Castle Rat – Into The Realm (2024)

May 5, 2024

One doesn’t want to ask such a question, but one feels one has to – would Castle Rat be popping off as much as they currently are if they didn’t look the way they do? I’m talking mostly regarding enigmatic and super-talented frontwoman Riley Pinkerton AKA The Rat Queen, but also the rest of the group with their various monikers and disguises. The Scooby Doo aesthetic, whilst clearly working, gives a whole Blood Ceremony meets Ghost feeling.

The sad truth is that occult rock / trad doom / 70s “metal” revival bands are a dime a dozen, so does Into The Realm hold up once you take away all the theatrics and imagery? Does it work on an intrinsic musical level? Well, kind of. The previously mentioned Rat Queen has a great voice (when it’s not drowning in awful effects), reminding me of Rosalie Cunningham or Alia O’Brien, but the backing band, whilst serviceable, never quite offer anything that stands out. The production has this weird blown out sound on the percussion, I guess to make the soundstage artificially fuller than it actually is, but the guitar work is fun, if nothing else. Outside of highlights “Cry For Me” and closing track “Nightblood”, none of the tracks on this thing are any better than “Ok”, which is well, not really OK, at least not in a genre where a hundred million other bands are vying to replace you in an instant.

Look, this is an entertaining album. It’s not like, actually bad (outside of a few choice effects / filters on the vocals which actively detracts from the overall experience), but I expected more.