Altsounds - Castevet - Summer Fences [Album]

Positive reviews are quite plentiful for their first album, with most reviewers hailing them as one of the few metal / emo bands not lacking imagination. Considering the name they self penned for their music- melodic beard punk, the intensity showed during their live shows and song titles like ‘When a Movie is Made in France it’s Called Cinema’, ‘Evil Robot with Swords for Hands’ and ‘Space Jam (The Return)’ it shows that Castevet are, in fact, quite different from the average brutal band. If there is one thing they’re definitely not, it’s emo or metal. Rather they sound like a drug-free Grateful Dead accidentally fronted by a James Hetfield protégé who is suffering from a chronic cough.

Castevet’s "Summer Fences" is a collection of extended, soft-rock garage jams with a vocalist that rudely enters the peaceful atmosphere by attempting to kill his vocal chords. Opener ‘Between Berwyn and Brynmawr’ is a rhythmical and unstructured jam that is quite typical for the album. Like it’s follow-ups ‘Beating High Schoolers at Arcade Games’ and ‘I Know What a Lion Is’, it’s musically quite a soft rock happening, production-wise sounding like it was recorded in someones garage in the late seventies. There is no sense of structure, no recurring theme, no riffs and no extraordinary melodies. Castevet also don’t fall into the metal / punk cliché trap of switching between loud and quiet music as their main strategy, they just seem to go wherever they feel like going, in a relaxed, peaceful atmosphere.

The only thing clearly out of place in this band is the vocalist. Though disadvantaged in the mix - he is louder but still sounds quieter than the music - it’s hard to find a reason for his appearance. It’s total polar opposite to the pleasant, easy going nature of the music. His voice is not distinctive in a positive way and because it sounds more like an extensive cough than someone trying to pronounce real words, the lyrical side is also pretty much non-existence to my ears. Considering song titles like ‘When a Movie is Made in France it’s called Cinema’ and ‘Evil Robots with Swords for Hands’, the lyrical side of things is probably not as serious and full of frustration as the vocalist likes to pretend it is.

The main criticism concerning the music though is that it’s hard to come up with a highlight. It’s blatantly just four guys jamming together, going on and on without really going any place in particular. If it wasn’t for the vocalist, Castevet would serve very well as background music, but to say there’s some real musical experience to be found on this album would be a bit too positive.
Castevet probably would have made more out of this album if it was completely instrumental as the singers only contribution is a structural extended cough attack that never really makes any sense. Even speaking about the instrumental part, it just sounds more like a big jam session with four technique lacking instrumentalists on the loose than a well-considered collection of melodic beard punk. A little bit more diversion and musical development wouldn’t have hurt.

"Summer Fences" is worth a try for those interested in experimental metal/ rock, but with lacking both brilliant music and traceable vocals it's not going to make an everlasting impression.