By: Anders

Posted: Sep 3, 2005

Yet another release from the past has reached the bowels of Nocturnal Horde, this time from the Ukrainian band Castrum, which by the way hasn't released anything since this full length in 2002, but should be ready with a new album soon.

The band delivers a slight chaotic form for death metal with influences from black metal. Death metal compositions, blasting away, like there were no tomorrow, spiced up with melodic guitar leads. The screamed growl is on top of the music and sounds very frustrated and is full of despair. The vocals seem a bit odd at first, but when one has gotten used to it, it compliments the music really good.

My first thought when I listened to the music of Castrum, was Kataklysm, at times the band comes close to the sound the Canadians had in their early days. Fast, melodic and chaotic, yet gripping compositions. Even though the music at first seems pretty chaotic at first, there are heads and tails to the madness, and the more one listen to the album, the better it gets, it is a grower. Much of the blistering guitar work is great, noisy and loud, but still a bit catchy, the leads hooks on and gives a lot of atmosphere to the tracks. The drumming is insane, very fast most of the time and at other times used as percussion, though the blasting is the dominant part of the game.

This album takes a while to get into, but then it turns out to be pretty good. Despite the rather thin sound and bad production, the music kicks some ass and is a good example of atmospheric death metal, with many nuances. In between the blasting and hellbound tracks, there are 3 instrumental intermezzos, they work really well, and brings a nice and atmospheric break from the usual blasting from Castrum. This album has turned out to be a good and interesting acquaintance and it will be great to hear more from the band.

Rating: 7/10

Print