Fantasy Doom
King Volume Records
Release Date – September 19th 2025
Line Up:
The Rat Queen – Vocals/Guitar
The Count – Guitar
The Plague Doctor – Bass
The Druid – Drums
Tracklist:
Phoenix I: Ardent
Wolf I: Tooth And Blade
Wizard: Crystal Heart
Siren: The Pull Of Promise
Unicorn: Carnage And Ice
Path Of Moss
Crystal Cave: Enshrined
Serpent: Coiled Figure
Wolf II: Celestial Beast
Dragon: Lord Of The Sky
Summoning Spell
Sun Song: Behold The Flame
Phoenix II: Cinerous
Castle Rat is a new name to me. They are led by the Rat Queen otherwise known as Riley Pinkerton and her mission is to expand and defend her realm from those who would seek to destroy it. Joining her on this quest are The Count, The Plague Doctor and The All-Seeing Druid. They must have something about them because they set up a Kickstarter fund to obtain the money for this record and they reached their target within 37 minutes. They closed at $139,000. Not bad, eh?
So, what do you get for all that dough? Kicking off with the doomy instrumental ‘Phoenix I’ they set their stall out early with huge power chords and pounding drums before easing into ‘Wolf I’ where the Rat Queen calls her men to arms and they duly oblige with some huge riffage that is low and slow. ‘The Wizard’ takes its sweet time getting going but when it does it stomps around underneath the Rat Queen’s reverb drenched vocals before The All Seeing Druid rattles out a tribal beat on the beginning of ‘Siren’ before The Count and The Plague Doctor set up a crushing riff, towards the end they change gears and riffs and the Count shows his manual dexterity with some fluid lines before the creepy doom of ‘Unicorn’ brings things down with The Rat Queen using her feminine wiles to attract you in with her hypnotic voice. You go willingly as the riff and rhythm pull you in. We get some psych on the brief instrumental ‘Path Of Moss’ to keep you spellbound then the acoustic comes out for ‘Crystal Cave’ as The Rat Queen croons softly much like Lucifer’s Johanna Platow. It builds with the Queen soaring over the bleakness and develops into an epic. ‘Serpent’ gets rockin’ on a chunky riff from The Count before the acoustic comes out again for the folky ‘Wolf II’ before the ’70s stoner groove of ‘Dragon’. Stay put and hold hands for the haunting ‘Summoning Spell’ which leads to final cut ‘Sun Song’ that just crushes.
Money well spent in my opinion. Producer Randall Dunn has brought out the magic with some huge sounds along with some real subtleties in places. If you like the sword and sorcery imagery, beasts and battle babes then this is right up your street. Thoroughly recommended. Hopefully they will come to the UK when they tour soon.
Written by: Smudge
Ratings: 8/10
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