule and there is no better example than the ladies in Castrator. They’ve released two demos – one in 2014 and one in 2015, and the band has been around since 2013.
With a band name like Castrator, it’s no surprise that the lyrical themes involve feminism and non-rape – which is a good message. Now this band might be based in New York City, but the members are from Norway, Mexico, and Sweden, along with Columbia and the USA.
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Castrator might be a great new death metal band with that old school sound but there isn't all that much more I can really say about this album other than it is enough to get people moshing and head banging.
I'm not going to sit here and say that every song sounds the same but there are some very similar riffs and the vocals hardly change up. Which is common for most death metal bands so that isn't necessarily a bad thing or any kind of major critique.
In fact, I think that the only reason they chose "Tormented by Atrosities" for their music video is because that particular song has a breakdown that sounds very much like "Liege of Inverasity" by Suffocation. And, of course, everyone knows what that breakdown is – that is the breakdown that started the subgenre called Slam.
To help save a little time I'm not going to name every single song on this record but I will point out some of the other songs that I think are major highlights.
Another really good track on this album was "Inquisition Sins". It had a nice riff with very audible lyrics. Directly after the song was another kick ass track titled "Voices of Evirato" that begins the same way an old Bloodtruth song would from the Obedience album. In other words, you hear chanting monks in a church choir.
If this band decides to make any other music videos, they should for those songs I just mentioned, along with a few others.
This album concludes with a cover of the song "Countess Bathory" by Venom which I actually think is pretty good. Although I don’t understand why a lot of modern death metal bands feel the need to make their own re-recording or cover of an old-school metal song.
For those of you metal heads out there looking for something very unique and different, you’ll most likely be disappointed if you look for it here. With everything that I’ve said so far about this album, I’d rate this debut with a 7.5 out of 10. This has been yet another solid release from their record label Dark Descent Records, and it is where you can find their music.