Castle Rat – ‘The Bestiary’ Review

Fantasy Doom

King Volume Records

Release Date – September 19^th 2025

Review By Smudge Smith

Castle Rat are a new name to me. They are led by the Rat Queen otherwise known as Riley Pinkerton and her mission is to expand and defend her realm from those who would seek to destroy it. Joining her on this quest are The Count, The Plague Doctor and The All-Seeing Druid. They must have something about them because they set up a kickstarter fund to obtain the money for this record and they reached their target within 37 minutes. They closed at $139K. Not bad, eh?

So, what do you get for all that dough? Kicking off with the doomy instrumental ‘Phoenix I’ they set their stall out early with huge power chords and pounding drums before easing into ‘Wolf I’ where the Rat Queen calls her men to arms and they duly oblige with some huge riffage that is low and slow. ‘The Wizard’ takes its sweet time getting going but when it does it stomps around underneath the Rat Queens reverb drenched vocals before The All Seeing Druid rattles out a tribal beat on the beginning of ‘Siren’ before The Count and The Plague Doctor set up a crushing riff ,towards the end they change gears and riffs and the Count shows his manual dexterity with some fluid lines before the creepy doom of ‘Unicorn’ brings things down with The Rat Queen using her feminine wiles to attract you in with her hypnotic voice. You go willingly as the riff and rhythm pull you in. We get some psych on the brief instrumental ‘Path Of Moss’ to keep you spellbound then the acoustic comes out for ‘Crystal Cave’ as The Rat Queen croons softly much like Lucifer’s Johanna Platow. It builds with the Queen soaring over the bleakness and develops into an epic. ‘Serpent’ gets rockin’ on a chunky riff from The Count before the acoustic comes out again for the folky ‘Wolf II’ before the 70’s stoner groove of ‘Dragon’. Stay put and hold hands for the haunting ‘SummoningSpell’ which leads to final cut ‘Sun Song’ that just crushes.

Money well spent in my opinion. Producer Randall Dunn has brought out the magic with some huge sounds along with some real subtleties in places. If you like the sword and sorcery imagery, beasts and battle babes then this is right up your street. Thoroughly recommended. Hopefully they will come to the UK when they tour soon.

8/10

Band –

The Rat Queen – Vocals/Guitar

The Count – Guitar

The Plague Doctor – Bass

The Druid – Drums

Track List –

Phoenix I: Ardent

Wolf I: Tooth And Blade

Wizard: Crystal Heart

Siren: The Pull Of Promise

Unicorn: Carnage And Ice

Path Of Moss

Crystal Cave: Enshrined

Serpent: Coiled Figure

Wolf II: Celestial Beast

Dragon: Lord Of The Sky

Summoning Spell

Sun Song: Behold The Flame

Phoenix II: Cinerous