Ελληνικά
Genre: Heavy /Doom
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Van Records
Year: 2016
Fourth album for Castle and yes, the madness continues! And yet again they released a great album. Ok, maybe all the old school Heavy Metal fans are talking about Sumerlands and Eternal Champion, that released killer albums this year -and certainly you should check them out, but my dear friends, I can’t think of anything more metal that Sabbathian metal. They’ve been characterized as Occult Rock – Trad Metal – Heavy Doom – Doom Thrash and whatever the hell else you can think of, and truth to be told, they even might be all the above but mainly and primarily they are a huge band beyond genres and labels! Because only a great band starts an album with a ‘Black Widow’.
This is the way great albums begin, with songs that grab you from the balls. There is no way you won’t headbang, there is no way that the fist riff and the dirty voice of Elizabeth Blackwell won’t cheer you up. Next in line we find ‘Hammer and The Cross’ in which Matt Davis disguises in Iommi and vomits slow riffs, electrifying the atmosphere. The selftitle track of the album which follows continues in low speed and high quality metal, exploring a Rock aspect in a 60’s atmosphere, with the guitar solos enriching the strong choruses in an interesting composition. Vinyl’s Side A is closing with a track that combines everything that Castle’s magic is all about in one song. In ‘Veil of Death’ Blackwell and Davis give lessons on how classic songs are composed in our days.
Side B starts dynamically in its first song, and then the record experiments in sound forms of previous decades drawing inspiration from the 60’s and 70’s while maintaining the quality and the ‘roughness’ without sounding anachronistic and old fashioned. ‘Flash Of The Pentagram’ is one of the best and heavier tracks that Castle have ever written (with the opening track, I remind you…). This particular one with the double vocals where Blackwell spits the lyrics and Davis simultaneously reads them, gives it an extra boost. In the same time the uplifting rhythm combined with the melodic bridges that interlards the sound, they create an explosive and highly addictive result. The next one, ‘Traitor’s Rune’, has similar elements with ‘Veil of Death’ but with a hint of Jefferson Airplane in the way that the american’s voice sounds like, that will also bring that in mind in the closing song, ‘Natural Paralllel’. ‘Down in the Cauldron Bog’ with the occult theme, that could have also been in their debut album and gushes through its sounds Pentagram, Demon and Angel Witch elements. An imposing album which demands our attention with top compositions, exceptional interpretations, a guitar that speaks, with riffs that stick in your mind and with a voice outstandingly rock ‘n’ roll but also earthy.
4,5/6
