Whenever you decide to listen to real harsh, head-banging rock, there is (at least for most people) a limit to the amount of noise one can tolerate. There are all types of hard-rock noise: noise that expresses fear, anger and jealousy — music that is jarring for a legitimate reason. Where loud, grating hard-rock loses me as a listener is when the music is loud simply for the sake of being loud. Castevet’s new album The Echo & The Light is the first album in a very long time where I had to literally force myself to listen to the whole thing, wincing all the way through.
What is Castevet trying to say here? What are they trying to accomplish by making each song of theirs sound like sleep-deprived toddlers let loose on a cheap drum set? As far as I can tell, their songs have absolutely no point, other than to sound deep and angry. At the conclusion of each song I find myself asking the question “so what?” It almost seems as if Castevet is covering up the shallowness of their songs with noise. At best, their music is angsty, with a large amount of inaudible singing, the kind where you don’t really care what they’re saying, and even if you did care, it appears as if they are not saying anything of value to begin with. Honestly, the only reason Castevet has to be angry about anything is that they are stuck in a cycle of endlessly unappealing songs.
Right from the start of the album, each song goes absolutely nowhere, becoming only repetitive and dry. In fact, the album doesn’t even come close to being remotely unique until “Midwest Values,” which is half-way through the entire 8-track album. The song itself is a 4-minute track reminiscent of one of Coldplay’s pensive ballads that, upon its conclusion, slowly eases out into silence – a silence somewhat yearned for after the assault of the four inane and grinding tracks that preceded it. However, the lyrics are extremely formulaic and shallow, no more original than the neutered kiddie pop written for the Disney Channel. Lines like “I can’t breathe this stale air, the walls are closing in. The lamp is burned out, I haven’t slept in weeks. Dressers decorate the walls, I hope they hold” make you cringe at the cliches that attempt at mimicking emotional claustrophobia, the uninteresting and totally uncompelling “riffs”.
My suggestion? Based on this album, their sound is the opposite of promising. I would say stay away from Castevet. The only emotion I can feel towards this album is great sympathy. But in the end I must give them the benefit of the doubt: Maybe this was just a dud, something independent of the talents of Castevet as a band. Perhaps this is an occasion where the band members will disperse after one or two releases and try to make it on their own. All I can say is, if you are in the neighborhood for hard-rock, stay away from The Echo & The Light.
4 Golden Eggs
This seems like a very mean-spirited review. Personally, I think this was one of the year’s best albums. The quiet to loud parts give you just enough of both dynamics. I’m not really sure which repetition you are writing about due to the e.p.’s brevity. The comparison to coldplay seems a little strange since none of their songs are even in the same style. I don’t think that any of the band members would consider themselves a “hard rock” band, so this recommendation to find other hard rock bands seems so underwhelming.