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Album Review: High Priestess, Casting the Circle

high priestess casting the circle

With an ambitious intent behind them, Los Angeles trio High Priestess follow-up their well-received 2018 self-titled debut (review here) with Casting the Circle, their second LP for Ripple Music. Produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Katie Gilchrest, the 42-minute/five-track outing moves from invoking the four elements — earth, air, fire, water — on its leadoff title-track to finishing with incantations praising the devil on “Ave Satanas,” and all the while in between flowing in linear fashion as one ritual playing out. It is a whole work brought together by Gilchrest, bassist/vocalist Mariana Fiel and drummer/vocalist Megan Mullins, and while a song like centerpiece “The Hourglass” or even the nine-minute “Erebus” might work on its own outside the context of its surroundings, the bulk of the offering is clearly intended to be experienced whole, those tracks included. The signal for that intention comes right in “Casting the Circle” itself, which though it runs at a little over five minutes long, is basically an introduction to the proceedings as the band gets underway.

The elements are indeed introduced, both in terms of folklore and in the context of the band’s own sound: vocals are harmonized and lush in their melody, tones are weighted, and what will become a key factor throughout all of Casting the Circle is first unveiled in the patience with which they execute the track. It’s worth repeating: patience. Casting the Circle is methodical in its execution from front to back, and though there are parts that are quicker than others — some of the classic-prog quirk that surfaces led by the keys and drums in “Invocation” has tempo enough, and “The Hourglass” moves at a relatively middling pace — the bulk of the album’s hypnosis is cast through its ability to maintain a crawling pace to go along with the atmospheric depth in the mix and the expansive vocal arrangements between GilchrestFiel and Mullins, which are fast becoming a signature of High Priestess‘ work and an aspect of their sound that stands them out from any cult-minded peers that may be likewise spellcasting in the underground.

“Invocation” is an inevitable focal point for Casting the Circle, as it follows the opener, “Erebus” and “The Hourglass” and runs a full 17-plus minutes and provides the essence of the ritual that High Priestess are undertaking. With nods toward the likes of Black Widow and Coven and other such cultists of yore, High Priestess put a modern doom spin on the classic trope of communion with things otherworldly and dark in origin. And whether you’re the type to buy in on such things or not, the effect is sweeping and engrossing — a testament to and foremost example of the achievement of Casting the Circle itself. With the mood set by “Casting the Circle” and “Erebus” and the momentary come-to-ground chorus of “The Hourglass” prior, “Invocation” arrives as the penultimate track, as the apex of the proceedings and as a culmination of the record’s purpose — as well as, on a more terrestrial level, the bulk of side B — and feels very much like the center around which the rest of the album was built.

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Lines like “Praise your god and feel him/Praise your god in heaven” become memorable early incantations accompanied by winding lines of guitar and keys and percussion, and a forward build is set in motion as the volume gradually increases and Gilchrest rips into a massive highlight solo around the five-minute mark. At about halfway through, the tempo cuts and a march is undertaken with keyboards pushed forward behind the vocals in righteously doomed fashion as the next movement is reached. Cymbals wash out and a spell is spoken over drums as the guitar lurches back to life with the bass rumbling beneath all the while. Another solo brings the transition to an interplay between guitar and soaring melodic vocals, and a brief return to the earlier winding figure is accompanied by whispers in urgent fashion as the whole thing seems to come apart just past 14 minutes in before the mega-plod of the halfway point is resumed as a final movement, deconstructed to echoing voices, keyboard noise, feedback, manic drums, and a few final measures of lumber before fading church organ leads the transition into silence just ahead of the voice that begins “Ave Satanas” with its titular evocation.

At just three minutes long, “Ave Satanas” is a culmination unto itself. Done completely a cappella, it weaves layers of vocals over each other to create an effect no less immersive than was that of the various guitar, bass, drums and keys before it, and after creating this wash of melody, it simply casts out a final line and recedes into silence, High Priestess having obviously made their statement and pushed as far into the ether as they’re at this point willing to go. In that, Casting the Circle succeeds roundly in its ambient purpose, using harmonies and slower tempos in order not just to capture the willing listener’s attention, but to affect the mood and atmosphere in which the work itself is heard.

The theatrical vibe that GilchrestFiel and Mullins bring to that work through their vocal arrangements only enhance that mood and give the record further depth, and as they turn their intentions toward darker conjurations, it feels all the more like they’re beginning to realize the vision with which they set out initially and though the likes of “Invocation” would seem to set them on a one-song-album path, I’m not sure if they’ll actually take that route or perhaps, having fulfilled the LP-as-ritual impulse here, take their transcendental doom elsewhere. One way or the other, their play toward classic genre elements is gracefully and pointedly modern in its manifestation, and they do not come out the other side of Casting the Circle sounding like anyone so much as themselves. This is, perhaps, who High Priestess have intended to be since they started out with their demo (review here) some three years ago, and if that’s the case, their ability to recast stylistic nuances to suit the needs of their material is all the more encouraging as they continue forward to yet-unknown places.

High Priestess, Casting the Circle

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