Castle – Evil Remains

 

 

Castle – Evil Remains
Hammerheart Records – 2024
Rock, Metal, Proto, Doom, Thrash
Rated: *****

We lost the big write-up we had finished about the Castle album that came out early September through Hammerheart Records. We felt we had written something worthwhile, which does not happen that often. At first we tried to recover the actual words and thoughts we had about Evil Remains. But it always fell short of the original piece. So, time passed by. Days turned into weeks and now we’re already in December. It’s not like mustard after the meal, cause we post about older albums on a regular basis and have no issue with that fact. In fact, we love it and we also mention albums from way back on occasion. This time however, we decided to go a different route. There is no way we can recall those words and convey our love for this album, the way they marry traditional metal, to proto doom, thrash and speed. The way the drums and guitars are able to conjure up the right kind of wickedness, so that the vocals can become the witchy marvel that they are… 

Instead, we will focus on stating what the seminal track is for this album in our humble opinion. The second track Nosferatu Nights. The way it manages to translate that darkness, to sound like a thousand bats flying are whirling around your head, to turn that doom sound so incredibly thrashy and grimy. And then those vocals, breathing life into the occult touched melody lines and with it, give so much room to those ever circling riffs and pounding drums. The middle bridge gives way to a small push forward to come back to those vocals, setting up for the final delivery and the final shifts, offering their minor takes on progressiveness for thrashy doom metal. So much power displayed in their ability to take the song everywhere, the vocals and the amount of layers it all involves. And that is what this album is all about, the different layers, the leads tumbling over each other, the confident vocals and that vile ominous atmosphere permeating the entire album. For indeed, Evil Remains…

(Written by JK)

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

 

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

Castle
Mirror Queen
Slomosa
Ridge
Warpriest
Sweet
Night Verses
Sharif Dumani
Shun
Sidewinder

Monday Monday! A week full of promise... Right? After very annoying stuff early in the week, that I still need to figure out how to deal with properly, I only had Thursday to really do some work. Rent paying work and for Stoner HiVe. Felt happy about the amount of work I got done that day, saw that the cool Ronny sent in a review for the ТЯГА album, and thought, let’s save the Castle piece for Friday and put Ronny's work up immediately. Around midday on Friday I wanted to send the rent paying stuff in to the editors and put Castle online. WTF! Nothing got saved and no old versions of the pieces were anywhere to be found. Man, was I steaming… Decided, just in time, to head for the forest instead of throwing the computer out the window… So, that’s why we did very little last week and I am uncertain about the amount this week. Cause it’s a hectic one for all the annoying stuff… But we shall try to do something… Enjoy yer week and go check out the bands above, they all rock hard!

Castle - 100 Eyes

Castle - 100 Eyes

They’re about to release their new album Evil Remains and they’re about to hit the European streets for a wild tour! It’s San Fransisco’s Castle! Signed to Hammerheart Records the lead single 100 Eyes came out on June 14th. Accompanied by a cool vid it’s a righteous introduction to an amazing album! Get ready for Evil Remains and get groovy with 100 Eyes! But we must have a serious discussion with these crazies about the fact there are no Dutch dates on the tour! Grrrr!

PR wire:

Castle and Hammerheart Records are proud to present you the new song and video for "100 Eyes"! "100 Eyes" taken from the upcoming Castle album "Evil Remains", out 6 September 2024 on CD, LP and digital worldwide via Hammerheart Records.

Quote from singer/bassist Liz Blackwell:

"We're excited to be making and sharing music again. Our first release from the new album is a message and a reminder to eliminate the distractions that prevent oneself from being the master of your own mind. Our latest video pulled our artistic community together to film a visual representation of self-discovery and empowerment."

Tour:
09/09 Bamberg, DE - Live Club
10/09 Karlsruhe, DE - Kohi
11/09 Freiburg, DE - Slow Club
12/09 Marburg, DE - Knubbel
13/09 Weikersheim, DE - club W71
14/09 Leipzig, DE - Black Label
15/09 München, DE - Backstage
17/09 Düsseldorf, DE - Pitcher
18/09 Hamburg, DE - Logo
19/09 Oslo, NO - Vaterland
20/09 Gothenburg, SE - The Abyss
21/09 Malmo, SE - Plan B
22/09 Copenhagen, DK - Rahuset
23/09 Berlin, DE - Reset
24/09 Prague, CZ - Modrá Vopice
25/09 Vienna, AT - Viper Room
26/09 Ljubljana, SI - Channel Zero
28/09 Basel, CH - Hirscheneck
30/09 Aachen, DE - Wild Rover

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Number 16

 Number 16

We grooved and moved to 1968’s album Ballads Of The Godless on Number 17 and now we move on to do something much more heavy and metal on Number 16. An album that soared high on the Doom Charts and to which Bucky Brown stated: “ The album cements the band as its own distinguished brand of stoner meets heavy metal, especially within the Ripple catalog. Reinforced with indestructible Slayer-esque guitar tones, the three-piece lower a bridge of fuzzy hooks crossing a diabolic moat of molten metal.” Which means we had to put it on repeat ofcourse! And we did, and heard the lofty walls that girdled it in. This wall has gates of heavy metal. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces of riffs and massy hammers pounded intense rhythms and welded the bolts by the bassist that also brings forth the soaring, haunting, female vocals… On Number 16 we find!

Castle – Deal Thy Fate

Stoner HiVe’s Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Stoner HiVe’s

Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Greenleaf

Deville

Castle

Red Dragon Cartel

Daily Tompson

Well hello there! I did not expect to see you here. But thanks for joining and thanks for listening to all the cool stuff that is out there. We sure as hell can’t get enough of it! And we hope you can’t either! The new Daily Thompson for instance, out on Juno Records and MIG Music, is called Thirsty and messes around with grunge, hardrock and stoner making it all fuzzy, warm and psychedelic. It has something enormously laidback and we shall call it indie-stoner henceforth. Don’t hit us over the head for that. Or do, whatever tickles your fancy. Red Dragon Cartel brings us pure hardrock on their new album Patina! Out on Frontier Records. It’s Jake E. Lee and friends and you know that it can’t be wrong in that case! Or very very very wrong; and that’s alright as well! Castle has been soaring high on the Doom Charts this month. Bucky stated: “‘Deal Thy Fate’ cements Castle as its own distinguished brand of stoner meets heavy metal, especially within the Ripple catalog. Reinforced with indestructible Slayer-esque guitar tones, the threepiece lower a bridge of fuzzy hooks crossing a diabolic moat of molten metal.” Which means we had to put it on repeat ofcourse! Deville released Pigs With Gods through Fuzzorama and we already mentioned this intense muddy metal masterpiece in which we wallow! And then there’s Hear The Rivers! The new Greenleaf! Out on Napalm is continues where the last album left off. And thus is gives us their very own groove and energy, it’s their bounce, it’s their stomp and you cannot help but bounce and stomp along. Riding that green water rapid makes everything alright! All the time! So, you know what to do. You need to check’m out! Check’m all out!