PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
CASTLE is pleased to announce the release of their breakout fourth full-length this Summer via Ván Records worldwide. Titled Welcome To The Graveyard, the follow up to 2014’s critically-lauded Under Siege was recorded by Billy Anderson (Sleep, Neurosis, Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth, Eyehategod, Ommadon et al) at Type Foundry Studios in Portland, Oregon this past Winter. Welcome To The Graveyard is set for official unveiling July 12.
Comprised of 8 tracks written over the last year, 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 L.A. home; 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 – imagine 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, heard below.
Listen to Flash of the Pentagram HERE.
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 left 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, 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 Liz 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. Expect Canadian and European dates in support of Welcome To The Graveyard to be announced in the coming months.
Track Listing
1. Black Widow
2. Hammer and the Cross
3. Welcome to the Graveyard
4. Veil of Death
5. Flash of the Pentagram
6. Traitors Rune
7. Down in the Cauldron Bog
8. Natural Parallel
CASTLE, who recently announced a three week run of tour dates around their appearance at Maryland Death Fest on June 24, will continue touring across the U.S throughout July and August with the announcement of 32 additional dates. The month-long headlining trek, which follows the release of Welcome To The Graveyard, commences July 17 in Fullerton, CA and will feature regional support from a trio of the underground’s heaviest hitters; Portland’s Disenchanter, Brimstone Coven (Metal Blade) and epic doomsters Blizaro, from Rochester, NY.
Tour Dates
7/17 Fullerton, CA – Slidebar #
7/19 Riverside, CA – Mission Tobacco #
7/20 San Francisco, CA – Elbo Room #
7/21 Portland, OR – Hi Water Mark #
7/22 Seattle, WA – Funhouse #
7/23 Missoula, MT – The Palace Lounge #
7/24 Billings, MT – Railyard #
7/26 Chicago, IL – Reggies *
7/27 Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon *
7/28 Milwaukee, WI – Franks Power Plant *
7/29 Kalamazoo, MI – Shakespeare Pub *
7/30 Detroit, MI – Corktown Tavern*
7/31 Pittsburgh, PA – Howlers *^
8/1 Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class ^
8/2 Buffalo, NY – Rockin Buffalo Saloon ^
8/3 Portland, ME – Geno’s ^ w/ HESSIAN
8/4 Worcester, MA – Ralphs ^ w/ PILGRIM
8/5 New York, NY – Acheron ^ w/ PILGRIM
8/6 Philadelphia, PA – The Fire ^ w/ PILGRIM
8/7 Washington, DC – tba
8/8 Chesapeake, VA – Riffhaus
8/9 Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
8/10 Nashville, TN – The End
8/11 Little Rock, AR – Vino’s
8/12 Ft. Worth, TX – The Grotto
8/13 Austin, TX – The Lost Well
8/14 Wichita, KS – Lizard Lounge
8/16 Santa Fe, NM – The Underground
8/17 Albuquerque, NM – The Launchpad
8/18 Tucson, AZ – Flycatcher
8/19 San Diego, CA – The Merrow
8/20 Los Angeles, CA – The Complex
# w/ Disenchanter
* w/ Brimstone Coven
^ w/ Blizaro
