Castrator - No Victim EP

Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Label: Horror Pain Gore Death Productions

Track Listing:

1. Honor Killing
2. Brood
3. The Emasculator
4. No Victim


We all know how death metal generally goes with its themes and lyrics; gore, splatter, death, torture and a lot of vicious and unsavoury things happening to women and children. Well, meet New York's own Castrator! This death metal band comprised of lead guitarist Priscila Serrano, rhythm guitarist Mikaela Åkesson, vocalist Mallika Sundaramurthy, bassist Robin Mazen and drummer Carolina Perez has arrived with a four track EP and have turned the table on all those of a testicular persuasion with a very feminist approach.

It turns out this may be just what the death metal scene needs to spice it up a bit. The usual tongue-in-cheek patriarchal lyrical standpoints of extreme metal have long lost their edge, their shock value and their point due to tirades of similar bands with similar songs. This EP is opened with 'Honor Killing',  presents the following as its opening lyrical salvo:

"Silently she suffers, voiceless and unseen
Imprisoned in a home
She bears children, cooks and cleans
Wed at the tender age of seventeen
His object to rape and beat"

Needless to say, powerful stuff that stings so sharply because of the truth behind the horrifying image. 'Brood' then carries on by talking about women who cannot stop giving birth over and over, showing that the band is not out only to make demons of men, instead making valid points of world issues. The gross precision of the explanation of the process of childbirth is certainly something that may make many blokes curl their toes. Use of phrases like 'Obstetrical haemorrhaging', 'Tearing of the perineum' and 'Placental expulsion' may prove yet that even the most hardened beardy death metal fan may have a point where he says "Fuck sake...ugh!". In the best way possible of course.

It's no small help that the music behind these severe statements of intent is nothing short of crushing. The two guitarists know how to riff, from blistering aural obliteration right over to the side of grooving sledgehammer blows and do it in a way that makes the head bang. Carolina is as skilled as death metal drummers come. Blastbeats seem second nature here, the speed and precision of which are enough to make this EP stand out by themselves. Mallika is a superbly brutal vocalist who smashes apart all misconceptions that women can't perform this style of vocal. In fact, if those idiots who are so sexist about metal are to be believed, then Mallika has a lot more balls than a lot of male death metal vocalists. I've heard a lot of men who are not as good as Mallika (and are, in fact, quite mediocre). Robin's bass playing backs up the rest of the music brilliantly, with a fantastically audible tone which many bassists these days have sacrificed in favour of a smoother, less threatening sound.

"Castration
Of the rapist!
Emasculation
Take his weapon!
Castration
Crush and cut the balls!
Emasculation
Oriectomy!"

Those lyrics are taken from 'The Emasculator' and there is good reason why this song is the highlight of the record. The song tells of female vigilantes taking vengeance against rapists, I think we can all be behind that! It highlights the failure of the legal system to support female victims, and it is easily more sickening and brutal than a whole lot of death metal lyrics.

More-so than all that, in a manner not dissimilar to the eco-warrior lyrics of Cattle Decapitation and Gojira, these are lyrics born of a genuine passion for a genuine cause through which Castrator wish to raise awareness and fight for something that is easily relatable. They do not wish to pussy-foot around these issues, they are shoving them down your throat to a point that is as uncomfortable as it should be. There's no political posturing going on here, this is as real as it gets, and with that comes true brutality, true heaviness.
Give this a listen. Do it. Now. You will miss out if you do not. When you do, let your mates listen to it as well. Just wait, this is one band with the potential to change the game in the extreme metal underground.

Rating: 9/10

Links: http://castrator.bandcamp.com/
           https://www.facebook.com/CastratorBand
           http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/
           https://www.facebook.com/horrorpaingoredeath

Album Review; Fallen Angels - World In Decay

Released Via Cyberdyne Records
Genre: Thrash Metal

 

Another band comes to thrash you back to 1986, and they do it in good fashion. This album is jam-packed with the fast and evil riffs of bands like Coroner, Dark Angel and Forbidden, and plenty of guitar leads tasty enough to make you bang your head harder than you already were. Fallen Angels are not afraid to switch up the tempos through their songs, even making room for more spacious moments that allow songs like ‘Nightmare Master’ to live and breathe. The level of musicianship here is top notch, reminiscent of early Megadeth in its intricacy and wildness. There are displays of a more traditional metal style of songwriting on the record, such as the opening moments of ‘Forsaken Existence’. Each instrument is played in a manner that amplifies the next, with the guitar and drum interplay alone being capable of holding the listener’s attention. Combine all of these elements with the added experience of award-winning producer Michael Rosen, who has managed to mix this album to the point of sheer sonic perfection for a band of this style and you have a thrash metal band that is making nods back to the metal icons of the 70s and 80s as they take no-nonsense metal forward with invigorating songs. There are some who might question the originality of the band, but there’s definitely a more mature feel to a band like Fallen Angels that suggests they’d deserve to break through the glass ceiling that holds down the plethora of thrash revivalists. This is too good to be called revivalism.

 

 

Rating: 8/10

 

Links: http://www.fallenangelsthrashband.com/

           https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fallen-Angels-Thrash-Band/336737539688752

          

 

 

Album Review; Fear Factory - Genexus

Released Via Nuclear Blast
Genre: Industrial Death Metal


Track Listing:

1. Autonomous Combat System
2. Anodized
3. Dielectric
4. Soul Hacker
5. Protomech
6. Genexus
7. Church Of Execution
8. Regenerate
9. Battle For Utopia
10. Expiration Date


Fear Factory are unique within the metal scene. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of another band that sounds like them. Their long career has seen them go through highs and lows. The most recent high being 2010's 'Mechanize', which was a complete tour-de-force, backed up by the cannonade percussion of Gene Hoglan. Since then, Hoglan left the band and 2012 saw the release of 'The Industrialist', which was a fractured affair. Not a terrible album by any measure, but it definitely had something missing at its core. It lacked that certain spark that helped previous Fear Factory albums breathe and grow. For their new record, Cazares and Bell brought in Malignancy drummer Mike Heller.

As it happens, Heller was a great choice. He gels in well with Dino Cazares' mechanical, down-tuned riffing. Over this, frontman Burton C. Bell's barks and snarls weave their magic over opening track 'Autonomous Combat System', which begins this record's story of sentient machines living among mankind, and all its questions of religion, mortality, climate control and the essence of being human.

Without a doubt the music is very familiar to anybody who has heard Fear Factory, and there isn't much new to hear on this record, save for on the final track 'Expiration Date', which sees Fear Factory take us on an ambient journey. Before that, though, it is staccato riffs and triplet-based drumming wound super-tight and topped off with roomy choruses that feature the always superbly produced clean vocals of Bell. However, what helps this album is that the song writing has a lot more soul within it, it's been thought out more but not forced. The whole entity flows really well and each song has its strengths. It sounds like the album that 'The Industrialist' tried to be, and at times even sounds better than 'Mechanize', which is saying something since that album was one of my favourites of that year.

'Dielectric', 'Soul Hacker', 'Protomech' and 'Church Of Execution' are all the kind of powerful, pulverizing and thought-provoking metal songs that really bring an album like this to life. It goes without saying that the moral questions of Artificial Intelligence have been a hot topic over the last number of years as mankind seems to move swiftly towards that particular moral crossroads. 'Genexus', with its description of mechanization being a part of the next step in mankind's evolution shows how this band have presented the case both for and against this issue, while bearing the rebellious metal connotations within the songs, aimed at political systems, dehumanization and religion. Fear Factory are sharp again, back on track again, ready to grind your ears into dust again.

Rating: 9/10

Links: http://fearfactory.com/
           http://www.nuclearblast.de/en/