If you haven't already had Castle Rat's excellent new album The Bestiary blaring through your headphones in recent months, you might just be about to. New York's finest young purveyors of fantasy doom metal just wrapped up a hefty few weeks of touring, including dates in the US, Europe and the UK.
The latter run included a packed-out and richly received set at Manchester's Damnation Festival this past weekend, where the sword-waving heavy metallers shared a stage with the likes of Napalm Death, Corrosion of Conformity, Amenra, Deafheaven and more.
While the weekend was filled with killer performances, it's Castle Rat that seem to have come away with the most attention thanks to their wonderfully theatrical stage show, which includes amongst other things a full live, on-stage battle between the band's mighty leader, The Rat Queen (obviously) and their mascot, a...um....hot rat grim reaper?
Look, you're best just watching the video below, which has already been viewed over half a million times across Metal Hammer's socials since being posted yesterday - not far off the three quarters of a million views currently held by the band's recent music video for Wizard.
As you can imagine, the live footage has sparked all manner of reactions from metal fans, most of whom love Castle Rat's mixture of old school heavy metal thunder and campy fantastical on-stage shenanigans, while others just seem bemused by the whole thing. Either way, everyone is talking.
"One of the best live bands I’ve seen," remarks one fan on Instagram confidently. "Coldplay could NEVER," claims another (and she's probably right, to be fair).
Another follower describes Castle Rat as the "best support band I've ever witnessed", adding that "it was packed and the sound and the quality was amazing." "An animated series and action figures are surely the next step?" offers one entrepreneurial fan.
Describing the sound of Castle Rat's latest album, Queen Rat explained earlier this year: "The Bestiary is a conceptual book of beasts containing a collection of mystical creatures from a world forgotten. The last remaining souls of each have been gathered and preserved by The Wizard. Cautionary tales of each beast and The Wizard himself are woven through the power of traditional heavy metal song and spell."
Critically acclaimed upon release, The Bestiary was praised by Metal Hammer's Dom Lawson, who wrote of the record in a 9/10 review: "the production is monstrous, the artwork is spellbinding, and Castle Rat will be harvesting willing souls for the foreseeable future."
Having supported the likes of stoner doom heavyweights Green Lung and High On Fire in recent times, you have to assume that on all this evidence, Castle Rat will be headlining the same venues they've supported at sooner rather than later. Could we be looking at heavy metal's next breakout band? Watch this space.
