Now shut up and put your thinking hats on (yes, you glue sniffers and paste eaters in the back row too!), here’s a lesson on basic chemistry. If the atom has roughly the same number of protons and electrons, it will be stable… yet, as we move to the heavier elements in the periodic system, the ratio between protons and electrons is more and more disrupted, which makes the element severely unstable. The atom will eventually start losing protons, which will change its state and the element will turn into a different element through radioactive decay. It will become less heavy, yet its balance will not be disturbed as much as prior and it will therefore become more stable.
Now, while you’re all still looking dumb with your thinking hats on (really, it doesn’t fit you, I just wanted you to think), you can ask the question why on earth is this important on a page which reviews Metal recordings.
Modern day Black / Death Metal bands / projects are as stable as, for instance, everyone’s favorite Uranium atom. Shedding a proton emits a lot of radioactive energy, but after that this is simply not the Uranium atom we started the story with, but it turns into Thorium, which then decays further into Radium and later into Radon, until it reaches the stable isotope of Lead, after which it does not decay further.
The perfect example of this nerdy phenomenon put into musical terms is the Canadian band Gotthammer. Formed in 2023 and split up in 2024, with six releases under their belt (three demos, one split, one EP and a compilation of all of the releases). There was no full album and the compilation was basically released due to popular demand. In their short life span, the ridiculously energetic (or as snowflakes might say, ‘violent’… if not even ‘brutal’) band attracted a mass worldwide following which was, as usual, hungry for more.
But, back to chemistry we go, so you better keep the thinking hat on. Every atom has a nucleus around which the protons and electrons. Through the loss of electrons, the element will turn into a cation and through the loss of protons, it will turn into a completely different element. Again, very similar to the modern day bands, which usually consisted around a sole member or two, which then attract (and in more cases turns away) other members, which will eventually lead the band to turning into a whole another thing.
While Gotthammer disbanded (shed a proton… or lost a member, it’s basically the same thing), they managed to turn into Seraphic Castration which have allegedly recorded their first outing, ‘Demon(stration)’ very late in December 2025 and bombarded the unsuspecting masses on the New Years day with it. Similar to atoms, even though some radioactive energy might be lost, this is still lethal.
Let’s just hope it’s slightly more stable. (Black Mary)
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From the ashes of Gotthammer and the extremely fertile Canadian underground, not only did the recently resurfaced Melth rise again, but now Seraphic Castration as well. Although the line-ups of both bands consist of the same two people, Melth is a more experimental venture that leans heavier on the Kiloton work of C.B. (or whichever of his pseudonyms you prefer). Seraphic Castration is actually the musical and spiritual continuation of Gotthammer, minus guitarist Félix ‘Sonic Reducer’ Morneau. That means we can brace ourselves for some seriously brutal and utterly savage hammering in the right Canadian fashion.
And, that is exactly what this 11-minute first demo is offering. It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to understand that this is just basically Gotthammer 2.0. While not 100% an exact copy of Gotthammer’s sonic trademark, the majority of what we’re hearing is close enough to make sure that everyone who thought Gotthammer died a premature death will be satisfied with how things turned out. In a way you can say Gotthammer did the Nihilist/Entombed trick, just carrying on with one band member less. In a way, it is of course a shame that the band has to continue without the name that Gotthammer has built up and that a personnel change was necessary, but sometimes things just turn out that way.
On the musical side of things, however, it is just old ideas parading as new ones. And that I do say that in the kindest way possible. It is a true relief and surely satisfying to hear these guys getting back to what they were doing so well with Gotthammer. The smothering forward pressure is exactly the same as how we came to know them in 2023. The differences will really only be apparent in the ultimate prosectors and pathologists. It seems the guitars have a slightly sharper edge and there’s just a tiny bit of a colder tone on the overall production that might reveal the experience gained in Kiloton. In the individual songs there’s a little bit of a variety as well, especially the waning moments of ‘Heaven, Defaced’ when the tempo slows down for an almost sacral finale.
For various reasons, I found it very sad to see Gotthammer laid to rest, but if this is what we got in return, I think we can count ourselves lucky. ‘Demon(stration)’ is, in any case, a more than satisfying first introduction to what will hopefully have a longer life than Gotthammer. (FelixS)
