Dark Castle's 'Spirited Migration' now out on vinyl

. . .

Dark Castle were the first band to show me that two people could carry out a metal show. (I suspect that if I had seen Jucifer beforehand, they would have convinced me. Alas, Jucifer have eluded me thus far.) I grew up under the paradigm of two-guitar metal bands. One guitarist played rhythm, the other played lead, and often they were separated into left and right stereo channels.

This was such a dominant model that not until five years ago, when I saw Hate Eternal, Krisiun, and Incantation – all one-guitar bands at the time – on the same tour, did I stop looking at one-guitar metal bands askance in the live context. When bands started deciding that bassists were also unnecessary – hello Pig Destroyer, hello Salome – more doubt followed.

Then I saw Dark Castle play a few months ago. Not only did it help me “get” their Spirited Migration record, which didn’t really hit me when it came out last year, it was also the first time I didn’t miss hearing a bassist at a metal show. I like low end. Even if a bassist just plays roots, the warmth and thickness of low frequencies is important to the live experience for me.

“Growing Slow”
[audio: DARKCASTLE_GROWINGSLOW.mp3]

But Stevie Floyd and Rob Shaffer aggressively challenge that importance. She tunes down, of course; many metal guitarists today are working in registers that bassists once monopolized. But she’s not just droning with low notes. She plays call-and-response with herself, working all registers of her axe. The result is like very slow technical death metal run through the sludge of Florida’s swamps. It’s melodic, yet creepy and deliberate – until Shaffer stands up and slams down pulverizing accents.

This dynamic is fascinating live. If a band is only two people, they really have to pay attention to each other, as any misstep sinks half the sound. Floyd and Shaffer are locked in enough to be heavy, but leave enough room for tense looseness. Combined with a powerful homemade light show, which Floyd controls via footswitches, Dark Castle live have the force of many, not two. They recently finished a tour alongside Nachtmystium, Zoroaster, and The Atlas Moth. I’d love to hear reports of how that sounded.

Spirited Migration just got the vinyl treatment from At a Loss. It comes on 180g vinyl in either ruby red or forest green colors, with a download card included. Mail orders ship out next week, with a general release later this month. For ordering information, see here and here.

. . .