Local Metal Heroes Headline Bottom Of The Hill
By Dave Pehling
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Founded a decade ago in San Francisco by husband/wife team Elizabeth Blackwell (bass/vocals) and Mat Davis (guitar/vocals), metal band Castle has built a sizable global following with its relentless touring schedule and string of solid, old-school headbanging albums.
Taking a sonic approach that nodded as much to classic Black Sabbath and Judas Priest as it did to more contemporary doom metal, Castle released its debut In Witch Order in 2011 through German imprint Van Records. While Castle would cycle through a number of drummers -- including initial collaborator Al McCartney and, at one point, Death Angel drummer Will Carroll -- the band would refine it sound that highlighted Blackwell's gruff, soulful vocals and Davis' knack for writing catchy riffs that echoed the hook-heavy '80s metal anthems of Dio and early Motley Crue on subsequent efforts Blacklands (which was nominated for a 2013 Canadian Juno award for Best Metal Album) and Under Siege.
The group's 2016 album Welcome to the Graveyard further established Castle's maturing songwriting chops and status as leading lights of the Bay Area's metal scene. Last year, the band announced that it would be partnering with rising Bay Area stoner/doom imprint Ripple Music to put out Castle's fifth album, Deal Thy Fate.
Recorded with regular studio collaborator Billy Anderson (who has produced and/or engineered a host of metal, punk and doom luminaries including High on Fire, Acid King, Jawbreaker, Sleep and Pallbearer), the new recording finds Davis dealing out some of the most corrosive riffs of his career, at times echoing the malevolent six-string work of late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman on the band's seminal albums Reign in Blood and South of Heaven.
Fresh from a massive U.S. tour that included stops at the Monolith on the Mesa festival in New Mexico and Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle this past week, Castle celebrates a return to the Bay Area at one of their regular haunts with this Bottom of the Hill show on Saturday night. The group is joined by a pair of notable SF metal acts. Power trio Grayceon delivers cello-driven, post-metal songs from IV, the band's stunning 2018 album that marked their first new effort in five years. Sludgy, blackened crust-metal merchants Hazzard's Cure open the show.
Castle:
Saturday, June 1, 8:30 p.m. $12
Bottom of the Hill
