Today, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Cristian Castro for the first time. He showed up at my real job to buy flowers for his mother’s birthday. Yes, I fangirled and geeked out but I also became aware of a project that Cristian has been working on. In 2013 when Castro was promoting his Primera Fila tour, he decided to put his pop career on hold to focus on something that no one could have imagined.
In 2014, the project came alive under the name El Esfinge (The Sphinx) with the release of the album, El Cantar De La Muerte (The song of death). He collaborated was César “Vampiro” López, whose fame comes from his time in the band, Mana. The album was produced by David Bottrill, a Canadian producer who had worked with bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins and Tool. With such star power, the album was released with the first single, “Purgatorio”.
This is not your mother’s Cristian Castro. Castro shed his pop ballad genre for a gothic metal alt-rock and WOW. Who would have known he had it in him. Today’s his rock persona is known as Lugh Draculea on this project, but he will always be Cristian Castro to his fans that follow him from project to project.
When I met Cristian today and he told me about his band, I came home and grabbed the album from Apple Music. When the first song, “Fantasmas” started playing, I immediately recognized the voice. The music is nothing I would have pictured him to sing but I love it. The album contains ten tracks that show the world that Castro is multifaceted and is more than a pretty-faced ballad singer.
Since the release of the album, the band’s original members are gone. This hasn’t stopped Castro. The new band, consisting of Cristian, Alexei Torres, and David Avilés, has returned to the studio. They will be releasing their second album this year. We will be waiting for new music from this band. I’m seriously digging this, so I can’t wait to see where the band goes with these new musicians working with Cristian.
It is definitely worth the listen. Castro’s voice is superb and if you are a fan of rock music, this is for you.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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