Castevet was an American
black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
band formed in 2006 in New York City, New York. The band announced their breakup on July 21, 2014. The last line-up of the band featured Andrew Hock on vocals and guitar, Ian Jacyszyn on drums and
Krallice
Krallice is an American black metal band formed by New York City musicians Colin Marston, Mick Barr, Nick McMaster and Lev Weinstein. They play an experimental, highly technical style of black metal. The band has released twelve studio albums a ...
member Nicolas McMaster on bass guitar.
History
The band was formed by guitarist Andrew Hock, bassist Daniel Olivencia and drummer Ian Jacyszyn. Jacyszyn performed with the
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
act Copremesis. Hock and Olivencia were members of the extreme metal acts Biolich and Ehnahre while attending
New England Conservatory
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Hu ...
. After releasing ''Stones/Salts'' in 2009, the band signed to
Profound Lore Records
Profound Lore Records is a Canadian independent record label founded in May 2004, which "began as the 'hobby-like venture' of a few friends but, over the past six years, the label has evolved into a one-man enterprise, shaped a distinct 'aestheti ...
and released their debut album, ''Mounds of Ash'' in 2010,
gaining critical acclaim.
After parting ways with two previous bassists, the band recruited Krallice bassist Nicholas McMaster and released their sophomore album, ''Obsian'' in 2013.
In 2014, the band embarked a North American tour with Canadian black metal band
Thantifaxath and performed at
Maryland Deathfest
Maryland Deathfest (often abbreviated to MDF) is an annual American extreme metal festival founded in 2003 by Ryan Taylor and Evan Harting. The festival is held in Baltimore, Maryland during Memorial Day weekend, and it features many bands from ...
.
Breakup
On July 21, 2014, a message was posted on the band'
official websiteannouncing their breakup:
Castevet is no more. There is no single reason or event driving this decision; it is based on the need of each individual involved to continue to develop their vision within new and existing projects. To put it simply, it is time to move on.
Thank you to all who have supported Castevet since our inception in 2006.
Other projects
Hock went on to form Psalm Zero with former
Extra Life
In video games, a life is a play-turn that a player character has, defined as the period between start and end of play. Lives refer to a finite number of tries before the game ends with a game over. It is sometimes called a chance, a try, rest ...
singer
Charlie Looker
Charlie Looker (born May 23, 1980) is an American composer, improviser, vocalist, and guitarist known for his work in experimental metal, contemporary classical, avant-jazz, and Renaissance and Medieval musical forms.
Education and career
Loo ...
although he is no longer with that group. He has also put out a solo guitar record. McMaster's current projects include
Krallice
Krallice is an American black metal band formed by New York City musicians Colin Marston, Mick Barr, Nick McMaster and Lev Weinstein. They play an experimental, highly technical style of black metal. The band has released twelve studio albums a ...
and Geryon.
Musical style
The band's musical style has been described as "proggy
black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
"
and "
math-metal".
The band's debut album featured a fusion of "black metal and
noisecore
Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signa ...
."
Phil Freeman of Allmusic also stated that the album "takes the
tremolo
In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo.
The first is a rapid reiteration:
* Of a single Musical note, note, particularly used on String instrument#Bowing, bowed string instrument ...
guitar picking and thundering-hooves drumming of black metal and weds them to complex, interlocking riff structures more akin to progressive
thrash
Thrash may refer to:
*Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work
*Thrash (surname)
*Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers
*''Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video game ...
."
The band's second album, ''Obsian'', was described as "metal built on
math-rock
Math rock is a style of progressive and indie rock with roots in bands such as King Crimson and Rush as well as 20th-century minimal music composers such as Steve Reich. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (includi ...
foundations" by Grayson Currin of
Pitchfork Media
''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog.
Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...
.
It incorporated influences ranging from
punk rock,
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
,
post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...
and
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
.
The music of the band features "
death growls
A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...
akin to
hardcore
Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to:
Arts and media Film
* ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film
* ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott
* ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
and death metal, unusual chord voicings and
polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...
ic drumming."
The basslines of the latest bassist were compared to
jazz-fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyb ...
music and the works of
King Crimson
King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...
.
Band members
;Current members
*Ian Jacyszyn – drums
(2006–2014)
*Andrew Hock – vocals, guitar
(2006–2014)
*Nicholas McMaster – bass
(2012–2014)
;Past members
*Daniel Olivencia – bass
(2006-2008)
*Joshua Scott – bass
(2008-2012)
Discography
;Studio albums
*''Mounds of Ash'' (2010,
Profound Lore Records
Profound Lore Records is a Canadian independent record label founded in May 2004, which "began as the 'hobby-like venture' of a few friends but, over the past six years, the label has evolved into a one-man enterprise, shaped a distinct 'aestheti ...
)
*''Obsian'' (2013, Profound Lore Records)
;EPs
*''Stones/Salts'' (2009, Paragon Records)
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 2006
American musical trios
American black metal musical groups
American progressive metal musical groups
American mathcore musical groups
Hardcore punk groups from New York (state)
American post-hardcore musical groups
Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups from New York City
Profound Lore Records artists