Surrender to All Life Beyond Form

Dark Castle’s 2011 sophomore album conceals the Florida duo’s tunesmith savvy underneath extremely dense layers of squealing feedback and dirty, crumbling distortion. Producer Sanford Parker also plays on Surrender to All Life Beyond Form adding a third dimension to their experimental doom-metal with samples, synthesizers and Moog flourishes. “Stare Into Absence” follows with disturbing guitar ambiance undulating before the song detonates into a gargantuan dirge where Nate Hall from U.S. Christmas screams out into the abyss like an abandoned astronaut. Other guest vocalists appear throughout — Yob’s Mike Scheidt haunts “Spirit Ritual” with witchy, androgynous singing before Blake Judd from black-metal band Nachtmystium clears through the industrial-tinged cacophony on the closing “Learning to Unlearn.” Spanning nine songs that all segue into one another, Surrender to All Life Beyond Form is an album that demands to be played in its entirety.