Dark Castle
| Dark Castle | |
|---|---|
 Stevie Floyd performing in Madrid in 2010. |
|
| General information | |
| origin | St. Augustine , United States |
| Genre (s) | Death Doom |
| founding | 2005 |
| Website | darkcastlemetal.bandcamp.com |
| Founding members | |
| Stevie Floyd | |
| Rob Shaffer | |
Dark Castle is an American death doom band from Florida .
history
The band was founded in 2005 by Stevie Floyd and Rob Shaffer as a death metal band in St. Augustine . Originally, Floyd and Shaffer used a drum machine and both played guitar. In a short time, Shaffer switched from guitar to drums, and the duo changed their own style to psychedelically influenced Death Doom . Dark Castle, published in 2007, in its own sales, the five title EP Flight of Pegasus , with what has been the only cover song of the band, No Quater of Led Zeppelin . The band then toured with Rwake , Torche and Black Cobra . The tour with Black Cobra and the burgeoning popularity drew the attention of the record company At A Loss Recordings and enabled the band to produce their first album. Phillip Cope of Kylesa produced the first album Spirited Migration , which was recorded in spring 2008 and was released on May 26, 2009 on At A Loss. The debut album was largely positively received internationally. The music magazine Visions led Dark Castle with the album Spirited Migration 2010 with bands such as Howl and Valkyrie, among others, as aspiring newcomers to the then current American metal scene. After the album was released, Dark Castle toured with Kylesa, EyeHateGod , White Mice and Liturgy . During this time, which was created documentary of Rwakesängers David Lipke Slow Southern Steel on the doom metal scene of the American South, for which next Eyehategod, Phil Anselmo , Hank Williams III and Weedeater and Dark Castle were presented and interviewed. In September 2010, Dark Castle had the second studio album produced by Sanford Parker ( Minsk ). Parker also took part in the studio recordings, as did Nate Hall ( US Christmas ), Mike Scheidt ( YOB ) and Blake Judd ( Nachtmystium ). Surrender to All Life Beyond Form was released on May 27, 2011 by Profound Lore Records . The album was received differently by critics. While Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann from Rock Hard Magazine rated the album positively, the Metal Hammer described it as overloaded and immature. After the release, Stevie Floyd moved to Oregon in 2011 and planned a US and European tour with YOB together with band member Rob Shaffer, which was to be followed by a band break. According to this arrangement, Dark Castle toured with YOB and Pelican , in 2012 the band withdrew and paused.
Rob Shaffer supported the band Monarch! on their American tours and their recordings for the album Omens . Stevie Floyd, on the other hand, founded the more experimental bands Taurus and Nåtür and continued to work as a tattoo artist and designer. Since her pregnancy in 2013/2014, Floyd has also stopped her live activities.
style
Stevie Floyd explains Dark Castle's music as a slowed down version of Florida Death Metal , with influences from Arabic music . Death and Morbid Angel , in particular, would have had a significant influence on her and Rob Shaffer.
"Chuck Schuldiner and the way he composed the songs is a big influence. He used a lot of harmonic minor scales and I've always loved those - usually Middle Eastern scales would inspire me more but what he did with them, he used them in such weird ways… no one really writes like him. "
“ Chuck Schuldiner and the way he wrote songs is a huge influence. He used a lot of melodic minor scales, and I've always loved them - I'm usually more inspired by Arabic scales , but what he did with those scales, he used them in such bizarre forms ... no one can write like him. "
In addition to Chuck Schuldiner and the Florida death metal scene, Dark Castle also take multilayered influences from world and rock music . Floyd names performers from heavy metal , sludge , grunge , industrial rock , dark wave and black metal on the one hand, and ancient sitar music as well as ancient and folkloric music from India and Japan on the other .
The Death Metal portion was increasingly reduced by the band. Flight of Pegasus still contained riffs strongly influenced by Death and deep growls . On Spirited Migration the technical finesse decreased in favor of atmospheric density and on Surrender to all Life beyond Form the vocals also increasingly changed from growling to the roaring vocals and elements of Black Metal that were already partly on Flight of Pegasus . In reviews, Dark Castle is often attributed to the sludge .
“The Florida duo see themselves as the White Stripes of Doom Metal, which is actually pretty nonsense. Rather, gentlemen [sic!] Stevie Floyd and Rob Shaffer crawl through sludgy sludge fields and combine dirty things from the EyeHateGod brand with sick, ritual Doom from the Esoteric and Moss brands . "
Doom Metal and Sludge particularly correspond to the reduced tempo, the deeply tuned guitar and the strong, often echoing distortion of the guitar occasionally bring Dark Castle close to Drone Doom . All previous releases show parts of psychedelic rock , the band arranges their music with Arabic and Asian scales and repeatedly records folkloric and ambient pieces.
Discography
- Flight of Pegasus • EP ( CD-R only ), 2007.
- 5 tracks, 30:37 minutes playing time.
- Produced by Rob McGregor at Goldentone Studios (Gainesville, Florida), self-distributed .
- Spirited Migration • CD / LP, May 26, 2009.
- 8 tracks, 37:08 minutes playing time.
- Produced by Phillip Cope in the Jam Room ( Columbia , South Carolina ), At A Loss Recordings .
- Surrender to All Life Beyond Form • CD / LP, May 17, 2011.
- 9 tracks, 33:49 minutes playing time.
- Produced by Sanford Parker at Semaphore Recording Studios ( Chicago , Illinois ), Profound Lore Records .
- Guest musicians: Mike Scheidt (vocals - Spirit Ritual) • Sanford Parker ( synthesizer and sampler ) • Nate Hall (vocals - Stare into Absence) • Blake Judd (vocals - learning to unlearn).
Web links
- Dark Castle at Allmusic (English)
- Dark Castle at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Interview with Stevie Floyd on InvisibleOrgange.com
- ↑ Eduardo Rivadavia: Dark Castle. allmusic.com, accessed December 22, 2015 .
- ↑ Dark Castle on MySpace.
- ↑ André Bohnensack: Review of Spirited Migration in Ox-Fanzine issue # 85 August / September 2009 online version
- ↑ Review of Spirited Migration on allmusic.com
- ↑ Review of Spirited Migration on SputnikMusic.com
- ↑ Jan Schwarzkamp: From Ancestors to Valkyrie: The Newcomers. In The New Metal. In Visions 205 April 2010, p. 29.
- ↑ Online report on the premiere of Slow Southern Steel on CvltNation.com ( Memento from March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Booklet information: Surrender to all Life beyond Form.
- ↑ a b Review of Surrender to all Life beyond Form in Rock Hard
- ↑ a b c Review of Surrender to all Life beyond Form in Metal Hammer
- ↑ a b Interview with Stevie Floyd on Brooklyn Vergan
- ↑ Interview with Stevie Floyd on Jersey Beat
- ↑ Interview with Stevie Floyd on Obelisk