Castledoor - Shouting at Mountains

Artist: Castledoor
Album: Shouting at Mountains
Released: April 21, 2009
Label: Castledoor
Stars: 4.5
Skippable Tracks: 0
Must-listen/purchase Track: couldn’t decide on one

As promised, I’m doing the review on the new Castledoor album Shouting at Mountains. The only reason why I didn’t give it the full five stars was because they decided to use a lot more backing vocals on the album, which can be slightly annoying at times. I hate to say it but some songs are almost ruined by them (ex. the song Free).

On previous albums the backing vocals can barely be heard, so it took me by surprise when I head them. There is nothing wrong with using them, but when the vocals are basically just repeating what the singer just said, or just saying “bop bop” it makes it sound a bit cheesy. If the backing vocals were used only to create harmony, the album would have turned out quite a bit better. The singer is married to one of the vocalists, so maybe he had no choice. I mean, how do you tell your wife that she is ruining your songs? I don’t think you could, or should. That just goes to show you that the singer is a nice guy.

Anyways, all of the songs are pretty much just guitars, synth, and drums. Nothing really all that complicated, but they manage to put it together in an original way. Most of the songs are four-star-tacks, and the rest are about a three. I feel like there is a week point from tack six to eight, but they are still decent songs.

Castledoor has posted a lot of their music on PureVolume and has included some free tacks. As well, the band posted a link to one of their new songs on Twitter and can be downloaded here. You can also purchase all their music on iTunes.

Thanks again to Michael Elves for getting this CD for the station.

Here's the only official video I could find. It's not a song from Shouting at Mountains, but a single released last year from their 'til we sink EP.