Continuing, King says, “Finding the right guy to play drums for us wasn’t easy. There’s a lot to what we do drum-wise in the band, and we need a heavy, precise hitter whose 110% always reliable and ready to rock at the drop of a hat. Oddly, how we found this guy is kinda ‘haunting,’ keeping in a Deceased career-long off-kilter kind of way. A few months ago, while playing on tour, Dave fell in love with a band called Death of Kings that were supporting us. He totally enjoyed their in-your-face thrash attack and really dug the drumming in the band. The two bands became good pals and metal brothers over the almost-two-week jaunt. At our last show of the tour in Detroit, Michigan, Dave told me, ‘If anything ever happens to me, you gotta get this motherfucker on drums – he kicks ass!’ Hauntingly enough, we stand here today finding a replacement for Dave. Talking amongst band members, a name kept coming up in every conversation. I put it at my top of the list of things for me to look into. Weirdly, at this same time, I was asked for my address by the guy and a letter came to my house. The letter was a handwritten two pages expressing condolences and had a genuine honesty to it that immediately made me take notice. He wrote of how much he enjoyed playing together on the tour and how Deceased was a powerful entity in the underground music world. About two thirds through the letter, he started to talk of offering his playing skills to the band to keep the entity rolling on. I called him up, and we talked for a good while. I explained how things work in the band and what we’d need and expect from him. He was all in, as were we. Deceased has people living all over the world anymore, it seems, so him being four states over from us is nothing. Homework is the most important thing in this band, and you come in ready in full. After a few video tryouts of him playing to our music, it is exactly as expected – full-hearted and played with passion, and a knack for understanding the wacky traits that are Deceased drums. The band will rehearse throughout winter and into 2019. Look for our first shows April 14th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Decibel music festival, quickly followed on April 19th at the Milwaukee NYDM spring bash.”
Concluding, “So here we are, about to go into our 34th year as a band. And I now introduce you to our new touring drummer, and fellow maniac for the music, Amos Rifkin. UP THE TOMBSTONES!”
Deceased‘s long-awaited eighth album, Ghostly White, is out now via Hells Headbangers. It features Dave Castillo’s final performance with the band, and can be heard in its entirety HERE at Hells Headbangers‘ Bandcamp.
Cover art, courtesy of Raul Gonzalez, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Deceased’s Ghostly White
2. Germ of Distorted Lore
3. A Palpation’s Warning
4. To Serve the Insane
5. Endless Well
6. The Shivers
7. Thoughts of a Leaking Brain
8. Pale Surroundings
DAVE CASTILLO
November 25th, 1974 – November 12th, 2018
