As far as the female-fronted occult acts are concerned, I’ve always found Castle to be a cut above the fray. Granted, they’ve always had a bit of a harder edge, a more metallic sound than many of the Jex Ceremony clones—likely due to guitarist Mat Davis’ formative years in the Toronto thrash scene. Owing to their local ties, I had the opportunity to see ‘em live a few times before they even had one album under their belts. Welcome to the Graveyard is album number four from this semi-local trio.
And despite having more of a retro-metal feel, the lyrical themes on Welcome to the Graveyard clearly lump this in as an occult album. “Black Widow” chugs along like a mid-80’s Judas Priest anthem, with some pretty decent true-metal riffage. “Hammer and the Cross” is more reminiscent of mid-paced Pentagram, while the title track reminds me somewhat of Lee Aaron’s signature staple “Metal Queen”—minus the legendary chorus, mind you.
Sure enough, Bobby Liebling and co. get name-checked on “Flash of the Pentagram,” though this number is more akin to Motorhead—particularly in the vocal department, where Davis takes the lead for the first couple verses. Conversely, “Down in the Cauldron Bog” is gloomier, more melodic and more melancholy than most of this record, sounding sorta like something off of Blood Ceremony’s Living with the Ancients. I take it they didn’t name this tune after Jason Decay…
