Castevet – Obsian

October 15, 2013 • Profound Lore Records

Today's review courtesy of New York black metal band Castevet (not to be confused with the other Castevet). I haven't followed them much, having just heard their early EP Stones/Salts, and while I won't say they're one of my favorite modern black metal bands, this album does stand up pretty well.

Based on what little of their other stuff I've heard (and compared to their contemporaries), Castevet's sound is slowly becoming more and more of a progressive sort of black metal—in a Gojira sort of way, not an Emperor sort of way, with some clean melodic sections clashing with heavy blasting and angular, polyrhythmic riffs. There's always a lot going on, and the song structures become somewhat fragmented and hard to follow as the band lurches from one section to the next. It's not really my favorite style of playing, but surprisingly (for me) they pull it off well a lot of the time, in no small thanks to some very strong riffs and rhythms.

but there's no denying that they still have a good aesthetic and they sound great here. Special mention goes to some really great plucky bass playing, which carries a lot of the songs when the guitar goes off on some weird tangent or has a cool alternate melody like the end of "The Curve". I also especially like the folky guitar interwoven into some sections, like the end of "Cavernous", which adds a neat, unexpected new dimension to the music.

Obsian is definitely not an album for everyone, but it takes black metal in a new direction and it will be interesting to see how it pans out. Hopefully their next release will be an improvement on what they've done here.