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First Impressions Review: Castillo- “Pleasure And Pain”

by

Mendeku Diskak / Battle Scarred, 18 Jul 2023

Castillo is a top-of-the-line oi band that sounds raw, primal, and rough without completely sacrificing melodic hooks.  Through a handful of releases, they’ve established themselves as a go-to band for those looking for some memorable street punk.  Now, they’ve got a new 7-song release called Pleasure And Pain, which is available for purchase from either Mendeku Diskak or Battle Scarred (see links available below).

The songs on Pleasure And Pain feel rough-and-tumble.  The opener (and title track) growls and rips through 2:16 with the memorable hooks coming with the gang vocals while the rest just feels like a violent sprint until the bridge around the 1:20 mark (see also: “Bastard” and “Their Lies”).  Elsewhere, “Endless Days” has a memorable rhythm guitar riff and  some fantastic lead guitar, and the vocals even gruffly resemble some sort of melody (see also: Con Orgullo Y Amor” and “I’ve Learnt Today”).  “Call Lane” has the best melodies on the record without coming off as weak.  The song sounds like a street punk song run through some power pop/new wave melody filter (check the vocal hooks and the lead guitar).  Even at 4+ minutes, the “I wanna hold you, I wanna touch you” lines are done so well that I can’t get ‘em outta my head.  I know I drone on and on about song length sometimes, and none of these cut below the 2 minute threshold, but I didn’t find these songs tiring, so there’s that.  Instead, this release lands just right and the impression is pretty significant.  I like this a lot.

First Impressions are whiz-bang reviews of singles, 7″s, EPs, and LPs which are given a review after a single listen. This is a great way for TGEFM to showcase some of the releases which may not get a full review on their own.

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