By Greg Maki
After inviting us into its world on its debut album, 2024’s “Into the Realm,” fantasy doom metal band Castle Rat—hailing from the very non-fantastical Brooklyn, New York—expands on its lore in spectacular fashion on its sophomore effort, “The Bestiary.” With the first album featuring only seven proper songs and barely topping 30 minutes, this feels in a way like the band’s first definitive statement, and it’s risen to the occasion with a record that’s bigger in all the best ways—huge riffs, earth-shaking basslines, thunderous drums and unforgettable vocal melodies.
With frontwoman Riley Pinkerton, aka the Rat Queen, sporting a chainmail bikini and brandishing a sword, and the other band members known as the Count, the Plague Doctor and the All-Seeing Druid, you probably have an idea of what you’re getting into even before pressing play. Detailing the magical denizens of the land in which the band has found itself in a battle against the nefarious Rat Reaperess, “The Bestiary” plays out like the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual set to music. Thirteen-year-old me would have been obsessed with this, and you know what? Forty-five-year-old me is, too.
While doom metal is very much the starting point, it feels like Castle Rat has allowed more rock influences to seep in this time around, adding a bit of brightness to some of the riffs and melodies, and allowing for more varied tempos instead of the endless drone employed by so many others in the subgenre (often to great effect—no slight on doom metal intended here!). Recorded by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Wolves in the Throne Room, Björk) and mixed by Jonathan Nuñez (Torche, Restless Spirit), the sound is consistently thick and heavy, yet with space for Pinkerton’s vocals to shine through and root the songs with hypnotic hooks.
Highlights include “Wizard” with its propulsive riffing, “Siren” with its foundation-shaking drums, “Crystal Cave,” featuring strings and Pinkerton’s finest vocal to date, “Serpent” with its stomping rhythm and “Sun Song,” featuring an extended outro that grows in power the more it repeats and must be absolutely epic onstage. With material of this caliber, lore that expands beyond the songs to create a true experience and a buzzed-about live show (featuring the Rat Reaperess herself), Castle Rat is on the fast track to superstardom in the world of heavy music.
Rating: 10/10
King Volume Records/Blues Funeral Recordings – September 19, 2025
LINKS:
Buy “The Bestiary.”
Listen on Spotify.
www.castlerat.com
www.instagram.com/castlerat
www.youtube.com/@castlerat
