Castle share new video for 'Hammer and the Cross' 

Bay Area metallers, CASTLE have shared the brand new video for Hammer and the Cross, taken from their soon-to-be-released album, Welcome To The Graveyard, out on July 12.

Directed by Jaan Silmberg of Pistoltrixx, Hammer and the Cross was shot north of Toronto, Ontario while the band was between recording and mixing Welcome to the Graveyard this past winter. This is the fifth video Castle and Pistoltrixx have collaborated on (including Blacklands and Storm Below The Mountain).

Watch the video for Hammer and the Cross

Guitarist/vocalist Mat Davis commented on the making of the video: "We show some different sides of Castle on the new album, and Hammer is one of the moodier tracks on there. It's kind of stark and hypnotic with a big vocal from [bassist/vocalist] Liz, so for the video we wanted to mirror all that with the visuals. We ended up filming on an old dairy farm in Northern Ontario that we found, because the place was massive and had a cavernous depth to it that we thought matched the song. It was also really cold because it was in the middle of February in Canada, but all those elements helped create the overall effect, which we're very happy with."

Comprised of 8 tracks written over the last year, Welcome To The Graveyard sees CASTLE merge their doom powered riffing with soaring 1970s rock. The album features a new level of confident songwriting and is a creepy-crawl through the wastelands of the band’s new L.A. home; a hard-boiled barrage of classic heavy metal riffery tempered with blasts of melodic orchestrated doom. The perfect soundtrack for a Hollywood cult initiation.

Elizabeth Blackwell's haunted vocal style draws a sigil of death and madness - imagine the Wilson Sisters singing hymns from the stygian void, while lyrically CASTLE adapt the stark and compelling vistas of Aleister Crowley’s Amphora for the song Traitors Rune and Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic, whose mystic rumination inspires the lyrical backdrop for the lead-off single Flash of the Pentagram, heard below.

Listen to Flash of the Pentagram HERE.

CASTLE was forged in San Francisco in 2009 and released their debut full-length, In Witch Order, on Germany’s Ván Records in 2011. The album brought light to the newly-formed band and earned them “Album Of The Year” honors from Metal Hammer Norway, as well as Roadburn Festival’s “Newcomer Of The Year.” Shortly thereafter, the band joined the Prosthetic Records roster in North America and released their critically-adored sophomore album Blacklands. The record left to a Canadian JUNO nomination for “Metal/Hard Music Album Of The Year.” CASTLE performed over two-hundred shows worldwide in support of the release alongside the likes of The Sword, Intronaut and Pentagram among many others as well as appearances at some of the underground’s largest fests including Roadburn and the London and Berlin Desertfests.

Since the release of Under Siege in 2014, CASTLE, which consists of vocalist/bassist Liz Blackwell, guitarist/vocalist Mat Davis and drummer Al McCartney, has maintained a relentless touring schedule with multiple expeditions throughout the US, Europe and Canada including stops at the 2015 edition of Heavy Days In Doomtown Fest in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Acherontic Arts Fest in Oberhausen, Germany. Expect Canadian and European dates in support of Welcome To The Graveyard to be announced in the coming months.

Tour Dates

• 6/15 Yucca Tap – Phoenix, AZ
• 6/16 The Sandbox – El Paso, TX
• 6/17 Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX
• 6/18 Rudyards – Houston, TX
• 6/19 Siberia – New Orleans, LA
• 6/20 New World Brewery – Tampa, FL
• 6/21 Burro Bar – Jacksonville, FL
• 6/22 The Jinx – Savannah, GA
• 6/23 Reggies – Wilmington, NC
• 6/24 Maryland Doom Fest – Frederick, MD
• 6/25 Ace of Cups – Columbus, OH
• 6/26 5th Quarter – Indianapolis, IN
• 6/27 Skeletunes – Ft. Wayne, IN
• 6/28 Vaudeville – Des Moines, IA
• 6/29 O’Leaver’s – Omaha, NE
• 6/30 Flux Capacitor – Colorado Springs, CO
• 7/1 Metro Bar – Salt Lake City, UT
• 7/2 Chateau le Punk – Las Vegas, NV
• 7/17 Slidebar – Fullerton, CA #
• 7/19 Mission Tobacco – Riverside, CA #
• 7/20 Elbo Room – San Francisco, CA #
• 7/21 Hi Water Mark – Portland, OR #
• 7/22 Funhouse – Seattle, WA #
• 7/23 The Palace Lounge – Missoula, MT #
• 7/24 Railyard – Billings, MT #
• 7/26 Reggies – Chicago, IL *
• 7/27 High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI *
• 7/28 Franks Power Plant – Milwaukee, WI *
• 7/29 Shakespeare Pub – Kalamazoo, MI *
• 7/30 Corktown Tavern – Detroit, MI *
• 7/31 Howlers – Pittsburgh, PA *
• 8/1 Now That’s Class – Cleveland, OH
• 8/2 Rockin Buffalo Saloon – Buffalo, NY
• 8/3 Geno’s – Portland, ME w/ Hessian
• 8/4 Ralph’s – Worcester, MA w/ Pilgrim
• 8/5 Acheron – Brooklyn, NY w/ Pilgrim
• 8/6 The Fire – Philadelphia, PA w/ Pilgrim
• 8/7 TBA – Washington, DC
• 8/8 Riffhouse Pub – Chesapeake, VA
• 8/9 Pilot Light – Knoxville, TN
• 8/10 The End – Nashville, TN
• 8/11 Vino’s – Little Rock, AR
• 8/12 The Grotto – Ft. Worth, TX
• 8/13 The Lost Well – Austin, TX
• 8/14 The Elbow Room – Wichita, KS
• 8/16 The Underground – Santa Fe, NM
• 8/17 The Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
• 8/18 Flycatcher – Tucson, AZ
• 8/19 The Merrow – San Diego, CA
• 8/20 The Complex – Los Angeles, CA

# w/ Disenchanter

* w/ Brimstone Coven

w/ Blizaro