Amidst all the musical doom and gloom that this year has been unleashing so far, we have the band Castle returning with their sixth album "Evil Remains", which so far has been met with very positive critical feedback that praise its songwriting and vibe. Not long after I had reviewed the album, I got the chance to talk with the guitarist Mat Davis regarding their work on "Evil Remains", discussing the highly focused songwriting and the general direction that they were going with the new album. Make sure to bring a candlelight with you before entering the occult world of Castle, because you are about to embark on a journey from beyond the grave.

Vladimir

How are you doing Mat?

I am doing very well, thanks.

We're here because the new Castle album "Evil Remains" is more than a month away from being officially released, and so far, it's been surrounded by positive reviews praising its intense heaviness and macabre atmosphere. Considering it's been 6 years since your last album "Deal Thy Fate" was released, it's no wonder that the next album in line struck like a bolt of lightning. What can you tell me about the overall work on "Evil Remains"? What were you guys looking to get out the most from the songwriting process?

I think that it was natural kind of evolution in the writing itself, we started writing the record almost immediately Deal Thy Fate came out, so the writing for this record took almost the entire time, like over 5 years we worked on it, and that was something we hadn't done since the first record, in that we took much that and I find that when you let the songs breathe a bit, and then you come back on them and you keep working on them, it just kind of evolved. I would say that some of the songs on one of our records, like two through four or five, they changed over time as well, it's just the fact that we recorded them almost immediately after writing them, that's what you have on a record. After playing those songs a couple of hundred times live, they change overtime, the tempos change, the feel changes, even the way we use some of the chords, and the melodies change. And I found in this record that we were able to do that without the recording, being there off the top if you know what I mean, to kind of capture the songs after that. So, I was really happy with that, because even though it's cool to record your songs immediately after you write it as well, it doesn't really change the fact that it is what it is.

Yeah, but it's fresh.

Yeah, it's fresh, but this way it was that breathing room, it was something that we kind of enjoyed and then in the end, I think it serves the record.

That's a great decision you made, because I always that leaving a couple of years space between albums, like you said it gives room for songs to breathe and when you revisit to song, they are not as fresh as they were once you finished writing them, but sometimes you get to look back to see if the arrangements are good, are the lyrics for the song any good or if anything needs to be fixed. Nowadays a lot of artists just come up with their songs so quickly, they record it and release it in just couple of months, they will rely a lot on releasing singles rather than focusing on full-length albums, without giving them at least some time to stay in the oven a bit longer, if you know what I am saying.

Yeah, that's something we're doing, when we're working on a record, then it's a record. We've never really done singles, we've only put out a couple that were leftover tracks from records or the early version of a song that we put on a single, we're definitely gearing towards an entire record when we're working on it. The point you made there, there's little things where maybe the time lends itself, I would comment on Liz's vocals here because she was able to spend so much time on the melodies and that was a really big difference, I thought in the end she had a really strong vocal performance. I think she felt really inside the song, like she owned the melodies, the phrasing, the words and everything, it makes a difference to me and hopefully people that are into Castle, when they hear it, I think it's gonna be noticeable difference in just like the kind of extra power in the vocal, that really lends itself because of the time we left the songs.

You made a good point on the vocals, I actually agree on that, because I think that the riffs in the songs have their strong edge to it, but when she adds her vocal melody, her entire vocal performance lifts it up on a much bigger scale, because it feels much heavier in the way how she expresses herself, and some of my friends actually said female vocals in doom metal really do their job, and they really give such a different layer to the music. I think her vocals are one of the most highlighted factors of this album. This album has a total of eight tracks, all of which are great in their own way, but a couple of standouts to me are by far 'Nosferatu Nights', 'Deja Voodoo' and 'Black Spell', all of which are incredibly bewitching and hard rocking all the way through. Is there a story behind the making of these three heavy bangers in particular?

I agree with you, I think those are my favorite vocal songs as well, I just think there is a certain feel to a song that Liz will gravitate towards. 'Deja Voodoo' was especially the song that we worked on the most, and it's a song that Liz really put a lot into. Going back to the point you made earlier, when you were talking how the guitar is doing its thing, but then Liz's vocal on top, those two things are really put together in a way that they work with each other. The guitar is cool enough on its own, but when we try to build the vocal of that, basically the melody is hard boiled into that riff, so it's a thing that we worked on over the years, and this record we really just "went to town" on it, it might appear to be simple in a way when someone hears it, but to us it's more of a layered effect. When you layer those things, it's meant to be kind of one thing, and a song like 'Deja Voodoo', as Liz came up with the melodies, it changed the way I wrote the song and I think that's the ultimate success. What I am talking about is that when we're able to do that successfully, that's kind of what's happening, those two things are leading each other to like a higher standard or whatever. As she's working on the melodies, and I am hearing where that could take the guitar, it's kind of working symbiotically together. Those three songs in particular, we definitely left room for the vocal to take over.

When it comes to Castle's work as a whole, it's really great to hear something that's nicely layered but without complicating things, because your work is exemplary in the sense that musical simplicity can still be as effective, and have such a strong punch to it, especially if you pay attention to this gradual build-up to the climax of every song, which suddenly explodes after moments of high anticipation. Does the band always look for that ingredient of keeping the listener on edge from start to finish?

Oh, you put it better than I can, but there is something that we definitely do. Earlier on the band's earlier records, we definitely were more into complexity for the sake of complexity, maybe just playing something that was crazy to play and crazy to listen to, because it was fun, you just do it, but now when you look at the big picture of what you are talking about, it's some kind of emotional release or kind of editing for the sake of a song, it's something that we're conscious of for sure, and I find it's harder to do that style like the big picture kind of thing  to make the song as strong as possible. It has a lot to do with putting it together in a certain way, interjecting the vocal here and there, it's being a little bit harsher on the editing instead of maybe having a riff that you like and you want to play it 32 times, but it just doesn't work sometimes, so we're really trying to put together a song that it takes you somewhere as a whole. When you pull back in a wider frame, even as a whole record can do that, when you start to put together a record like that it's a little trickier. Everyone listens to things in a different way, but it's cool that you hear that and I think the way you describe it is exactly what we're trying to do.

The part about the songs taking you to a place where you're not at physically, I think that's one of the things that this album does successfully, because when I listen to every song, it always makes me see the world through a different perspective in that moment, like I don't see my screen and just hearing the music, instead I am seeing this world that's happening in my head right now. I always felt that "Evil Remains" has a very strong spiritual presence to it and it's almost hypnotizing in a way. Did you ever feel that there is a spiritual presence there in the room while working on the song?

Yeah, I don't know, if I just think about working on the guitar, I usually gravitate to things that I find myself playing kind of unconsciously, it's like just jamming around and all of a sudden you kind of stumble upon something that's a little different, it kind of starts with that little nugget of trying to tap in. When you stop thinking you are just playing, maybe carry that right through to the end, if that's the end in fact. I'll take that as a compliment, I don't know we don't really plan on that level of things, I could say that maybe when we're recording the stuff, we're definitely putting it all out there, as far as trying to play it, just executing it well and especially with Liz's vocals. When I am sitting in the control room listening to her record the vocals, I get the goosebumps and she's definitely nailing that in the performance end of it, which I think helps in this way that you talk about, like listening to something and being taken to a journey when listening to a song. To me it's like a good movie, you kind of forget you are watching a movie in a way, it's a sign of a good movie where you suspend your disbelief. So, I guess that's a successful recording, if we're doing that in some way or whatever, for sure.

The next thing I wanted to bring about the album is that it's got a strong retro vibe to it as well, especially with the bombastic sound production and the execution in every song, because it successfully conveys this sort of occult horror movie aura around it. Listening to the entire thing back and forth, it started to feel like it's a wicked soundtrack to a Lucio Fulci or George Romero movie with its graveyard aesthetics and suspenseful direction in musical form. Were there any exceptional works of either horror cinema or poetry that influenced Castle's work on "Evil Remains"?

Yeah, I agree with you that we're pretty influenced with the cinematic quality of film, and trying to relay that into music, I see the two pretty similarly. As far as all the other stuff that have to do with the retro kind of vibe, a lot of that stuff just fits our music and it all starts with the vibe of the music. Most of our stuff is just an extension of that, it seems to go hand in hand, these aren't like very concrete decisions that we're making every step of the way, it just lends itself. It's hard to describe, it's like when you're putting things with others, some things work and some things don't, and I guess we've basically just gotten good to see what works and stick with that. As far as being inspired by movies and stuff, there's lots and I wouldn't say anything over the other, if from the horror genre it's usually the older stuff from the 70's and 80's that you were talking about for sure, that was the age for more epic movies and just visually more attention to detail and just the visual aspect of movies, those are the things we take as inspiration.

One defining quality about this album is that it really feels like it's paying huge respect to that era, and even the classic doom metal albums, ranging from 70's Black Sabbath to Pentagram and Saint Vitus. I think it all comes down to the way how it's executed, because it relives that spirit of oldschool heavy metal and yet it nicely stands on its own. Did you ever get the feeling at some point that your music might be encapsulating all the great things about classic doom metal?

Well, thank you, I agree with you. I think I am also kind of from that time, I grew up listening to those bands, not as far back as listening to Sabbath in the 70's, but when I was a teenager in the 80's, there was some music that we listened to. I guess it's a time and place, I've always thought about it like of course that's the main inspiration for us, it's not just Black Sabbath, but a lot of that stuff like Judas Priest and Motorhead, sure Saint Vitus and Pentagram, love all those bands, and I think I agree with you that it's a mood. It's also in the way you're playing it, you know in the way you kind of own it while you're playing it or while you're writing it. Inspiration is the first part of it, but you have to do something with it and I feel like that's the difference sometimes, but people aren't doing something with it, like maybe just taking one small part of what a band is known for and then doing that for 30 or 40 minutes it just doesn't necessarily make a great record. I think you have to inject it with some vision and we definitely tried to do that, I guess that's where you still have to be modern in a way, even if you're taking this older stuff as inspiration, you try to recapture the mood and the feeling, you still have to be modern about it, in a way that you have to have a vision for it. I am hoping that comes through, because I definitely think if we didn't have that then we wouldn't be doing it. I think I had that in a very beginning, I kind of saw and heard a sound in my head, I worked on it for years and this is what it ended up being, but it wasn't until Liz started singing until it really came together, when I first started to hear that together, that's what I heard in my head from the beginning. I always go back to that initial inspiration stuff, if it's got the feeling, then that's a good start.

Considering how you guys are very experienced and dedicated in what you do, and the fact that you put a lot of effort into making the output as best as possible, I am really curious to know how you perceive the whole doom metal movement? What do you find so special about it and what do you think a band in this sub-genre should always strive to have in their music?

Sometimes I don't even know that we're a doom band in a way, it just depends how you describe it, we've always had this kind of doomy sound even if we're not playing certain tempos, if we're playing faster. In all honesty, when we put out our first record, I was really shocked when people would start to review the record or talk to people about it, it immediately got classified as doom metal, because I never really thought about it. All the time we were writing the music, the first five or six years when we worked on that record, I never once thought it was a doom metal record, but I guess when I look back at it, it has elements of that in its tone and just in the mood, even if we're playing faster it's got like a sludgy aspect to it so I get it. I didn't ever listen to doom anymore than I listened to heavy metal or black metal in the 90's, like I was never super into doom, I was into bands you would know like Saint Vitus, The Obsessed and Pentagram, but I guess the fact that it's mostly inspired from Sabbath, even though we did change it up, it's still like that thread carried through. Even on the new record, there is actually more doomy stuff than in the last few for sure, although there is a little more up-tempo songs as well, but I don't know, I think it doesn't matter what you play, I think it really comes down to what are you trying to say with it, like are you nailing that part of it and making something interesting or something a little different. I think that goes for whatever genre or sub-genre you find yourself working in, all those elements coming together, sometimes you would feel like you are under control in the way you are gonna perceive. We don't sit down and try to write like it's going to be a doom song or a like fast punk rock song, you just follow the song and then in the end, people will always be a part of that experience because they are listening to it and they are putting their thing into it, their own dots and their own perceptions of what you're trying to do or what they think they are hearing, that's all part of it. I think if you are just following that through, you can't really go wrong, it doesn't matter what genre people might think it is.

The fact is that you don't think inside the box, because when you write a song you don't say that it's either a proto-metal song, doom metal song or speed metal song. It's good that you have a lot of influences, varying from old school rock and roll to very extreme metal, like you said you were into black metal in the 90's, I guess it was impossible to not be into black and death metal in the 90's.

Yeah, I mean being a guitar player, it was something brand new, it was like a new angle on how to play metal guitar, so I think that just cut through everything. In that way, just as a guitar player, how do you get that sound and how do you get those chords. It's things like that which become a part of your musical language or whatever, things like that are happening all along throughout the years.

It's great when you have a very broadened horizon as a musician, I think that a good musician knows how to take what he likes about each music that he listens to, especially if it doesn't necessarily have to be the music that he makes. For example, like taking slow elements from death metal and you integrate that, it could essentially blend in a heavy metal song, it's only a matter of knowing what works best. You should never have predictable songwriting and I think that it's a fault with a lot of sub-genres that they have become very predictable, because you got used to hearing the same stuff many times. When it comes to "Evil Remains", not once did I feel that I could predict anything that could happen in a song, because you follow it through and everything keeps you on edge. For example, the last track 'Cold Grave' has an awesome closure to it, and I wasn't expecting it to happen, it really put a final nail in the coffin because it was building up to it. I think that's why it's so good, and anybody who looks at music as a work of art, rather than just as a product, can appreciate it or look at it the same way.

Yeah, I am glad you said it, I appreciate it and I agree with you. It's definitely what we're trying to do, like push the envelope and do something different, it's not a popular thing to do that, in a way it's not like when you talk about modern approach to selling music or marketing music, it's definitely an easier, more clickable and more known sound that it seems to be like what people want to sell and what people want to hear. I don't know, maybe it's my age, maybe it's my appreciation for things like film and music, but I don't have any interest in that, I just want to do something that's different, because if I am not doing something that's different then I don't really want to waste my time. When you talk about the song 'Cold Grave', that's a good example, because that was probably the hardest song to put together, it took so many different forms, we just kept working on it and in the end, we thought this is the way the song should be, because it ended up like that. I wouldn't have been able to put that song together hadn't we tried to do all these different things, like we had to do everything wrong to get it where I wanted it to be. Then you leave it and then you hear it back, and I stopped hearing the struggle of it and start hearing that it works, that was a really tough song, it took years to try different things to put it together and then in the end you get it right, I think it was just supposed to be like that. That really sums up when we're doing something that you trust us, or doing something we think it's different enough that people are gonna care about, and I think that's a good example because maybe some bands wouldn't even put a song like that on a record, because it definitely falls outside. We have different tags and genres that we associate with our band, even that song pushes the envelope even further. There's this song called 'She', with those two songs putting them on there, I thought "why wouldn't we?", it's kind of like what we're doing the band for, to just keep pushing and trying to do something different, because I think the people that like our band are gonna appreciate that, so it's cool to hear for sure. Going to back to the earlier point that you were making, when I was younger, when I first started getting into music, playing in the bands in the 80's, you were talking about writing outside the box, if I think about back in those days, I don't think anybody was inside the box to start with, the boxes didn't exist. If you're looking at boxes as genres, it seemed to be free from all that, every band seemed to have their own unique sound without trying to be like that, it was just what they created as individuals joining up as an entity, bands like Voivod, Kreator, Metallica and Slayer, everybody seemed to have their own sound, it was like all these different bands were playing together, like punk rock bands, speed metal bands and thrash metal bands, it was a great mix. It was never like "Oh I don't listen to C.O.C. (Corrosion of Conformity) because I don't listen to punk", you just listened to everything that was cool. I think a lot of those bands just invented their own sound, I think that the vision slowly crept in and definitely changed things as far as being associated with this or that sub-genre. If those are the boxes you are talking about, it definitely didn't exist back then.

That's exactly what I was talking about, it was a time when everything was developing overtime and you didn't know which bands belonged to which of the boxes. At the time some bands were labelled as heavy metal, now they are labelled as thrash or speed metal.

When I listened to music, I listened to anything that's good, I still listen the same music as I did back then. I guess it's just not having a preconceived notion when you are listening to something and judging, or having a preconceived notion when you are writing a song either, I guess those two things go hand in hand, and I kind of draw back from that time, because in the way it almost didn't exist. If you play metal guitar, you didn't really define it as such a limited thing.

Thank you so much for doing this interview, Mat. I am highly looking forward to the release of "Evil Remains" and I wish you all the best. Are there any final words you'd like to say?

I appreciate talking about the record with you Vlad, looking forward to getting it out myself, especially going on tour in Europe. Check out the tour dates and if you are reading this, and you can make it out to a show, try and do so, it would be great.