FOR THREE ALBUMS, Castle chose to cloak itself in darkness. The California heavy metal trio’s 2011 debut, In Witch Order, depicts a strangely unsettling image of sheep on the cover. Its opening track, “Descent of Man,” sets the band’s tone, pitting bassist Liz Blackwell’s dulcet snarl against a buzzy thicket of guitars.
2012’s Blacklands features heavier riffs, stronger melodies, and song titles like “Corpse Candles.” The cover art? A mystical Denis Forkas Kostromitin painting of a woman, a child, candles, and ominous smoke rising from a mountaintop.
Forkas’ work returned on the cover of 2014’s Under Siege, this time with children exploring a disemboweled bovine creature. Eighty seconds into the album’s lead single, “Temple of the Lost,” a strangled, demonic voice declares: “Quest for fire, power from below. Reaching through forever, but never in control.”