Rocky mountain post-hardcore band Castele drops amazing debut record

I was incredibly stoked to find out that this album was finally coming out, as I’ve been waiting patiently for over a year now and let me tell you: It was worth the wait. Castele is a phenomenal band hailing from Colorado, hence the tagline, “Rocky mountain post-hardcore,” that they’ve given themselves. The record was originally slated to come out sometime in early 2023, but due to some unforeseen circumstances it was delayed until now. Personally I’m just glad that they were able to release the record after all, and without breaking up in the process. On first listen I could already tell these guys poured their hearts and souls into these songs, and I appreciate it.

Castele may fit into the post-hardcore genre instead of the metalcore stuff I’ve been writing about lately, but there’s always a common denominator between most bands I write about — the emotional aspect. This is something I think has been missing from the bulk of metal across all its subgenres, save for a few remarkable and unique bands. Like I’ve said before, though, bands like Still Stayer, Eonia, Petroglyphs, and of course, Castele, have been constantly renewing my passion and excitement for new music.

The first single from the album was released back in late 2022, titled ‘Basilisk.’ At the time, the song was really different from what they had put out before in their EP, Elsewhere. Basilisk had this more energetic, classic post-hardcore feel to it, and the vocals were also pretty different. This is all to say that while they had started going in a different direction, that isn’t a bad thing at all. I feel like many bands say that when they change their sound up a lot, they’re “maturing” or “writing the music they always wanted to,” when really what that translates to is that they’re selling out to fit some mold that will make them popular. I think the guys in Castele truly were maturing with the writing of this record, though. They took all of the best parts of their sound: the melodic guitar riffs, the catchy vocal melodies, and the emotional lyrics, and put a much more modern and professional production quality on top of it. It also seems like they added a bit more energy to the music to make it more fun to play at shows, whereas the older stuff feels a little bit slower and math-y.

I also want to clarify that when I point out the differences between the EP and the album, I’m not saying one is bad because I love them both. The Elsewhere EP really highlights all of their great strengths as songwriters that I mentioned above, while the album really shows that they can make moving and energetic music that anyone could go to a show and enjoy. I actually saw this firsthand, when I got the chance to see them on their first tour outside of Colorado (I think). They came to California on a DIY tour with their friends in another awesome band, Mnmlst, who unfortunately is no longer making music. I was incredibly stoked to see them live, and I found out that they were only playing one song from the original EP because they had a ton of new songs to play. On one hand I was disappointed that I only got to see one song I knew, but their new music really was well-suited to live shows, and I think it got a lot of notice from the people there that had never heard of them. At the end of their set they performed a cover of ‘Writing on the Walls,’ by Underoath, which definitely shows where a lot of their influence comes from (not to mention it was a huge crowd-pleaser).

Anyway, let’s actually talk about the new album. To Sea, After Storm is just short of 45 minutes, with 12 tracks. It flows really well through highs and lows, and seems to have three distinct “sections” that it’s split into by two interlude tracks. The first of these sections starts out super strong with ‘Basilisk,’ which is a catchy and powerful song that appears to be a statement against the current political corruption in the US (and possibly elsewhere) with lines like:

“Go now
You are not allowed
To oppose those who stand so far above you”

The name “Basilisk” is obviously a way to liken the US political machine to a snake, cunning and slimy, or perhaps they’re more interested in the head of the snake. This first section of the album climaxes with my personal favorite song on the album, ‘Youngest Child.’ Even before I knew all the lyrics to the song, the first time I heard it I could already feel the emotional gravity pulling me towards it. It’s crazy how music can sometimes convey emotions without needing the words. After this song is the first interlude, ‘Lull,’ that quite literally is a lull in the energy from the album, giving a nice segue into the middle section of the album.

This next section has several strong songs that have their own ebb and flow of pretty guitar melodies and soaring vocals. One that particularly stuck out to me was ‘Lost Woods.’ It honestly seems like a mix between their first EP sound and the new album’s sound, where the verses and riffs sounded very similar to Elsewhere and the chorus had more of the upbeat vibe of the album. The other thing that stuck out to me about this track was the title, which could be a reference to the area of the same name in many Zelda games. This also wouldn’t be the first time they referenced video games in their music. Their older song, ‘Adventurer,’ had lyrics made up of mostly Skyrim guard dialogue. The best part about this is that Adventurer was my favorite song by them, and Skyrim is no doubt my favorite game of all time, but I didn’t even notice it until the guitarist, Tomas Salgado, pointed it out in an Instagram post. I felt super dumb not recognizing lines like “Could sure use a warm bed right about now.”

The “middle” of the album is finished going into the second interlude, ‘Lurillia,’ which I’m super curious about. This interlude has some sound effects, like a car starting up (instantly my mind wanders to Telegraph Avenue) and some soft voice lines that I’m unable to make out very clearly. I don’t know what this song is a reference to, so I can only assume it’s the name of a person? Perhaps we’ll never know. After this song, we get to the last section of the album with just the last two songs. One of them, ‘Wilt,’ was the recent single Castele dropped leading up to the album release. It’s another high-energy song with the only feature on the record, Dylan McBride of Lilac Kings. The album closer is called ‘Hemlock,’ and it also stuck out to me as having some heavy subject matter and one section that gets me absolutely pumped. Hemlock feels like a very defiant and strong song; it’s perfect as the album closer.

I mentioned the guitarist, Tomas Salgado, in an earlier paragraph, but the other members of the band are vocalist Gabriel TerKeurst, drummer Tristin Kates, and bassist Zac Blum. The guys in Castele are all insanely talented and I hope they continue to make music that moves me the way To Sea, After Storm did. Post Hardcore as a genre has honestly been pretty over-saturated with swancore, and it’s nice to finally hear something fresh come through.

Of course, if you haven’t listened to the album yet, then you should probably be looking it up on whatever music streaming service you use right this very second. Otherwise, check out their site with links to all of the things they’ve been doing lately, and of course their newest music video for Basilisk below: