Castle Rat – The Bestiary Review

By Saunders

New York’s Castle Rat generated buzz off the back of their impressive slab of fantasy-inspired doom rock featured on 2024s Into the Realm. A fuzzy, female-fronted doom act with sword and sorcery shtick and a theatrical, unabashedly old school bent, the debut featured tight, infectious songwriting and enough retro flair and heavy metal swagger to rise above the familiar, throwback nature of their craft. Of course, the debut had its detractors, with their theatrical antics, coupled with a not especially original sound, failing to match the hype for some listeners enamored with the heavily populated throwback doom rock/metal scenes. Striking while the iron’s hot, Castle Rat return in quick time with sophomore album, The Bestiary. A quickfire turnaround is a welcome thing, though creates a sense of trepidation of rushed work. Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) and her fellow minions return full of fire and ready to cast their doomy spell for the second time.

Castle Rat hit the ground running with their warm and cozy retro sound intact, albeit featuring a livelier, louder and more propulsive reiteration of the sound established on the debut. Whether listeners find their whole deal too gimmicky or not, it’s tough to doubt the authenticity and passion for their chosen style. Castle Rat channel a ’70s psychedelic haze, prominent Black Sabbath influence, and share surface similarities with acts such as the underrated and enchanting Purson, and modern stoner doom merchants Green Lung. The Bestiary is an altogether harder-hitting and boisterous entity compared to the debut, jacking up the NWoHM and fantasy-inspired bombast for extra crunch. “Phoenix I” unfurls in a slow-burning, dramatic and deliberate fashion, setting the scene for Pinkerton and co to unleash their full fury.

The Bestiary’s increased gallop and fiery guitar work ignite around the poppier sensibilities and smooth central doom grooves and prevalently catchy vocal hooks. Although not the most distinctive frontwoman in the biz, Pinkerton’s silky vocal hooks and confident, commanding delivery continue to a key focal point. Right out the gate, Castle Rat stockpile big-hitting rockers, courtesy of the bluesy doom swagger and earworm hooks of rollicking gems, “Wolf I” and “Wizard.” “Siren” keeps the good times rolling, employing tense rhythmic builds and seductively sinister vocals to cast its spell. There is an easy-to-like simplicity and infectiousness to Castle Rat’s songwriting that shines when the band’s craftsmanship is at its best. Dialing up the epic-ness and adding extra crunch and pepper creates a burlier, higher-octane effort. Within the rowdier experience, Franco Vittore (aka The Count) belts out some blazing solos, while lending doomy weight to straightforward rockers (‘Serpent, “Dragon”) and a grinding, ominous touch to “Unicorn.” Castle Rat’s willingness to experiment outside their comfort zone results in an adventurous, though mixed bag. The softer material nails mysterious, foreboding atmospheres and changes pace, though these shorter pieces are generally less engaging than the album’s rockier fare.

Amidst The Bestiary’s endearing and infectious songwriting, drawbacks appear, tainting an otherwise enjoyable opus. The bricked mastering and loud production detract from the music’s warmth and endearing charms. This issue is felt in numerous areas. The drums lack punch, the mix is squashed and muddied, while dynamic shifts, such as acoustic forays, or the noisy, climactic cacophony on “Unicorn” and “Sun Song” are sapped of their power, dulling impact. Another notable change from the debut is the increased runtime, climbing to nearly fifty minutes, in contrast to its predecessor’s refreshing efficiency. There are momentum drops and pacing issues. These factors and the front-loaded nature of the album contribute to bloat. An intro, outro, mid-album instrumental piece (“Path of Moss”) and three decent, acoustic-driven folkier tunes have their merits but combined contribute to pacing issues and overall padding.

Into the Realm was an impressive debut outing, signaling Castle Rat as a fresh force pedaling retro and fantasy-clad doom to strong effect. The Bestiary marks an ambitious, solid, if flawed follow-up. Significant production concerns and the aforementioned pacing issues, bloat, and an uneven backend detract from an album that reaffirms Castle Rat as a talented band with old school values and a vision to diversify their formula with intriguing results. While not everything hits the mark, there is still much to unpack, some killer tunes, and fun to be had. Hopefully Castle Rat can channel their creativity into a more consistent, tighter effort next time round.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 3 | Format Reviewed: 2304 kbps (Lossless)
Label: Blues Funeral Recordings
Websites: bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #BlackSabbath #BluesFuneralRecordings #CastleRat #DoomMetal #GreenLung #HeavyMetal #NWOBHM #Purson #Review #Reviews #TheBestiary

Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970, UK) (…or, The B2TB2TB Fedival)

Fifty-five years ago today, Black Sabbath released Paranoid, possibly the greatest metal album that will ever be made. And two and a half months ago, at the Back to the Beginning send-off/charity concert, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath performed for the very last time, with 3 of the last 4 songs Sabbath would ever play being songs from this iconic album, their final song indeed being its title track.

While it was definitely an event to remember, a few of us Fedizens have mused about how that send-off show could’ve been better – less American-dude-centric, more genres, more local “Brummie” acts. And so, since we have Paranoid on The List (number 516, courtesy of swordgeek) as well as a couple other Sabbath albums, rather than me blabbing on about stuff you can easily find written about much better elsewhere, we’ve instead created a 100% imaginary, faux fantasy festival – the “Back to the Back to the Beginning Fedival”, if you will – with a setlist somewhat focusing on Paranoid. …And by “we” I mean some lovely people in the Fediverse[1] indulged my ask for imaginary Sabbath/Ozzy covers, and I BBQ-sauce hallucinated everything else. In other words, obsessed with fantasy, possessed with my schemes, I mixed reality with super-rod dreams…

In case it needs to be clearly said, though some of these covers have occurred IRL (and I’ve tried to link them if so), if it seems to be real, it’s illusion. And, well, some of these artists – including Ozzy, obvs – are no longer with us (window in time, through it we fly). …But wouldn’t it be cool if this could actually happen?!! Like, sometimes, when sadness fills my days, it’s time to turn away, and then tomorrow’s dreams become reality to me… Ahem, I mean, metal is awesome and SABBATH RULES. And those rules are:

• Tickets are free, obvs, BUT it would be very metal of you if you could donate to this very real GoFundMe for Kai’s gender-affirming surgery. Kai is the drummer of the most excellent Birmingham band Meatdripper, who will be (fake) playing the A/Brummie Stage. Also, buying music from any of these artists (especially the live ones) will make you instantly cool. Onward all you crystal soldiers.
• Imagination is required, again obvs, and because there will be points in the fake schedule where multiple bands/artists will be fake playing the same song at the same fake time across the fake stages. BUT, have no fear, because these *buffyleigh hands you a pair of* totally fake, patent-forever-pending headphones included with every fake ticket will let you instantly fake mix the fake performances together to create fake on-demand supergroups that magically just work. The festival’s 6 fake stages are connected anyway, so you can go right ahead and imagine the bands are crossing the fake stage lines and fake performing as a fake supergroup, if you so wish (come on now – try it out)…
• Yeah, so those 6 fake stages – they’re in the shape of an inverted pentagram, because that just makes sense. And you can circle around the pentagram, move between the pentagram-point stages, even float around above them all, because you can fly at this thing if you want. Like, it’s fake, right? At any rate, Satan, laughing, might spread his wings.
• If you want no part in this but have for some reason read this far, I’ll give you some links so you know just where you are.
  • Songlink: Black Sabbath – Paranoid
  • Discogs: Black Sabbath – Paranoid

All day long, I think of things but nothing seems to satisfy
Think I’ll lose my mind if I don’t find something to pacify
Can you help me occupy my brain?

Back to the Back to the Beginning Fedival

Remember the Sabbath, and Keep It Unholy

Misty morning, clouds in the sky. Without warning, 10s, 100s – nay 1000s – of Sabbath/Ozzy/metal/music fans from all over walk by, into the stadium. And, what is this that stands before us? Acid Mothers Temple, playing their “Starless and Bible Black Sabbath” to set the stage. Alright now! Won’t you listen?

As the misty morning rolls away to die, the first covers set kicks off across all 6 stages with songs from Black Sabbath’s s/t debut and beyond, featuring Flower Travellin’ Band, Type O Negative, 13th Floor Elevator, Joy Division, Sleep, Alice in Chains (with Layne Staley), Thou, Soundgarden, Alanis Morissette, and Queen. As soon as Freddie Mercury walks off-stage, a DJ supergroup of kick-ass women/non-binary artists from a nether world – Arca, Björk, Fever Ray, NGHTCRWLR (aka King Woman), and The Headless Prince of Zolpidem (aka Emma Ruth Rundle) – take over all the stages just to bust another soul, i.e., to do some gender fuckery via a set remixing some of Sabbath’s uh, interesting, songs about women alongside those weird but awesome experimental songs everyone forgets about. Look out, they’ll pull you in!

As soon as they finish, Lzzy Hale emerges on the Sabbath Stage with Halestorm to kick off part A of the second set of covers, reprising her B2TB cover of “The Ultimate Sin”. Turn up the night, it feels so right! Following this are some epic local Birmingham back street kids, rock ‘n’ roll music is the only thing they really dig on A Stage, aka Brummie Stage: Judas Priest, Margarita Witch Cult, Outlander, and Meatdripper. Parallel to these bands are some artists you may or may not know: Freakwater, Richard Youngs, U.S. Maple, the one and only Dolly Parton, Black Country Communion, and a certain Joan Jett. So listen to the music, want to see you getting so high.

Part B of the second set of covers shifts gears a tiny bit, with B Stage turning into a spoken word stage. Come on, join the traveller if you got nowhere to go, and listen to John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats reading from his 33 1/3 book on Master of Reality. (And, just between us, this stage will unofficially remain an open mic until the end of the set, for any fans wanting to tell their own stories about Sabbath/Ozzy.) If you do have somewhere to go, perhaps it’s to hear the saddest song you ever heard on the other stages, played by the likes of Shonen Knife, Venom, Emma Ruth Rundle, The Cure, Boris, Motörhead, Ministry, Happy Mondays, Bloodywood, Napalm Death, and OLD. To close out the set, Henry Rollins treats us to some Sabbath and Ozzy storytime. A story told that can’t be real somehow must reflect the truth we feel, yeah.

The wind in the night blows cold; our eyes are burning, as the sands of our time grow old… And we enter the Paranoid set, where the album is played in its entirety, with 3 versions of each song occurring in tandem across 3 stages. (Those magical supergroup-creating headphones are really going to come in handy here.) Here we hear from musicians gathered in their masses: CAKE, T-Pain, and uKanDanZ; James Brown and The J.B’s, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Sly & the Family Stone; Boards of Canada, Madhouse, and Rondellus; Cyndi Lauper, The Beat, and Body Count (w/ Ice-T); Bauhaus, Electric Wizard, and Neil Young; Nine Inch Nails, The Obsessed, and Castle Rat; and Melvins, UB40, and The Cardigans. Yeah!

Then, we see a black moon rising, and it’s calling out our name. The Birmingham Royal Ballet takes over all stages, performing a selection from their Black Sabbath: The Ballet. You’ve got to bleed for the dancer! They finish with all dancers clustered in the center, from which, suddenly, Ozzy Osbourne‘s throne rises. Ozzy’s band joins and they reprise their B2TB set; reanimation of the sequence rewinds the future to the past. Everyone cries during “Mama I’m Coming Home”, again, but, no more tears! Once “Crazy Train” ends and Ozzy and band leave the stage, out of shadows, shining ever-bright, a supergroup of previous Sabbath members including Dio and Tony Martin come on stage and play a few. (Hold on, good things never last.) When they’ve played their last note, the original Sabbath lineup takes the stage and, for a brief moment, all Sabbath members are momentarily together. All the people give a happy sigh.

Black Sabbath plays their last set, left all the people feeling so fine. All artists from the day join them on stage, eat Ozzy’s cake, and scream “I love you all” at the crowd.

We sail through endless skies, stars shine like eyes, the black night sighs. And suddenly, wall of sleep is lying broken, sun shines in – you have awoken…and are wondering where those headphones lying next to you came from.

1. Cover suggestions: avi_miller, blastingrod, boxspring, buffyleigh, derthomas, fistfulofdave, flockofnazguls, gavin57, harriolkn, Kingu, MetalheadDana, platenworm, RolloTreadway, Ronnie, soundclamp ↩︎