Sinnce there wasnt a topic about this band I thought I would recommend this band. Cerimonial Castings is a Symphonic Black Metal band from Battle Grounds Washington. To date they have 4 full releases and a bunch of ep's. A few cd's that I would recommend would be Immortal Black Art, Barbaric Is The Beast and, Salem 1692.

If you would like to check this band out here is a link with more information about the band and where you can listen to a few songs by them.



http://users.skynet.be/fa020387/cc/frameset.htm
http://www.myspace.com/ceremonialcastings

I first heard these guys at a concert, not knowing anything about them. I thought they were completely horrible, almost laughable! But then I listened to their MySpace page and was impressed enough to buy Barbaric is the Beast and it's really good. I saw them a second time and well, they just aren't good live. I still haven't heard Immortal Black Art and Salem 1692, but I will soon.

I have mixed feelings about Ceremonial Castings, I initially thought they were pretty cool because they're a decent band from the US and frequently play here in Washington. A year or so ago I had the o.k. from the organizer at a bar I was working at to get these guys a gig that was maybe an hour away from where they live, and although I knew they were busy writing the Salem album I tried to keep in touch to let them know that they were still welcomed. After all, they had the chance to play in the home town of Wolves In The Throne Room, so there was definitely a bit of a BM audiance. That part didn't bother me all that much because I understood they were busy writing and doing some touring.

It wasn't until I tried to buy some cd's and a shirt from them and they gave me the run around that I started to dislike them, and then I saw their bulliton on myspace whining and bitching how a radio station in Portland, Oregon wouldn't play their music anymore which to me made it seem like they are into BM for the wrong reasons.

Aside from that, the music isn't bad and I've yet to listen to Salem.

Where as the singer from Wolven Ancestry seems like a very cool guy, the band is doing well and one time he contacted me on a torrent site and offered to upload the whole Wolven Ancestry album and even mentioned that he had a show coming up in Seattle at the time and told me to come out and hang with them. I also bought a shirt and cd from them without any hassle, and they threw in three stickers - which yeah, they were for promotion purposes but I thought it was a cool gesture none the less.

Im surprised more people haven't heard of this band

So last night I bought the new Ceremonial Castings album, and unfortunately it's not as good as the last two. It's the darkest material by them that I've heard, but sometimes it seems that the songs are long just for the sake of being long.