Castle Rat -The Bestiary
Castle Rat – The Bestiary
Blues Funeral Recordings
19/09/2025
Review by Rory Bentley
9/10
Confession time- I wanted to like that Castle Rat album way more than I did. I loved the band’s look, totally dug the camp theatrical concept and the live shows looked absolutely lit. I really liked “Into The Realm” and its Doomy schlock vibes; but it definitely felt like a band feeling their way into a sound to match their already fully developed image and lore. It just didn’t have a sufficient volume of killer songs befitting a band that already felt like stars in the making. There is no such problem on “The Bestiary”, which is a frankly staggering step up from its predecessor.
The grandiose guitar harmonies and filthy power chord stabs that usher in intro track ‘Phoenix’ tell you immediately that things have scaled up, and the bouncing groove and ethereal vocals that kick off first song proper ‘Wolf’ practically scream it in your face. This is Heavy Metal-tinged Doom-infused Psyche Rock of the highest calibre. But you don’t get high scores just for merging genres creatively; your songs have to be top drawer- and this is where Castle Rat excel here.
If you’re a Doom band and you call your song something as cliched as ‘Wizard’ it better be outrageously brilliant. It is. Like super catchy classic Rock riffing and The Rat Queen herself spitting out vocal lines that are like crack to the ears. Meanwhile, The Druid puts in a suitably Bill-Ward-esque jazzy performance on the kit. For those not in the know I should point out that everyone in the band has a goofy stage name which I am so here for. The other members being The Count on lead guitar and The Plague Doctor on bass.
Like Shock-Rock forefathers and fellow New Yorkers KISS, they understand that image and aesthetic will only get you so far (unless you’re Sleep Token) and you need the spooky anthems that give a band staying power. ‘Siren’ starts with another swinging Doom riff for the ages and more sultry crooning from The Queen before exploding into double speed with a Thrash riff to take your noggin off.
‘Unicorn’ meanwhile is a mini Prog epic with a lumbering sludge riff that conjures prime Mastodon, shifting and morphing into Alice In Chains at their darkest with bleak harmonies and tar-black bass lines then going full Heavy Metal era Trouble towards the end. This kind of scope and scale would seem unthinkable after listening to the debut (I feel really bad putting down the debut so much- it’s still a really fucking good album and well worth your time) and it dovetails perfectly into one of the handful of genuinely great interludes in ‘Path of Moss’ that genuinely feel like they’re essential to the album’s continuity rather than being indulgent fluff.
I also love the mysterious almost Pagan-ritual adjacent magic of ‘Sun Song’, which is both heavy and totally hypnotic while treating the listener to huge dollops of “Vol. 4” Sabbath as the psychedelic and the psychotic mesh together beautifully. It’s the kind of Folk-lore imbued Doom that everyone went batshit for on the last Green Lung album, but infused with the sinister darkness of the much missed The Devil’s Blood.
With nary a duff moment on here this album is a total triumph that I could gush on about forever. Castle Rat have the look, the attitude, the sound and the songs to conquer the Metal world and beyond. Big stages await them, and if they keep pumping out classic records like this Ghost may have some competition on their hands going forward. Essential listening.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Phoenix I
02. Wolf I
03. Wizard
04. Siren
05. Unicorn
06. Path of Mos
7. Crystal Cave
08. Serpent
09. Wolf II
10. Dragon
11. Summoning Spell
12. Sun Song
13. Phoenix II
Castle Rat – “WIZARD” (Official Music Video)
LINKS:https://www.facebook.com/share/1GPgaS6wMj/?mibextid=wwXIfr
https://www.instagram.com/castle.rat?igsh=MXZlMDBpaG13anJpbg==
https://castlerat.bandcamp.com/album/the-bestiary
https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/castle-rat/1500181837
