Castillion from Sweden. With name like that they must be about power metal with castles and knights abound? For my surprise, the answer is no. This quartet are trying hard to range about their own path, which is progressive heavy metal spiced with many a thing. 'Pieces of a Shattered Me' is their sophomore album, and my first touch with the band.

The lyrics are about fighting temptations that will cause only pain and misery, insanity, falling into pieces, and finally surviving it all. But is the end of this story happy. Give it a guess! The music follows this all very closely. The feelings it submit aren't happy in any way. The melodies are melancholic, unhappy, but still usually captivating. Mainly the music consists of heavy metal and is accompanied by a touch of power metal, but also thrash and doom. Also, out-of-typical rhythms are utilized in most of the songs for interesting twists, so Castillion manage to stay their head above that horde of generic bands. Progressive tag can also be awarded to the band for their compositions, which do not follow typical rock music etc. patterns at all, but are story-based. Mainly, the music is mid-paced, or slightly faster, and slower.

Castillion immediately brought one band to my mind, when I listened to this album for the first time. That band in question is Hollow, also from Sweden. Similar unhappiness, similar heavy chops, and even the vocals remind me of Hollow. Another band that comes to my mind is Falconer. There are folky tendencies in Castillion's music, and their vocalist sounds quite similar to Mathias Blad at times, and also reminds of nowadays' Europe's Joey Tempest. Somewhere during 'Pieces of a Shattered Me', bands such as Brainstorm, Communion, Evergrey and Nostradameus come to my mind, and definitely more than once or twice. So, while being dark and cheerless, still it rocks out quite a lot. To tell the truth, some times it's impossible for me to listen the album in one go, because it's packed with such amount of dreariness. This time around evil isn't a demon from outside, but inside of man, and that's why this is so uneasy at times. But really, the album is a bit too long, simple as that. However, thankfully there is a "shuffle" button! And as the music is multifaceted and filled with about one million details (give or take a few, ha), so this can become a long-time spinner.

The production job is pretty choppy and somehow it has a 1990s aura in it. While the drums may have been triggered, they aren't to a considerable level, and otherwise no such studio trickery can be found on this platter. The bass guitar's sound level is too low, especially when thinking what tricks does the bass player perform. The cover art is too dark, but at least the lyrics can be found in the booklet. But still, it's all pretty well done for an independent release.

It's not easy at all to categorize this album, but that also is Castillion's strength. 'Pieces of a Shattered Me' already struck me on the first go, but then it kind of began to feel too labyrinthine. And I'm still searching for the exit. Tip: You can find more meanings in the previous sentence... No matter how easy or uneasy the album is, I wonder how Castillion still aren't signed? They are well worth checking out by those who like progressive heavy metal, with the emphasis on "heavy". I suggest you try fantastically melodic and swinging 'Out of Reach', ballad-ish 'Departure' which isn't gay at all, hard-hitting and heavy 'Fragments', and another melodic assault, 'Hollow'.

Rating: 7+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
10/11/2012 19:18