If you’re partial to an inverted pentagram, you can thank the 19th-century occult author Éliphas Lévi for making them the metalhead’s symbol of choice. When he wasn’t popularising tarot decks in the western world and inspiring the likes of Aleister Crowley, he was declaring that pentagrams pointed down represented evil, and thus bequeathing the metal scene’s most potent of emblems.
Taken from the just-released new album on Ván Records, Welcome To The Graveyard, San Francisco occult rockers Castle have unveiled a tribute to the great man in the riff-flinging form of their lead-off single, Flash Of The Pentagram – and we have an exclusive preview right here. An irrepressible combination of 70s doom, NWOBHM, musty-yet-in-your-face production courtesy of famed Neurosis/Melvins producer Billy Anderson, and the smokey, whiskey-stained vocals of Liz Blackwell, Flash Of The Pentagram pays tribute to Lévi’s theory of Transcendental Magic while rocking out with an unforgettable groove and basically soundtracking a party populated by motorcycle clubs, magicians and bottles of absinthe while sigils adorn the walls.
Guitarist Mat Davis has this to say about the accomanying video: “Our director for Flash Of The Pentagram, Brian J Davis (who also directed Castle’s Evil Ways), mentioned he didn’t think anyone had ever captured what it’s like to watch Castle live – so his idea was to use the gig flyer as a the kind of perfect medium to do that. He filmed us in a studio and printed the frames out on a cheap photocopier. Then he re-photographed the photocopies on an animation table over a month. We think the result is close to Castle live: intense, raw, and trancelike.”
Wave your ams in an incantatory manner and bang your soon-to-be-enlightened head to Flash Of The Pentagram below!
Invoke Castle’s Facebook page here
Order Welcome To The Graveyard here
And if you’ve freed your mind and your ass is international, check out Castle’s tour dates here!
Europe Tour Dates
5.10 Prague, CZ - TBA
6.10 Budapest, HG - Durer Kert
7.10 Bucharest, RO - Old Grave Fest V
9.10 Athens, GR - Death Disco
11.10 Parma, IT - Titty Twister *
12.10 Milan, IT - Blue Rose *
13.10 Freiburg, DE - White Rabbit Club *
15.10 Tilburg, NL - Little Devil *
16.10 Antwerp, BE - Desertfest Belgium
17.10 Aachen, DE - AZ
18.10 Berlin, DE - Urban Spree
19.10 Olten, CH - Coq d’Or
20.10 Leipzig, DE - UT Connewitz
22.10 Gothenburg, SE - Truckstop Alaska ^
26.10 Weimar, DE - Gerber3
* w/ Universe217
^ w/ Year of the Goat
Japan Tour Dates
8.12 Yokohama - El Puente #
9.12 Tokyo - Earthdo #
10.12.Osaka - Hokage #
11.12 Nagoya - Huck Finn #
12.12 Tokyo - Ruby Room #
# w/ GUEVNNA
