Castevet was an American

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw ( lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an em ...

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 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, fe ...

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 ...

. 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 website
announcing 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 o ...

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 Lo ...

although he is no longer with that group. He has also put out a solo guitar record. McMaster's current projects include Krallice and Geryon.

Musical style

The band's musical style has been described as "proggy

" and " math-metal". The band's debut album featured a fusion of "black metal and noisecore." 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 note, particularly used on bowed string instruments, by rapidly moving the bow back and fo ...

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 ga ...

." The band's second album, ''Obsian'', was described as "metal built on math-rock 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 ...

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 bee ...

and

. The music of the band features " death growls akin to hardcore 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-rhyt ...

ic drumming." The basslines of the latest bassist were compared to jazz-fusion 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,

) *''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