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Another band plowing the heavy/doom metal vein, San Francisco's Castle are a female-fronted power trio with a penchant for big, dirty, fuzzy riffs, classic guitar leads, and thundering rhythms. Elizabeth Blackwell's vocals are strangely perfect for the sound, laid back in places, sultry in the right places and there's some decent power behind her delivery. Mat Davis' provides the male vocals which, while not necessarily worthy of note, don't derive for the sound at all, plus his guitar work more than makes up for it with a solid, reliable style of riffing, good ear and control over the lead guitars and some riffs that are genuinely fucking smoking. Al McCartney provides a solid drum battery serving as a great back-bone, boasting a quality drum sound and even whipping out some nifty fills.

This is one of those no-nonsense kind of albums; you can just put this on and headbang away for the next 45 minutes. The album oozes out some good vibes and is definitely the kind of album you'd crack on in conjunction with cracking open a cold one. Of course this would lend well to the live environment, the band have a good energy about them so if they're playing your town I'd recommend attending. Tracks such as the cool as fuck "Slaves of the Pharao", the bouncing "Total Betrayer" and the slight Danzig feel to "Shaman Wars" stand out to me as picks, but really there isn't a bad song here.

Overall Castle are a bright act, dripping with energy and cool. They sound genuine, and aren't pretending to be something they're not, essentially letting it all hang out, this is raw and dirty, thundering and pummeling but really, an excellent slab of good old fashioned balls out heavy metal, they way it was intended to be. Recommended.