Words and Photos by Desirea Corbett
On Tuesday night, the line outside Brooklyn Paramount stretched around the block long before the doors even opened. Leather, dyed hair, and anticipation filled the streets as fans poured into the historic venue for a stacked lineup featuring Dethklok and Amon Amarth. But before the Viking Gods of Metal took over the venue, Brooklyn’s own Castle Rat took the stage and transformed the room into something that felt less like an opening set and more like a medieval fever dream.
The set featured four songs from their 2025 debut album, The Bestiary, including “Wizard,” “Siren,” “Serpent,” and “Sun Song.” But honestly, the music was only a small fraction of what Castle Rat is about. They truly put on a theatrical experience. Their set told the story of “The Rat Queen” (Riley Pinkerton) defending her realm against the Rat Reapress, who emerged in a full rat costume to battle to the death. In the end, she slays our heroine, but the Plague Doctor played by the Bass Guitarist, feeds the Rat Queen an elixir of life from a golden chalice. She rises, convulses, spits blood, then raises her sword and gets the crowd chanting along: “Now is Forever: In This Realm.”
All the while, the Count on lead guitar swung his hair in circles, blood streaming down his painted white face while shredding through the set. The Druid on drums kept the pace while making frightening expressions with one eye covered by a ghostly white contact lens.
It quickly became obvious that Castle Rat is having a moment. The photo pit was packed shoulder to shoulder with press photographers, all trying to capture the chaos unfolding onstage. For an opening band playing only four songs, they commanded the kind of attention most headliners would kill for. Every swing of the sword, every spray of fake blood and every oversized rat with glowing eyes inspired awe and felt like being transported into another realm.
And maybe that’s the real magic of Castle Rat. Plenty of bands can play heavy music, but very few can create a world immersive enough to follow you home afterward. Long after the set ended, I was still thinking about the Rat Queen, the Reapress and the Medieval spectacle that unfolded onstage. In fact, the performance hit me so hard that I ended up having a nightmare that night about giant rats invading my home. Honestly, that might be the strongest endorsement I can give them.
Loudspeaker Collective 