CASTLE RAT – The Bestiary

Castle Rat is one of those bands that feel like they’ve stepped out of another era: a blatantly old-school logo, a fantasy/medieval-inspired aesthetic, and a sound that’s almost entirely revivalist.

 

The New Yorkers have a distinctly retro appeal, even though they’ve been around since 2019 and had to reinvent themselves to embrace the style they play today. All the members had previously played hard rock—a far cry from the sound they later chose, guided more by concept than anything else.

 

Fantasy has always been a recurring theme in metal, helping countless bands forge their identity. For frontwoman Riley Pinkerton, the “Rat Queen,” it was exactly that intention. She gathered three other members—The Druid, The Count, and The Plague Doctor—forming a quartet that merges musical performance with theatrical flair, complete with elaborate stage costumes.

 

From this vision emerged a heavy/epic-tinged doom metal sound, realized across two albums: Into the Realm (2024) and The Bestiary. While the two releases are close in time, the differences are significant: more interludes, epic passages, atmospheric moments, and increased variety in riffs and technical range.

 

The album opens with Phoenix I, an ethereal intro that immediately sets the arcane tone, before launching into Wolf I, a pure dose of classic doom and the first full-fledged track. Wizard follows, blending power and theatricality with melodic touches, while Siren showcases Rat Queen’s vocals at their peak, supported by Franco Vittore’s guitar work, Charley Ruddell on bass, and Joshua Strmic on drums, delivering heavy—and at times faster—rhythms with precision. Unicorn ramps up the ambition with suspended, mystical atmospheres that swell into crushing riff crescendos, while Crystal Cave brings a return to more delicate, evocative moments. Serpent shifts the sound back to darker grooves, perfectly matching its title, and Wolf II reprises the opening theme with a more shadowed tone. Dragon stands out as a highlight on the purely metal front, featuring monolithic riffs, sharp solos, and a nearly Sabbath-like groove rooted in classic doom tradition. Near the end, Sun Song delivers one of the most epic moments, built on a dramatic crescendo that alternates calm and fury—the album’s most cinematic passage.

 

The Bestiary is a cohesive and ambitious release, balancing doom-heavy weight with narrative interludes and atmospheric passages, creating a musical journey rather than just a collection of songs. Some tracks shine individually, others work best within the album’s flow, but together they define Castle Rat’s identity: a band unafraid to dive into a genre not widely explored, expressing it to the fullest through the fusion of theatricality, fantasy, and mystical atmospheres.