Review by Jophelerx on March 24, 2026.

San Francisco's Castle, a project born of a collaboration between guitarist Mat Davis and bassist/vocalist Liz Blackwell, seems by its emergence at the beginning of the 2010s to have been riding the wave created by female-fronted doom/occult rock acts like Jex Thoth, The Devil's Blood, and Blood Ceremony, but upon paying closer attention, one may realize that the band's ethos and underlying musical foundations have more in common with acts like Christian Mistress or even something like Hour of 13 than it does with Jex Thoth. Castle is clearly a project born of inspiration by the two primary songwriters/musicians, one which just happens to feature a female vocalist rather than using the concept as a gimmick, novelty, or worse, a way to appeal to the lowest common denominator via over-sexualization (not that any of the aforementioned acts are particularly guilty of that, but it's certainly happened in the genre). Instead, Castle feels like more of a jam band inspired by the early days of heavy metal in the 1970s, primarily Black Sabbath and perhaps a dash of Pentagram, a three-piece with a very stripped-down, DIY aesthetic that's refreshing in an era full of overly-polished, often bloated releases that frequently felt like they needed to fill as much of the disc's 80-minute capacity as possible. At 8 tracks and just under 36 minutes, Castle's sophomore effort Blacklands never overstays its welcome and is about as organic and respectful of the listener's time as any release in the genre I've heard from the 21st century.

In fact, while the band does make use of some occult lyrical themes and imagery, it feels more like an afterthought and an homage to the forefathers of the genre than any kind of gimmick or real attempt to push any kind of ideology. The band is all about musical ideas first, creating an atmosphere that's very reminiscent of autumn, particularly a dark night around Halloween, but never goes into truly macabre or morose territory, keeping things fun and energetic without a need to go deeper, keeping things simple because it knows you're here for the guitar work anyway, and on that it delivers in spades. Mat Davis is an axeman who knows his instrument well, keeps his playing tight and clearly is very talented but never even slightly showy or over-indulgent, very much in the vein of Tony Iommi, though he does up the ante by usually having two guitar melodies (riffs/leads most of the time, though occasional dual lead harmonies pop up during the solo sections), all of which are handled by Davis as far as I'm aware. The songwriting here is top-notch for the most part, striking an excellent balance between keeping things engaging without ever letting an idea fester for longer than it needs to. Blackwell's vocals are the icing on the cake, but they're certainly very tasty icing, with her recognizable style, one that's low, gruff, and wild, while still retaining a hint of allure and mystery, similar to Christine Davis of Christian Mistress but not quite as raspy and smoky. She doesn't display a big range or a lot of technical ability, but she makes up for that with oodles of character and passion, much in the way Ozzy worked so well in the context of Sabbath but would have been out of place just about anywhere else.

The only real low point of the album is the track "Storm Below the Mountain," where Mat Davis handles vocal duties for some reason. He is not a talented vocalist, in terms of technical skill or charisma or otherwise, and even moreso it feels like his decision to focus on vocals detracts from the guitar work, which is noticeably less complex and "finished" here, for lack of a better term, with the main riff a very staccato gallop that almost gives me a "pirate metal" vibe a la something like Alestorm. It makes sense given that the band clearly feels like a jam band in which most of the compositions were probably born of live experimentation. I just don't know why they saw fit to include this on the album when it's clearly a lesser thing compared to the rest of what we have here. Perhaps they simply didn't have any other material ready and, given the album's already short runtime, needed to pad it out. It certainly hearkens back to the early Sabbath days in that regard, where already short albums featured padding due to being contractually obligated to release an album or more a year. Still, that's an element of the early-to-mid 70s I could have done without.

Highlights, on the other hand, include opener "Ever Hunter" which features a driving yet slightly ominous main riff that plays with rhythm ever so slightly to give everything a playful, unpredictable quality that shows what this duo (plus drummer Al McCartney, who does a good job but doesn't seem to have been particularly involved in the songwriting process given the band's consistent sound across multiple drummers) are really capable of. "Corpse Candles" follows things up with another banger, a similar opening riff that leads into an even more interesting and distinctive main guitar melody that starts with a slow-ish gallop (canter?) and has a weird bit of noodling for the riff's second half that's unexpected but just works really well. It's hard to describe accurately as someone who's not a guitar player, but it's a really memorable riff, easily the most interesting thing on the album, and overall, this is probably the coolest number here, with everything just coming together in a way that stands out while still playing to the band's strengths. Title track "Blacklands" is the third great song here (though everything else besides "Storm Below the Mountain" is at least solid), with a trancelike, ritualistic atmosphere that really draws you in and rivals "Corpse Candles" in terms of overall impact. While I think the guitar work on "Corpse Candles" stands out more, here Blackwell's vocals are at a high point, with some gorgeously shamanic vocal lines, a rare amount of versatility in terms of tone and range of performance, and some cool lyrics such as the second verse, "Faces of a vast and somber dream haunt the past with perfect grief // Listen to the hiss of time outside enslave the paradox with lies." It sounds like Blackwell even has some layered vocal tracks in the chorus (on "Evil Rising!"), which is interesting since most of the tracks have more of a live feel to them (the only other point on the album where I noticed multiple vocal lines is in "Curses of the Priests" where Davis and Blackwell share vocal duties).

Overall, this is a strong release from a band that's a bit of a throwback but ultimately marches to the beat of their own drum. While not a big stylistic departure from their 2011 debut In Witch Order, this one has had more of a lasting impact on me over the last decade and a half or so, being something I've continued to come back to and remember, while with the debut I always have a good time with it but rarely find myself remembering the tracks for very long afterwards. To call them a heavy/doom metal band would be doing them a disservice, I think, since they're clearly rooted in an era from before such distinctions were around, playing a style with both feet stuck in the 70s, and playing something that's clearly just a result of musicians playing the things that feel natural to them. They don't even really feel like a band that was specifically influenced by Sabbath, as such bands generally feel much more one-dimensional - rather, like some of the early doom bands of the late 70s and early 80s (Cirith Ungol and Saint Vitus come to mind), they feel like a band who shared influences with Sabbath and drew similar musical conclusions, allowing them to have a similar sense of musical freedom and experimentation without being beholden to what's expected of a "doom metal" band as such. Perhaps Davis and Blackwell were simply born too late, but in a genre where very few newer releases have really grabbed me, Blacklands is something I think fans of 70s proto-metal would do well to heed.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Jophelerx on March 24, 2026.

San Francisco's Castle, a project born of a collaboration between guitarist Mat Davis and bassist/vocalist Liz Blackwell, seems by its emergence at the beginning of the 2010s to have been riding the wave created by female-fronted doom/occult rock acts like Jex Thoth, The Devil's Blood, and Blood Ceremony, but upon paying closer attention, one may realize that the band's ethos and underlying musical foundations have more in common with acts like Christian Mistress or even something like Hour of 13 than it does with Jex Thoth. Castle is clearly a project born of inspiration by the two primary songwriters/musicians, one which just happens to feature a female vocalist rather than using the concept as a gimmick, novelty, or worse, a way to appeal to the lowest common denominator via over-sexualization (not that any of the aforementioned acts are particularly guilty of that, but it's certainly happened in the genre). Instead, Castle feels like more of a jam band inspired by the early days of heavy metal in the 1970s, primarily Black Sabbath and perhaps a dash of Pentagram, a three-piece with a very stripped-down, DIY aesthetic that's refreshing in an era full of overly-polished, often bloated releases that frequently felt like they needed to fill as much of the disc's 80-minute capacity as possible. At 8 tracks and just under 36 minutes, Castle's sophomore effort Blacklands never overstays its welcome and is about as organic and respectful of the listener's time as any release in the genre I've heard from the 21st century.

In fact, while the band does make use of some occult lyrical themes and imagery, it feels more like an afterthought and an homage to the forefathers of the genre than any kind of gimmick or real attempt to push any kind of ideology. The band is all about musical ideas first, creating an atmosphere that's very reminiscent of autumn, particularly a dark night around Halloween, but never goes into truly macabre or morose territory, keeping things fun and energetic without a need to go deeper, keeping things simple because it knows you're here for the guitar work anyway, and on that it delivers in spades. Mat Davis is an axeman who knows his instrument well, keeps his playing tight and clearly is very talented but never even slightly showy or over-indulgent, very much in the vein of Tony Iommi, though he does up the ante by usually having two guitar melodies (riffs/leads most of the time, though occasional dual lead harmonies pop up during the solo sections), all of which are handled by Davis as far as I'm aware. The songwriting here is top-notch for the most part, striking an excellent balance between keeping things engaging without ever letting an idea fester for longer than it needs to. Blackwell's vocals are the icing on the cake, but they're certainly very tasty icing, with her recognizable style, one that's low, gruff, and wild, while still retaining a hint of allure and mystery, similar to Christine Davis of Christian Mistress but not quite as raspy and smoky. She doesn't display a big range or a lot of technical ability, but she makes up for that with oodles of character and passion, much in the way Ozzy worked so well in the context of Sabbath but would have been out of place just about anywhere else.

The only real low point of the album is the track "Storm Below the Mountain," where Mat Davis handles vocal duties for some reason. He is not a talented vocalist, in terms of technical skill or charisma or otherwise, and even moreso it feels like his decision to focus on vocals detracts from the guitar work, which is noticeably less complex and "finished" here, for lack of a better term, with the main riff a very staccato gallop that almost gives me a "pirate metal" vibe a la something like Alestorm. It makes sense given that the band clearly feels like a jam band in which most of the compositions were probably born of live experimentation. I just don't know why they saw fit to include this on the album when it's clearly a lesser thing compared to the rest of what we have here. Perhaps they simply didn't have any other material ready and, given the album's already short runtime, needed to pad it out. It certainly hearkens back to the early Sabbath days in that regard, where already short albums featured padding due to being contractually obligated to release an album or more a year. Still, that's an element of the early-to-mid 70s I could have done without.

Highlights, on the other hand, include opener "Ever Hunter" which features a driving yet slightly ominous main riff that plays with rhythm ever so slightly to give everything a playful, unpredictable quality that shows what this duo (plus drummer Al McCartney, who does a good job but doesn't seem to have been particularly involved in the songwriting process given the band's consistent sound across multiple drummers) are really capable of. "Corpse Candles" follows things up with another banger, a similar opening riff that leads into an even more interesting and distinctive main guitar melody that starts with a slow-ish gallop (canter?) and has a weird bit of noodling for the riff's second half that's unexpected but just works really well. It's hard to describe accurately as someone who's not a guitar player, but it's a really memorable riff, easily the most interesting thing on the album, and overall, this is probably the coolest number here, with everything just coming together in a way that stands out while still playing to the band's strengths. Title track "Blacklands" is the third great song here (though everything else besides "Storm Below the Mountain" is at least solid), with a trancelike, ritualistic atmosphere that really draws you in and rivals "Corpse Candles" in terms of overall impact. While I think the guitar work on "Corpse Candles" stands out more, here Blackwell's vocals are at a high point, with some gorgeously shamanic vocal lines, a rare amount of versatility in terms of tone and range of performance, and some cool lyrics such as the second verse, "Faces of a vast and somber dream haunt the past with perfect grief // Listen to the hiss of time outside enslave the paradox with lies." It sounds like Blackwell even has some layered vocal tracks in the chorus (on "Evil Rising!"), which is interesting since most of the tracks have more of a live feel to them (the only other point on the album where I noticed multiple vocal lines is in "Curses of the Priests" where Davis and Blackwell share vocal duties).

Overall, this is a strong release from a band that's a bit of a throwback but ultimately marches to the beat of their own drum. While not a big stylistic departure from their 2011 debut In Witch Order, this one has had more of a lasting impact on me over the last decade and a half or so, being something I've continued to come back to and remember, while with the debut I always have a good time with it but rarely find myself remembering the tracks for very long afterwards. To call them a heavy/doom metal band would be doing them a disservice, I think, since they're clearly rooted in an era from before such distinctions were around, playing a style with both feet stuck in the 70s, and playing something that's clearly just a result of musicians playing the things that feel natural to them. They don't even really feel like a band that was specifically influenced by Sabbath, as such bands generally feel much more one-dimensional - rather, like some of the early doom bands of the late 70s and early 80s (Cirith Ungol and Saint Vitus come to mind), they feel like a band who shared influences with Sabbath and drew similar musical conclusions, allowing them to have a similar sense of musical freedom and experimentation without being beholden to what's expected of a "doom metal" band as such. Perhaps Davis and Blackwell were simply born too late, but in a genre where very few newer releases have really grabbed me, Blacklands is something I think fans of 70s proto-metal would do well to heed.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Jophelerx on March 24, 2026.

San Francisco's Castle, a project born of a collaboration between guitarist Mat Davis and bassist/vocalist Liz Blackwell, seems by its emergence at the beginning of the 2010s to have been riding the wave created by female-fronted doom/occult rock acts like Jex Thoth, The Devil's Blood, and Blood Ceremony, but upon paying closer attention, one may realize that the band's ethos and underlying musical foundations have more in common with acts like Christian Mistress or even something like Hour of 13 than it does with Jex Thoth. Castle is clearly a project born of inspiration by the two primary songwriters/musicians, one which just happens to feature a female vocalist rather than using the concept as a gimmick, novelty, or worse, a way to appeal to the lowest common denominator via over-sexualization (not that any of the aforementioned acts are particularly guilty of that, but it's certainly happened in the genre). Instead, Castle feels like more of a jam band inspired by the early days of heavy metal in the 1970s, primarily Black Sabbath and perhaps a dash of Pentagram, a three-piece with a very stripped-down, DIY aesthetic that's refreshing in an era full of overly-polished, often bloated releases that frequently felt like they needed to fill as much of the disc's 80-minute capacity as possible. At 8 tracks and just under 36 minutes, Castle's sophomore effort Blacklands never overstays its welcome and is about as organic and respectful of the listener's time as any release in the genre I've heard from the 21st century.

In fact, while the band does make use of some occult lyrical themes and imagery, it feels more like an afterthought and an homage to the forefathers of the genre than any kind of gimmick or real attempt to push any kind of ideology. The band is all about musical ideas first, creating an atmosphere that's very reminiscent of autumn, particularly a dark night around Halloween, but never goes into truly macabre or morose territory, keeping things fun and energetic without a need to go deeper, keeping things simple because it knows you're here for the guitar work anyway, and on that it delivers in spades. Mat Davis is an axeman who knows his instrument well, keeps his playing tight and clearly is very talented but never even slightly showy or over-indulgent, very much in the vein of Tony Iommi, though he does up the ante by usually having two guitar melodies (riffs/leads most of the time, though occasional dual lead harmonies pop up during the solo sections), all of which are handled by Davis as far as I'm aware. The songwriting here is top-notch for the most part, striking an excellent balance between keeping things engaging without ever letting an idea fester for longer than it needs to. Blackwell's vocals are the icing on the cake, but they're certainly very tasty icing, with her recognizable style, one that's low, gruff, and wild, while still retaining a hint of allure and mystery, similar to Christine Davis of Christian Mistress but not quite as raspy and smoky. She doesn't display a big range or a lot of technical ability, but she makes up for that with oodles of character and passion, much in the way Ozzy worked so well in the context of Sabbath but would have been out of place just about anywhere else.

The only real low point of the album is the track "Storm Below the Mountain," where Mat Davis handles vocal duties for some reason. He is not a talented vocalist, in terms of technical skill or charisma or otherwise, and even moreso it feels like his decision to focus on vocals detracts from the guitar work, which is noticeably less complex and "finished" here, for lack of a better term, with the main riff a very staccato gallop that almost gives me a "pirate metal" vibe a la something like Alestorm. It makes sense given that the band clearly feels like a jam band in which most of the compositions were probably born of live experimentation. I just don't know why they saw fit to include this on the album when it's clearly a lesser thing compared to the rest of what we have here. Perhaps they simply didn't have any other material ready and, given the album's already short runtime, needed to pad it out. It certainly hearkens back to the early Sabbath days in that regard, where already short albums featured padding due to being contractually obligated to release an album or more a year. Still, that's an element of the early-to-mid 70s I could have done without.

Highlights, on the other hand, include opener "Ever Hunter" which features a driving yet slightly ominous main riff that plays with rhythm ever so slightly to give everything a playful, unpredictable quality that shows what this duo (plus drummer Al McCartney, who does a good job but doesn't seem to have been particularly involved in the songwriting process given the band's consistent sound across multiple drummers) are really capable of. "Corpse Candles" follows things up with another banger, a similar opening riff that leads into an even more interesting and distinctive main guitar melody that starts with a slow-ish gallop (canter?) and has a weird bit of noodling for the riff's second half that's unexpected but just works really well. It's hard to describe accurately as someone who's not a guitar player, but it's a really memorable riff, easily the most interesting thing on the album, and overall, this is probably the coolest number here, with everything just coming together in a way that stands out while still playing to the band's strengths. Title track "Blacklands" is the third great song here (though everything else besides "Storm Below the Mountain" is at least solid), with a trancelike, ritualistic atmosphere that really draws you in and rivals "Corpse Candles" in terms of overall impact. While I think the guitar work on "Corpse Candles" stands out more, here Blackwell's vocals are at a high point, with some gorgeously shamanic vocal lines, a rare amount of versatility in terms of tone and range of performance, and some cool lyrics such as the second verse, "Faces of a vast and somber dream haunt the past with perfect grief // Listen to the hiss of time outside enslave the paradox with lies." It sounds like Blackwell even has some layered vocal tracks in the chorus (on "Evil Rising!"), which is interesting since most of the tracks have more of a live feel to them (the only other point on the album where I noticed multiple vocal lines is in "Curses of the Priests" where Davis and Blackwell share vocal duties).

Overall, this is a strong release from a band that's a bit of a throwback but ultimately marches to the beat of their own drum. While not a big stylistic departure from their 2011 debut In Witch Order, this one has had more of a lasting impact on me over the last decade and a half or so, being something I've continued to come back to and remember, while with the debut I always have a good time with it but rarely find myself remembering the tracks for very long afterwards. To call them a heavy/doom metal band would be doing them a disservice, I think, since they're clearly rooted in an era from before such distinctions were around, playing a style with both feet stuck in the 70s, and playing something that's clearly just a result of musicians playing the things that feel natural to them. They don't even really feel like a band that was specifically influenced by Sabbath, as such bands generally feel much more one-dimensional - rather, like some of the early doom bands of the late 70s and early 80s (Cirith Ungol and Saint Vitus come to mind), they feel like a band who shared influences with Sabbath and drew similar musical conclusions, allowing them to have a similar sense of musical freedom and experimentation without being beholden to what's expected of a "doom metal" band as such. Perhaps Davis and Blackwell were simply born too late, but in a genre where very few newer releases have really grabbed me, Blacklands is something I think fans of 70s proto-metal would do well to heed.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Vladimir on July 16, 2024.

If there is one thing that doom metal is good at, it's that it always makes you feel like you are wandering the graveyard, or descending down a crypt, or witnessing a demon summoning ritual. Of course, there is a lot more to it that a subgenre such as this encompasses through the atmosphere, and you will most likely come across some psychedelic and hypnotizing albums with a slight retro vibe to it, which can instantly hook you into it. Such is the case with the band Castle, with their sixth full-length album Evil Remains which is due to be released on September 6th, 2024 via Hammerheart Records. Grab your crucifix and be prepared to enter the wicked world that lies beyond the grave.

Kicking things off with 'Queen Of Death', the curtain falls down to unveil pure evil expressed through doom and gloom in the slow and wicked riffs, mid-tempo drums and co-joint vocals of Mat Davis and Elizabeth Blackwell, with every musical bit crafted from pure black magic and witchcraft. There are plenty of heavy and dark tunes on this album which are wonderfully elevated with the occult and psychedelic atmosphere on top of it, with every track taking it to the next level as both heaviness and darkness in music becomes more pronounced. Tracks like 'Nosferatu Nights' and 'Deja Voodoo' really go one step further by strengthening the established foundation of Evil Remains, and I must say that there is just a certain kind of beauty behind these devilish serenades clad in these powerful metallic harmonies that carry over from one track to another. It's evident that the album has a strong black magic factor to it, which defines one of its prime qualities, and what's great is that it's everlasting throughout its entirety. The further this story progresses, the more you feel sucked into its macabre and hypnotizing nature, constantly hooked from start to finish as if you are under a 'Black Spell', before you reach your 'Cold Grave'. Speaking of 'Black Spell', in comparison to the rest of the tracklist, this is a bit of a step in a different direction in terms of its execution, which leans more towards traditional heavy metal with some slight proto-doom elements, while still maintaining the dark occult vibe that flows through Castle's riff work. I like the fact that Evil Remains has an overall very intense feeling to it, which is pretty much like horror movie suspense in musical form, always building up to the climax of the ongoing events, with a grand sense of closure once it wraps up with the finale.

When it comes to the songwriting, it's met with plenty of simplicity that was nicely executed throughout the entire album by always keeping it tight and effective. There is a strong sense of stylistic consistency with each song on the album, but what's great about it is that it never feels boring or formulaic, because you will still feel incredibly invested in the album even during the second half as it gradually builds up towards the grand finale. The musical DNA of Castle is heavily rooted in classic doom metal like Pentagram, Saint Vitus and 70's Black Sabbath, but on a couple of moments I also felt a bit of The Devil's Blood and Coven in there as well, so it's got a variety of elements from all sorts of angles, from heavier rock to the doomiest metal, which is what really highlights the charm of this album. Aside from the musical output, even the "oldschool horror movie poster" styled cover art gives Evil Remains a very retro vibe to it, which is a really nice visual representation of what Castle provides on this album, that also gives throwback to the mid to late 70's and early 80's classic horror movies. Another big contribution to the retro vibe of the album is the production that has a very dry, thunderous and crunchy guitar sound, that nicely pronounces the solid performance and the heavy riff work of Castle.

Evil Remains is a very enjoyable doom metal album that gives plenty of good stuff worth checking out and I guarantee it's impossible to not get possessed by its wicked black spell. Castle's new album is an awesome thrill-ride that brings out the best of the occult and sinister elements that are quintessential for a subgenre such as this, and the band has successfully ticked all the boxes. Be sure to give this album a go, because you will definitely want to experience its bewitching majesty.

Rating: 8.6 out of 10