Dark Castle

Surrender To All Life Beyond Form

Profound Lore

CD $12.00

05/31/2011 616892133865

PFL 077

MP3 $8.91

05/31/2011 616892133865

Comprised of vocalist / guitarist Stevie Floyd and drummer Rob Shaffer, Florida’s Dark Castle is often referred to as doom metal’s version of The White Stripes. The male/female duo formed in the mid-’00s, first attracting the attention of the doom / sludge metal underground with their 2008 debut album Spirited Migration (At a Loss Recordings). While among the heaviest groups in America, Dark Castle doesn’t achieve this distinction with the elongated, time-stretching tracks of other doom bands—theirs are shorter, denser, more punishing and vitriolic songs that take in a wide variety of influences, from noise, drone, prog and even traditional Eastern music. Their live shows amaze crowds shocked by how two individuals alone could conjure such colossal, earth-rumbling heaviness.
With Surrender to All Life Beyond Form, Dark Castle at last properly captures their live energy on record. The album was produced and recorded by Sanford Parker in Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio, and will be recognized not only the band’s most crushing work yet, but as their most experimental and progressive as well. A dark, visceral exercise in focused sonic devastation, it features guest appearances from Mike Scheidt of YOB, Blake Judd of Nachtmystium, Nate Hall of U.S. Christmas and Parker himself.