By Kira L. Schlechter

From New York City by way of Boris Vallejo’s fevered imagination is Castle Rat and their latest stoner-fest, “The Bestiary” (King Volume Records).

Singer/rhythm guitarist Riley (The Rat Queen) Pinkerton is joined by The Count (Franco Vittore) on lead guitar and backing vocals, The Plague Doctor (Charley Ruddell) on bass, and The All-Seeing Druid (Joshua Strmic) on drums in a mission to save “The Realm” from their archnemesis, Death (The Rat Reaperess), according to the label bio.

“The Bestiary” is the follow-up to 2009’s “Into the Realm.” And indeed, it is a compendium of tales of beasts both real and mythic – and that includes those within humankind itself.

With her ankle-length loincloth, chainmail crop top that leaves little to the imagination, wild tumble of curls, and ever-present sword, Riley resembles a cross between Red Sonja and Conan the Barbarian’s latest conquest – a comic-book heroine sprung to life. The droning midrange and rounded tone of her voice melds seamlessly into the massive, bottom-heavy walls of the music.

Speaking of the music, Castle Rat’s is rooted firmly in the 70s, lusciously sludgy stoner doom, Dungeons & Dragons, all that good stuff, with at least a lyrical nod to Ronnie James Dio. Everything is mixed in the aural equivalent of Vaseline on a camera lens – blurry, shimmering, one sound bleeding into the other. And their videos are all B-movie cheesy special effects, with lots of sword-swinging and wandering through the woods. None of these are bad things, mind you.

The stately, dramatically bashing, guitar harmony-laden instrumental “Phoenix I” (bookended by the identical but acoustic “Phoenix II” at the end) fades out into the official first track, “Wolf I.” A buzzy, fuzzy guitar melody sets the pace as the Rat Queen embarks on the hunt for her prey, warning, “I am animal enough to find/Your heart before the morning.”

More guitars are added in spitting bursts before a 70s’-esque flourish heralds the dense, swirling, almost undermixed chorus – a pattern that continues throughout. The prey is aware of its pursuer (“Hackles raised/to the heavens”) but the remaining two verses leave the outcome deliciously unresolved.   

Our Queen observes the “Wizard” from afar, acknowledging his power but noting he’s not as all-powerful as he seems (“I can see what you’re shielding,” she says, “Within you a creature is feeling/I can see it cower”) and she traces his downfall in real time (“the spells you’ve cast are broken” and “The creature has awoken”). Her use of the metaphor of the crystal – the wizard’s “crystal heart,” his “crystalled and glowing” wisdom – culminates with his ultimate end: “Within you the shards all shift and angle … your mortal soul entangled.”   

“Siren” is pretty self-explanatory lyrically – trying to resist that seductive call – the hollow, ringing high-end drum sound at the outset melding perfectly with the Queen’s vocals that have been this time brought up in the mix. There’s no real chorus, just couplets of temptation: “I hear the sweetness of their song/Is to want to have it all so wrong?” and “Desire clawing at my breast/They claw until there’s nothing left.” That second one comes prior to a solo set to a more frantic groove and the Queen’s wordless cry at the end, leaving her ultimate fate a mystery. 

The Queen’s dreamy description of the mythical beast that is the “Unicorn” (his “white hooves,” his “spiraled horn”) is lovely, but it bodes ill, as that same “cold sun” is also “glinting off of broadswords drawn.” The tempo shifts to a terse, erratic throb in the prechoruses as she warns the hunter that to kill this creature is an evil act that would have consequences – that “desolation shall doom your domain” – then noting in the chorus that one “pure of heart would not seek such thrill.” Alas, the deed is done and thus he is doomed – “Fields of carnage and ice/Where your kingdom lies.” 

“Path of Moss” is a chiming, mournful instrumental interlude laden with guitar harmony, and it segues nicely into “Crystal Cave.” It seems we’re revisiting the Wizard here, perhaps, if we continue the storyline, as he flees to the cave that is his refuge. The Queen observes from afar, almost taunting – “Has your magic fled?” she asks, “Have you bled it dry?” – her voice almost sing-song. As the track builds in intensity towards the chorus, the airiness of the opening gives way to layers of fuzz and sludge as his fate awaits – “Behold what shines/Like blood, like ice.” That phrase becomes his eulogy as the Queen repeats it in a tender croon.

Set to a perfectly appropriate spiraling, twisty groove, the vocal and guitar melody mimicking each other, “Serpent” is a track delicious for its ambiguity (Is this an actual snake? Or a woman? Or the Queen herself?) and its clever rhyming: “Coiled figure/Born to slither,” for one, “Those who touch her/Risk her puncture” for another. It’s this mid-album point where the songs become even stronger and more memorable.  

“Wolf II” is of course the logical conclusion of “Wolf I,” and lyrically, as the song describes, it seems to be a nod to the god Tyr of Norse myth, who indeed placed his fist into the mouth of the giant wolf Fenrir, who promptly bit it off. Its hypnotic melody, both on guitar and vocal, is so compelling – the Queen’s undulating treatment of the word at the end of each line in the verses, intertwining sinuously around the guitar, is just delectable.

A rolling, dirge-like groove is at the root of “Dragon,” whose lyrics seem to allude to Fafnir, the character of Norse myth who steals the dwarf Andvari’s treasure and transforms into a dragon to guard it. This is a more sympathetic treatment of the story, though, seeming to say that Fafnir succumbed to the madness of greed against his will – “creature of sadness/Born of the eldest of magic/Anger and fear hold you captive.” The Queen insists that man, “the fiendish one,” is the real beast, who projected the concept of greed onto the hapless dragon. The “spear in your side” will indeed “be their demise,” as the treasure brought nothing but sorrow. 

“Summoning Spell” is just that, a brief, reverent interlude, heavily overdubbed and laden with violin and synth, calling the “mighty Beast/From between the Elms.”

The final track, “Sun Song,” contrastingly, is probably the longest one here, taken up mostly by a crushing, dissonant instrumental based on the repeating core melody from midway to end. Lyrically, it musingly poses some tantalizing, open-ended questions to not only the Sun (“In all you’ve done/Where did it gleam?”) but to the Moon (“In all your wounds/Were you alone?”), the Flame (“In all you’ve tamed/For what did you yearn?”), and the Flood (“In all your blood/What have you found?”). It’s a resolution of the album that resolves nothing, only opens more ambiguity.

Castle Rat’s U.S. tour just wrapped; their European swing starts Oct. 16 in Prague. Their live set apparently features a choreographed battle scene that would truly bring this lore-based, inherently visual music even more to life. Even without that element, though, “The Bestiary” provides plenty of food for the imagination.

Photos credit: Courtney Hall