{"id":105448,"date":"2025-08-15T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T23:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105448"},"modified":"2025-09-23T12:23:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:23:53","slug":"album-review-castrator-coronation-of-the-grotesque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-castrator-coronation-of-the-grotesque\/","title":{"rendered":"CASTRATOR – Coronation Of The Grotesque (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CASTRATOR
\nCoronation Of The Grotesque<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nDark Descent (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Castrator\u2019s sophomore effort is one I\u2019ve been waiting for excitedly due to being so impressed by the New York-based band\u2019s 2022 debut album Defiled In Oblivion<\/em>. The only change since then is the addition of guitarist Sara Loerlein (The Breathing Process), who joins vocalist Clarissa Badini (Vicious Blade), bassist Robin Mazen (Gruesome \/ Derk\u00e9ta) and drummer Carolina Perez (Hypoxia).<\/p>\n

At 37 minutes in duration, Coronation Of The Grotesque<\/em> is a fierce return and of immediate impact. It\u2019s strange how over the last few years the focus has been on fellow deathsters Crypta, but Castrator deserves accolades too. There are no goofy tales here of cartoon horror. Instead, the women speak of real world hostilities and filter such violence through their insane barrages.<\/p>\n

There is something refreshing about the Castrator battering. Forget swampy guitars and muddy production, this album drives messages clearly due to the ferocious vocals and ear damaging riffs. And believe me, there are riffs galore, and they are just as potent in mid-tempo range as they are when they are playing skin with speed.<\/p>\n

\u2018Psalm Of The Beguiled\u2019 has a more methodical approach, but that doesn\u2019t prevent it from being heavyweight pummelling. \u2018I Am Eunuch\u2019 is more thrashy and aggressive, while somewhere in-between \u2018Discordant Rumination\u2019 provides slower menace in tandem with savagery. \u2018Covenant Of Deceit\u2019 serves further pulverisation while injecting sporadic bludgeoning breakdowns. There\u2019s nothing over complicated, just crushing mid-90s styled death metal with occasional veering towards thrash. I hear strains of Master on \u2018Deviant Miscreant\u2019 and Castrator provide further thrash attacks on the surprising cover of Exodus classic \u2018Metal Command\u2019.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little wrong here (except that bloody appalling band logo which is a bit too \u201cslam\u201d and \u201cgoregrind\u201d for my liking), Castrator set up their stall and demand that you pay full attention. Not quite old school or new school, Coronation Of The Grotesque<\/em> still packs a hefty wallop.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CASTRATOR Coronation Of The Grotesque Dark Descent (2025) Rating: 8\/10 Castrator\u2019s sophomore effort is one I\u2019ve been waiting for excitedly due to being so impressed by the New York-based band\u2019s 2022 debut album Defiled In Oblivion. The only change since then is the addition of guitarist Sara Loerlein (The Breathing Process), who joins vocalist Clarissa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5970],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-castrator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105449,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105448\/revisions\/105449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}