Welcome To The Graveyard is the forthcoming new full-length from West Coast doom metallers, CASTLE. Captured by Billy Anderson (Sleep, Neurosis, Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth, Eyehategod, Ommadon et al) at Type Foundry Studios in Portland, Oregon this past Winter, the eight-track offering will see official release July 15th via Ván Records.
In advance of its official unveiling, today Revolver Magazine premieres a brand new video for second track, “Hammer And The Cross.” Directed by Jaan Silmberg of Pistoltrixx, “Hammer And The Cross,” was shot north of Toronto, Ontario while the band was between recording and mixing sessions for Welcome To The Graveyard this past winter.
“The song ‘Hammer And The Cross’ commands a lot of space and we wanted to find a location to match its starkness,” elaborates vocalist Elizabeth Blackwell of the clip. “We filmed the video at an old, abandoned dairy farm north of Toronto in the middle of February in Canada. The cold, swirling imagery is a perfect complement to the hypnotic doomy sounds of the song. It was a successful collaboration with our director and a lot of fun to make”.
View “Hammer And The Cross,” courtesy of Revolver Magazine, at THIS LOCATION.
You can also sample first single, “Flash Of The Pentagram,” below.
Welcome To The Graveyard sees CASTLE merge their doom-powered riffing with soaring 1970s rock . The album features a new level of confident songwriting and is a creepy-crawl through the wastelands of the band’s new Los Angeles’ ÂÂhome; a hard-boiled barrage of classic heavy metal riffery tempered with blasts of melodic orchestrated doom. The perfect soundtrack for a Hollywood cult initiation.
Elizabeth Blackwell’s haunted vocal style draws a sigil of death and madness – envision the Wilson sisters singing hymns from the stygian void, while lyrically CASTLE adapt the stark and compelling vistas of Aleister Crowley’s Amphora for the song “Traitors Rune” and Eliphas Levi’s Transcendental Magic, whose mystic rumination inspires the lyrical backdrop for the lead-off single “Flash Of The Pentagram.”
Preorder at THIS LOCATION.
CASTLE will be roadbound through the Fall. The live takeover includes a three-week run of tour dates around their appearance at the Maryland Doom Fest on June 24th followed by a month-long headlining trek beginning July 17th and running through August 20th. From there, CASTLE will take a week-long breather before heading to the streets again for a month’s worth of Canadian dates through September 29th. A full listing of CASTLE‘s live dates is below.
CASTLE:
6/15/2016 Yucca Tap – Phoenix, AZ
6/16/2016 The Sandbox – El Paso, TX
6/17/2016 Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX
6/18/2016 Rudyards – Houston, TX
6/19/2016 Siberia – New Orleans, LA
6/20/2016 New World Brewery – Tampa, FL
6/21/2016 Burro Bar – Jacksonville, FL
6/22/2016 The Jinx – Savannah, GA
6/23/2016 Reggies – Wilmington, NC
6/24/2016 Maryland Doom Fest – Frederick, MD
6/25/2016 Ace of Cups – Columbus, OH
6/26/2016 5th Quarter – Indianapolis, IN
6/27/2016 Skeletunes – Ft. Wayne, IN
6/28/2016 Vaudeville – Des Moines, IA
6/29/2016 O’Leaver’s – Omaha, NE
6/30/2016 Flux Capacitor – Colorado Springs, CO
7/01/2016 Metro Bar – Salt Lake City, UT
7/02/2016 Chateau le Punk – Las Vegas, NV
7/17/2016 Slidebar – Fullerton, CA #
7/19/2016 Mission Tobacco – Riverside, CA #
7/20/2016 Elbo Room – San Francisco, CA #
7/21/2016 Hi Water Mark – Portland, OR #
7/22/2016 Funhouse – Seattle, WA #
7/23/2016 The Palace Lounge – Missoula, MT #
7/24/2016 Railyard – Billings, MT #
7/26/2016 Reggies – Chicago, IL *
7/27/2016 High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI *
7/28/2016 Franks Power Plant – Milwaukee, WI *
7/29/2016 Shakespeare Pub – Kalamazoo, MI *
7/30/2016 Corktown Tavern – Detroit, MI *
7/31/2016 Howlers – Pittsburgh, PA *^
8/01/2016 Now That’s Class – Cleveland, OH ^
8/02/2016 Rockin Buffalo Saloon – Buffalo, NY ^
8/03/2016 Geno’s – Portland, ME ^ w/ Hessian
8/04/2016 Ralph’s – Worcester, MA ^ w/ Pilgrim
8/05/2016 Acheron – Brooklyn, NY ^ w/ Pilgrim
8/06/2016 The Fire – Philadelphia, PA ^ w/ Pilgrim
8/07/2016 TBA – Washington, DC
8/08/2016 Riffhouse Pub – Chesapeake, VA
8/09/2016 Pilot Light – Knoxville, TN
8/10/2016 The End – Nashville, TN
8/11/2016 Vino’s – Little Rock, AR
8/12/2016 The Grotto – Ft. Worth, TX
8/13/2016 The Lost Well – Austin, TX
8/14/2016 The Elbow Room – Wichita, KS
8/16/2016 The Underground – Santa Fe, NM
8/17/2016 The Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
8/18/2016 Flycatcher – Tucson, AZ
8/19/2016 The Merrow – San Diego, CA
8/20/2016 The Complex – Los Angeles, CA
8/27/2016 Doom Over T.O. Fest – Toronto, ON
9/07/2016 Katacombes – Montreal, PQ
9/08/2016 Envol at Macadam Fest – Quebec City, PQ
9/09/2016 Panic Room – St. John, NB
9/10/2016 Gus Pub – Halifax, NS
9/11/2016 Baba’s – Charlottetown, PEI
9/12/2016 Capitol Complex – Fredericton, NB
9/13/2016 Ti-Petac – Trois Rivieres, PQ
9/14/2016 House Of Targ – Ottawa, ON
9/16/2016 Black Pirates Pub – Thunder Bay, ON
9/17/2016 King’s Hotel – Winnipeg, MB
9/18/2016 TBA – Saskatoon, SK
9/19/2016 Starlite Room – Edmonton, AB
9/20/2016 Fernando’s – Kelowna, BC
9/21/2016 The Office Pub – Kamloops, BC
9/22/2016 Funky Winkerbeans – Vancouver, BC
9/23/2016 Logans Pub – Victoria, BC
9/24/2016 Palomino – Calgary, AB
9/26/2016 The Club – Regina, SK
9/28/2016 New American – Sault Ste. Marie, ON
9/29/2016 Call The Office – London, ON
# w/ Disenchanter
* w/ Brimstone Coven
^ w/ Blizaro
CASTLE was forged in San Francisco in 2009 and released their debut full-length, In Witch Order, on Germany’s Ván Records in 2011. The album brought light to the newly-formed band and earned them “Album Of The Year” honors from Metal Hammer Norway, as well as Roadburn Festival’s “Newcomer Of The Year.” Shortly thereafter, the band joined the Prosthetic Records roster in North America and released their critically-adored sophomore album Blacklands. The record led to a Canadian JUNO nomination for “Metal/Hard Music Album Of The Year.” CASTLE performed over two-hundred shows worldwide in support of the release alongside the likes of The Sword, Conan, Intronaut, and Pentagram among many others as well as appearances at some of the underground’s largest fests including Roadburn, and the London and Berlin Desertfests.
Since the release of Under Siege in 2014, CASTLE, which consists of vocalist/bassist Elizabeth Blackwell, guitarist/vocalist Mat Davis and drummer Al McCartney, has maintained a relentless touring schedule with multiple expeditions throughout the US, Europe and Canada including stops at the 2015 edition of Heavy Days In Doomtown Fest in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Acherontic Arts Fest in Oberhausen, Germany.
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