Castle – Blacklands (2012)

November 29, 2016

Blacklands is the second album from female-fronted occult metallers, Castle (who have, quite possibly, one of the simplest yet coolest band names ever). Blacklands is more towards the rockier side of doom, rather than falling off the edge into the void of sludge. The cover art here is very striking, and I find myself drawn to it. Despite its quasi-surrealism, it is fairly simplistic, however every time I study it, I pick out little extra details that I did not notice before.

The same can pretty much be said about Castle’s doomy occult rock. Throughout the catchiness of the riffs and vocals can be found nuanced little touches that really make all the difference. Female-fronted occult rock was overdone for a while, but this is definitely a stand out band in respect to that.