Castle Rat, a New York-based doom metal band played a show at The Ogden Theater on Oct. 12 while on tour for their new album “The Bestiary.” Wearing fantasy inspired outfits, the band played to an audience of costumed wizards and regularly clad fans alike creating a story through interspersed narrative beats and performance.
According to Revolver Magazine, after a 2019 Halloween show where each band member dressed up as a fantasy character, Pinkerton made this a permanent choice. She created the characters the band would perform as and the world they would inhabit, and incorporated these ideas in their current tour.
Throughout the performance, a villain character named the Rat Reapress, fights with Castle Rat’s front-woman, Riley Pinkerton in her character as the Rat Queen over the bestiary.
The fight ends in a battle between Pinkerton and the Reapress with Pinkerton piercing her enemy through the back. The grand and gallant battle takes place while the band performs the backing music, transporting audience members into the world of combat.
Castle Rat has performed with this magnificence since they were starting out in 2019. Besides Pinkerton, the band consists of guitarist Franco Vittore as The Count, bassist Charley Ruddell as The Crow Doctor and drummer Joshua Strmic as The Druid.
The Ogden performance’s set list consisted of tracks from “The Bestiary.” combined with tracks from their first album,“Into the Realm” and singles from their second album’s promotional roll out.
Castle Rat’s music is inspired by traditional doom metal bands like Black Sabbath. They use slow BPMs coupled with blues rock inspired riffs to achieve a unique sound centered in fantasy. This stylistic sound opposes the traditional despair and melancholy often associated with the genre.
Their unique style operates as a filter through which the tonal dissonance of traditional doom metal riffs and song style can pass through and be uniquely molded by. Their music is interesting enough to be at the forefront of the show—allowing the narrative to be a supplementary aspect—but is also complimentary to a sound that’s distinct from other modern doom metal bands like Pallbearer and Pentagram.
Towards the end of the performance, the pace slows down as the band recites a rendition of “Cry For Me,” a ballad featuring a fluttery guitar part that ruptures into a thunder of distorted guitars and heavy riffs.
The band will tour for the rest of October and into late November. Their final show will be played overseas in the United Kingdom.
