2014 was very much a year that if you aimed to play as heavy as possible, you were in a doom band. Whilst there were a fair few celebrated doom albums of the last year, I’m unaware of any group that are doing anything that unique or reinventing the formula. Enter Dark Castle. Arguably not doom in the strictest sense, there is an air of dread and oblivion that is inescapable in their playing ability. But whilst their music can leave you sinking within a pool of the blackest matter known to man, their music can take on a form of the phantasmagorical, a mystical persuasion if you will. They pride themselves on their introduction of Hungarian and Japanese guitar scales and frankly, there is a significant difference because of it. The cultural injection makes what would be a cruel pummelling of fuzz-drenched chords into an entrancing movement, much like the album title Spirited Migration would suggest. Flight Beyond is the best example of this, and between the pair of them (yes, two of them, with a FEMALE vocalist), they make Dark Castle an inspirational and tantalising piece of architecture worth exploring.