As I mentioned in my review of the 2025 Existentialist EP, Terminal, Seek and Strike is snatching up all the Blackened deathcore acts like To Obey A Tyrant, Ruins of Perception, When Plagues Collide, Immortal Disfigurement, Assemble the Chariots and Downfall of Mankind.
And now they have added another one with Austria’s Castiel (Hebrew for ‘God is my shield ‘………And also a character from the Supernatural TV show?).
Castiel has been on my radar for a while now since I heard the song “The Abyss” from 2024, and the subsequent EP Khaos, then backtracking and checking out the band’s album, Shadowlands from 2023. And they are a natural fit for Seek and Strike, if slightly different.
Yes, this is deathcore; yes, it has some blackened/symphonic elements; yes, it has the all-too-common, utterly demoic vocalist, so there is some appeal for the Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent crowd. But for the most part, this is far more downtempo and brutish, having more in common with Humanity’s Last Breath, Praetor, Distant, and Black Tongue.
As a new label, introductory EP, this is only 4 songs and about 20 minutes, made up of 4 ‘acts’: “Defile//Denounce”, “A Festering Wound”, “Vile Spirits”, and “Empty Throne”. All four have the same lumbering, heavy, downtuned pace with a slight flocking of keyboards and atmospherics.
All 4 songs do sound pretty similar, and I wish there had been a standout moment or 2, but sadly, this is 20 minutes of continuous, suffocating, loping heft, notably on “Vile Spirits” and “Empty Throne”. Take that as a good or bad thing, but I would have liked just a little more variety personally.
Still, a solid introduction to a larger audience on Seek and Strike, nd I will still definitely check out the no doubt impending full-length album. And hope for just a little more.
