Look at that list of tour dates. Just look at it. Not only the size of the thing, but the places Castle are going. You think Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a big rock town? Or Poznan, Poland? Well, maybe Poznan, I don’t know, but the point is that San Francisco duo Castle remain committed to bringing their rock to ears two at a time and that commitment is beyond admirable. Their Canadian tour started last night in Montreal and will continue through the end of this month. Then they head to Europe for Desertfest Belgium 2016 and more besides. Then it’s a run down the West Coast alongside Mos Generator that’ll take them into December, when they go to Japan for what I’m pretty sure isn’t the first time.

They’re a hard band to get a grip on musically without seeing them live, and clearly they’re putting in their work to get in front of as many people as possible. Their new album, Welcome to the Graveyard, is out now.

To the PR wire:

CASTLE: Occult Rock Conjurors Announce West Coast Tour With Mos Generator This November; Band To Kick Off Canadian Trek This Week

The occult rock conjurors/perpetual road warriors in CASTLE today confirm a short run of Fall West Coast dates with Washington state riff rockers, Mos Generator. The trek will run from November 25th through December 4th and includes Year Of The Cobra on select dates.

The latest run of shows build upon CASTLE’s massive North American live takeover, which commenced on June 15th, included a three-week run of tour dates surrounding their appearance at the Maryland Doom Fest, and another month-long headlining tour that ran from July 17th through August 20th. The band will take to the streets yet again for a month’s worth of Canadian dates starting tomorrow in Quebec and rolling through September 30th in Toronto.

In October, CASTLE will bring their rituals to the stages of Europe for a fifteen-date trek which will include performances at Desertfest Belgium and Old Grave Fest V in Bucharest. In December the tireless duo will return to the stage, this time in Japan with Guevnna! More dates will be added in the coming weeks. Stay up to date and visit heavycastle.com or facebook.com/CastleSF.

CASTLE:
9/07/2016 Katacombes – Montreal, QC
9/08/2016 Envol at Macadam Fest – Quebec City, QC
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
9/14/2016 House Of Targ – Ottawa, ON
9/15/2016 The Asylum – Sudbury, ON
9/16/2016 Black Pirates Pub – Thunder Bay, ON
9/17/2016 Windsor Hotel – Winnipeg, MB
9/18/2016 SASC HQ – 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 The Office – London, ON
9/30/2016 Sneaky Dee’s – Toronto, ON w/ Cattle Decapitation
10/05/2016 Modra Vopice – Prague, CZ
10/06/2016 Durer Kert – Budapest, HU
10/07/2016 Old Grave Fest V – Bucharest, RO
10/09/2016 Death Disco – Athens, GR
10/11/2016 Titty Twister – Parma, IT w/ Universe217
10/12/2016 Blue Rose – Milan, IT w/ Universe217
10/13/2016 White Rabbit Club – Freiburg, DE w/ Universe217
10/15/2016 Little Devil – Tilburg, NL w/ Universe217
10/16/2016 Desertfest Belgium – Antwerp, BE
10/17/2016 AZ – Aachen, DE
10/18/2016 Urban Spree – Berlin, DE
10/19/2016 Coq d’Or – Olten, CH
10/20/2016 UT Connewitz – Leipzig, DE w/ Conan
10/22/2016 Truckstop Alaska – Gothenburg, SE w/ Year Of The Goat
10/23/2016 KB18 – Copenhagen, DK w/ Year Of The Goat
10/26/2016 Gerber3 – Weimar, DE
10/27/2016 Ciemna Strona Miasta – Wroclaw, PL
10/28/2016 U Bazyla – Poznan, PL
w/ MOS GENERATOR:
11/25/2016 Funhouse – Seattle, WA
11/26/2016 The Shakedown – Bellingham, WA w/ Year Of The Cobra
11/27/2016 Obsidian – Olympia, WA w/ Year Of The Cobra
11/28/2016 High Water Mark – Portland, OR
11/29/2016 Old Nick’s – Eugene, OR
11/30/2016 G Street – Grant’s Pass, OR
12/01/2016 Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA
12/02/2016 Blue Lagoon – Santa Cruz, CA
12/03/2016 The Garage – Ventura, CA
12/04 /2016The Complex – Los Angeles, CA
w/ Guevnna:
12/08/2016 El Puente – Yokohama, JP
12/09/2016 Earthdo – Tokyo, JP
12/10/2016Osaka – Hokage, JP
12/11/2016 Huck Finn – Nagoya, JP
12/12/2016 Ruby Room – Tokyo, JP

CASTLE continues to tour in support of their Welcome To The Graveyard full-length issued earlier this year via Ván Records. Captured by Billy Anderson (Sleep, Neurosis, Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth, Eyehategod, Ommadon et al) at Type Foundry Studios in Portland, Oregon, Welcome To The Graveyard is currently available at THIS LOCATION.

http://www.heavycastle.com
http://www.facebook.com/CastleSF
http://ww.twitter.com/heavycastle
http://www.facebook.com/Vánrecs/
http://www.Ván-records.de

Castle, “Flash of the Pentagram” official video

Note: I don’t think there’s much Castle do these days without announcing a coast-to-coast tour. Castle go grocery shopping and it turns into a two-week run. Castle go put gas in the van and do 10 dates in California. Whatever it is, the thrash-doom two-piece have a tendency to make a string of gigs out of it. It’s kind of become their thing. So when they announce the July 12 release of their fourth album, Welcome to the Graveyard, through Ván Records, it only makes sense there’d be a corresponding tour to go with it. Because what’s one more?

Castle head out on the first of what will no doubt be several runs to support the Billy Anderson-captured Welcome to the Graveyard in mid-June, which is plenty of time for them to gig their way East to take part in Maryland Doom Fest 2016 in Frederick, MD. Not a doubt in my mind that’ll be a good time.

The PR wire brings details and dates:

CASTLE: Doom-Tinged Metal Unit Reveals Album Details + US Tour Dates Confirmed

Doom-tinged metal unit CASTLE is pleased to announce the release of their 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 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. Welcome To The Graveyard is set for official unveiling July 12th.

Leading up to the release of Welcome To The Graveyard, CASTLE will embark on an eighteen-date headlining tour from June 15th through July 2nd with an included stop at this year’s edition of the Maryland Doom Fest where the band will be performing alongside The Obsessed, Mos Generator and others. Expect more North American dates in support of Welcome To The Graveyard to be announced in the coming weeks.

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

http://www.heavycastle.com
http://www.facebook.com/CastleSF
http://ww.twitter.com/heavycastle
http://www.facebook.com/Vánrecs/
http://www.ván-records.de

Castle, “Evil Ways” official video

One thing that Heavy Temple bassist/vocalist High Priestess Nighthawk doesn’t mention in the update on the Philly trio’s impending second EP below is that their first release, the 2014 self-titled EP (review here) released through Ván Records, has been made available as a name-your-price download while they continue work on the follow-up. It can currently be grabbed at will via their Bandcamp or on the embedded player below.

Very interested to hear what Nighthawk and company have come up with on the new recording. Since that self-titled came out, she’s had a complete revamping of lineup, bringing in drummer Siren Tempestas and guitarist Archbishop Barghest (nommes de guerre respected via request) after operating for a time as a duo. In addition to elaborating on the progress for the next offering, Heavy Temple also note two upcoming appearances worth extra emphasis: at Vultures of Volume II in Maryland and the Shadow Woods Metal Fest in Pennsylvania, both in Sept.

Info follows:

Our new EP is loosely based on the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, and the novels’ parallels in my own life. We’ve recorded 4 tracks so far, not sure if there are going to be more.

Some of the music was written while we were still a two piece. We were prepared to record as such, but decidedly, the guitar is almost a necessary part of the Heavy Temple sound.

As always, the ringmaster is myself, High Priestess Nighthawk. Our new drummer is Siren Tempestas, and our new guitarist is Archbishop Barghest. (May sound silly, but we all prefer not to be called by name, diggin’ on the anonymity thing).

There are some riffs in the 2nd EP that appear in the 1st EP, part of the interwoven sonic tapestry, if you will. So they could potentially be listened to as one album.

As for shows, the two big ones we have coming up are Vultures of Volume (opening Saturday’s festivities), and Shadow Woods Metal Fest, which is the weekend of September 25th.

https://www.facebook.com/HeavyTemple
https://heavytemple.bandcamp.com/

Heavy Temple, Heavy Temple (2014)

San Francisco heavy metallers Castle are headed overseas this week to start a European tour this Thursday at Heavy Days in Doomtown in Copenhagen. To mark the occasion, they have a new Billy Anderson-recorded 7″ out on Ván Records with the rather foreboding title Deadhand Hexagram that features former Witch Mountain vocalist Uta Plotkin on viola for the B-side in what I’m pretty sure is her first recorded performance since leaving the aforementioned Portland outfit. I’m not sure how many copies of the single have been pressed, but word is “limited,” so, you know, probably a limited number. Circa “not that many.”

“Deadhand Hexagram” itself is streamable on the player below, and the band sent the news of the new release and complete tour dates down the PR wire:

CASTLE Announce European Tour / Premiere New Single

San Francisco doom tinged heavy metallers CASTLE have announced a string of European dates including appearances at Heavy Days in Doomtown Fest in Copenhagen, Denmark on April 30 and Van Records Acherontic Arts Fest in Oberhausen, Germany on May 1.

Following a busy winter and spring touring Stateside in support of last year’s ‘Under Siege’, including an appearance at the 2015 SXSW Festival in Austin, TX, CASTLE are returning to Europe in support of their upcoming single “Deadhand Hexagram” b/w “Be My Ghost (Reprise)” scheduled for release via Van Records for the beginning of the tour on April 30th.

Recorded by Billy Anderson at Everything Hz in Portland in November 2014, the limited edition 7” features the new track, “Deadhand Hexagram” along with a re-working of their song ‘Be My Ghost (Reprise)’ using only guitar, vocal and viola, supplied courtesy of former Witch Mountain vocalist, Uta Plotkin.

The single ‘Deadhand Hexagram’ can be heard at the link

https://soundcloud.com/heavycastle/deadhand-hexagram

30/4 Copenhagen, DK – Heavy Days In Doomtown Fest
01/5 Oberhausen, GER – Acherontic Arts Fest
02/5 Leiden, NL – Gebr. de Nobel
03/5 Tilburg, NL – Little Devil
04/5 Freiburg, GER – Slow Club
06/5 Mungia, SP – Mungiarocks
08/5 Udine, IT – Cas’aupa
09/5 Nasice, HR – Moby Dick
10/5 Bucharest, RO – Club Fabrica
11/5 Budapest, HU – Dürer Kert
13/5 Prague, CZ – Exit Us
14/5 Wroclaw, PL – Liverpool
15/5 Zielona Gora, PL – 4 Róze dla Lucienne
16/5 Poznan, PL – Pod Minoga
17/5 Szczecin, PL – Rocker
18/5 Hamburg, GER – Hafenklang
19/5 Berlin, GER – Cortina Bob
22/5 Horst, NL – Babouche
23/5 London, UK – Underworld
19/6 Salt Lake City, US, Crucial Fest

https://heavycastle.bandcamp.com/album/deadhand-hexagram-b-w-be-my-ghost-reprise
www.heavycastle.com
www.facebook.com/CastleSF

Castle, “Deadhand Hexagram”

After touring the West Coast last month with Lord Dying in support of their 2014 full-length, Under Siege, San Francisco genre-blenders Castle are set to head out again, this time exclusively in California. There aren’t many states in the union where you could do 14 dates reasonably all within their borders — maybe Texas if you want to play some gigs in some crazy-ass places — but looking at Castle‘s itinerary, it looks legit. I wouldn’t mind seeing them in Palm Desert, or in Oakland or L.A. with Borracho. Really anywhere would be fine.

Under Siege came out in May on Prosthetic Records in the US and Ván Records in Europe. Dates for the tour and Castle‘s video for “Evil Ways” follow:

CASTLE announce “California Cult” Tour

Thrash inspired Doom Metallers CASTLE have announced plans for their “California Cult” tour – an all California headlining trek beginning on January 16th, 2015 in Riverside, CA.

Following a month long Canadian headlining tour and a western US tour alongside Lord Dying, the “California Cult” tour will see CASTLE play to 15 cities across their native state in support of their most recent album “Under Siege”, released earlier this year. You can watch their newest music video for the fitting single “Evil Ways” below.

Part of the Castle “California Cult” tour – Jan 29th @ The Golden Bull in Oakland w/ DC’s Borracho and Jan 30th @Five Star Bar in LA w/ Borracho, Behold! The Monolith and The Love Below… heavy/heavy.

1/16 Riverside, CA – Back to the Grind
1/17 Palm Desert, CA – Schmidy’s
1/18 San Diego, CA – Tower Bar
1/19 Anaheim, CA – The Doll Hut
1/20 San Luis Obispo, CA – TBD
1/22 San Francisco, CA – The Eagle
1/23 Sacramento, CA – The Colony
1/24 Dunsmuir, CA – Spirits
1/25 Redding, CA – Bombays
1/27 Santa Cruz, CA – Blue Lagoon
1/28 San Jose, CA – The Rock Shop
1/29 Oakland, CA – Golden Bull
1/30 Los Angeles, CA – Five Star Bar
1/31 Ventura, CA – The Garage

http://www.heavycastle.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CastleSF
http://heavycastle.bigcartel.com/

Castle, “Evil Ways” official video

Italian cult doomers Caronte will release their second album, Church of Shamanic Goetia, on Oct. 31 via German imprint Ván Records. Details have yet to surface about the record, which follows a 2013 split with Doomraiser and Caronte‘s 2012 debut LP, Ascension, as well as their 2011 first EP, Ghost Owl, but the four-piece have cut out the middle man and gotten right to the heart of what really matters — i.e., the music — in releasing the new song, “Temple of Eagles,” along with its mystically-themed lyrics. A sample verse:

Along the left hand’s path
I climb through the wormhole
every man has the cosmos within
I’ll keep on expanding to reconnect with it

Yeah, it’s like that. Nothing on Caronte‘s Ascension topped 10 minutes long, so however indicative it might be of the rest of Church of Shamanic Goetia, “Temple of Eagles” is the longest album cut the Parma unit have put out to date. I guess we’ll see how the rest of the record plays out when the time comes. Until then, “Temple of Eagles” feels less Electric Wizard-y than some of what Caronte have proffered before, which bodes well for their coming more into their own sound, all the more since it’s the first audio from the album to be released. More to come, I’m sure.

Enjoy:

Caronte, “Temple of Eagles”

NEW SONG, NEW VIDEO

We are proud to announce the release date of our new album, “CHURCH OF SHAMANIC GOETIA” which will be released by Van Records. The release date is 31/10/2014 for all Europe.

This is the first extract from the album. Thank you all for the support you have always given. Now take a few minutes, get something to smoke and listen.

Soon more news about the release and the dates of our upcoming live performances.

Caronte on Thee Facebooks

Ván Records

It’s a cavernous and mystical sound that Heavy Temple have conjured for their self-titled debut EP. After impressing with a single for “Unholy Communion” last year — that song is also presented third of the extended three cuts on Heavy Temple and is out as a cassingle via Sarlacc Productions — the Philadelphia outfit were picked up by Germany’s Ván Records for the vinyl and digipak CD issue of this more complete first outing, and it’s an endorsement of no small consequence, Ván having long since proved the mettle of its tastes via picking up cult-minded acts like Year of the Goat and The Devil’s Blood. Heavy Temple — here a trio but now a duo with bassist/vocalist Elyse “High Priestess Nighthawk” Mitchell as the sole remaining founder — present a more laid back style of grooving than either of those two, but remain plenty heavy nonetheless across “Dirty Ghost” (8:17), “Legendary Conversations with Ants” (7:31) and the aforementioned “Unholy Communion” (13:15) and offer atmosphere to match the intermittent full-thrust tonal heft. They are, in fact, notably cohesive  in their approach, and particularly for their first time out, Heavy Temple seem to arrive with a firm notion of their intent, what they want to sound like and how they want to achieve it. Mitchell‘s voice is dynamic and her approach shifts smoothly between “Dirty Ghost” and “Legendary Conversations with Ants” before delivering its most powerful performance on the closer, and in guitarist Shawn “Rattlesnake” Rambles and drummer Andy “Bearadactyl” Martin (also of Maple Forum alums Clamfight), she had a formidable complement with which to establish the range heard in these songs.

About those songs: They are spacious, psychedelic, heavy and they manage to avoid much of the cult rock cliché while proving both immersive and memorable over the course of Heavy Temple‘s 29-minute span. Working together as a debut EP, they more than succeed in giving the band’s audience a sense of what Heavy Temple want to do moving forward, and whether it’s the quiet doom blues in “Legendary Conversations with Ants” that gives way to a slow-motion effects-drenched freakout led by Rambles‘ guitar or the jammy bliss that emerges at the end of “Unholy Communion,” they retain their hold of the proceedings and excellently showcase the potential for what the band might or might have become going forward. “Dirty Ghost” commences with an otherworldly volume swell — minimal, quiet — before gradually unfolding itself with Martin‘s drums and Mitchell‘s bass and vocals, and it’s not until well past the halfway point of its eight-minute run that it finally explodes into full-on psych-grunge heft, like if someone wanted to turn peak-era Soundgarden production into a religion. That patience becomes a central element as Heavy Temple plays out, and the trio are just as likely to ride out a loud part as a quiet one, not shying either from crafting a void or filling it with distortion. The malleability of Mitchell‘s voice between the sultry croon in the first minutes of “Dirty Ghost” and the rawer shouting at the apex of “Unholy Communion” — the EP flowing smoothly between the two; something else that bodes well for a full-length — is another major asset working in their favor, and the stoner-mass of “Legendary Conversations with Ants,” while apparently more worldly in its lyric than the title might have you believe, executes a subtle linear build that ends with some classic doom riffing that bleeds right into the start of “Unholy Communion,” the whole release tying together seamlessly.

The first couple minutes of “Unholy Communion” are dedicated to building up tension, but at about 2:50, the song opens up and begins a payoff that will carry it through its midpoint, where it breaks to minimal ambience to set the stage for the EP’s final build and ultimate heavy psych payoff, Rambles‘ soloing meshing with layers of effects swirl that still keep enough room in the mix to sound human-made, though by then all three sound completely engrossed in the stirring concoction, even as they emerge from it for the big-riff finish and last-second string epilogue. Whatever Heavy Temple do from here is bound to be vastly different. I don’t know whether Mitchell intends to form a new trio or keep the band as a two-piece — she’s currently joined by drummer Saint Columbidae — but in any case, the change from the guitar, bass/vocals and drums lineup here is sure to manifest itself in subsequent output, even if her songwriting remains at the core. With that in mind, Heavy Temple may or may not be telling of the band’s future, and one would wonder about releasing it at all but for the fact that when a label like Ván comes calling, you answer. If this EP is to be Heavy Temple‘s beginning point, it starts them with a tumult marked by material of striking quality. It’s a familiar enough story for bands working under a principle songwriter, and if that’s to be the tale of Heavy Temple, the hope is they can find consistency in the chaos. Taken on its own merits, however, Heavy Temple is among the best short releases I’ve heard so far this year, and if it can serve as even the most rudimentary standard of quality from which the band can expand their sound, then they’re going to be just fine. Point is, even just in Mitchell‘s performance there’s potential here and a lot of it. How she handles that and what she does with it the next time out will be a big tell in terms of Heavy Temple‘s longer-term prospects, and either way, it seems likely that their sophomore studio outing will be as much a debut as this one. A live release in the interim would go a long way in giving a look at where Heavy Temple are headed.

Heavy Temple, Heavy Temple (2014)

Heavy Temple on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Temple on Bandcamp

Ván Records

The label in the center of both sides of Death Alley‘s debut 7″, Over Under b/w Dead Man’s Bones, is grooved. It looks like if you were to put the needle there, past the songs themselves, something would play. I haven’t tried it, I guess because it seems like a stupid way to break your record player, but I take it as a sign that the Amsterdam four-piece — which features former members of Mühr and The Devil’s Blood — have more to say than they’ve seen fit to offer with the two tracks on the single itself. More to come, in other words. That may or may not be the case, but either way, the proto-punk-fueled loud rockers make a raucous entry on this debut, not even stopping for a breath along the way in either “Over Under” or “Dead Man’s Bones,” but peppering the rush with some heavy rock groove all the same. Their sound is natural, and the style is retro, though they avoid the trap of reinterpreting ’71-’74 boogie via Graveyard by going further into punk and pre-thrash, resulting in a sound that’s full of movement but less derivative than some of Death Alley‘s history-minded contemporaries.

For a relatively new band who just got their start last year, they know where they’re coming from, and their self-descriptor, “protopunk with a hint of psychedelics,” proves accurate across this single, which tops just over eight minutes. That’s not necessarily the whole story though, because while there’s an underlying swirl to “Over Under” and the song rounds out with some surprising vocal harmonies in a still-full-throttle bridge before returning to the winding style of the main riff to close, surely enough giving the impression of Death Alley aiming for more than just the place where neo-heavy fuzz and traditional punk rock meet. More than anything, “Over Under” is a feverish rush, and on the flip side, “Death Man’s Bones” takes that even further into distinct Motörheadery, capturing well that moment where gritty metal began to move away from heavy rock and punk and into something new. “Over Under”‘s parts flowed easily, but “Dead Man’s Bones” is more occupied with shred-topped chaos, though a tempo downshift in the second half brings more vocal intricacy and a swaggering guitar solo. Once again, there’s more going on with Over Under b/w Dead Man’s Bones than Death Alley are keen to show on the surface.

Ván Records has the single coupled with a Death Alley poster, and the band is set to play Roadburn‘s official pre-show, the Hard Rock Hideout, on Wednesday, April 9, in Tilburg, so it seems reasonable to expect more to come from the nascent Dutch outfit. As forewarning, their debut single rings loud and clear while hinting at future intrigue.

Death Alley, Over Under b/w Dead Man’s Bones (2014)

Death Alley on Thee Facebooks

Death Alley on Bandcamp

Death Alley at Ván Records