Florida's sludge two-piece Dark Castle first appeared in 2008 with an elaborately packaged self-released demo (Flight of the Pegasus) that garned a good deal of favorable attention from the metal press and other bands (including Relapse Records' Minsk). It is easy to see why this unsigned band turned so many heads, as there are several obvious elements that separate them from their peers. In an extreme rarity in metal genres, most of the guitar and vocal work is handled by a woman, Stevie Floyd. Also, the band has the distinction of having no bass player (nor bass in any of their recordings), which is strikingly ballsy in a genre that is so intimately associated with low-frequency amplifier worship.

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