ninehertz

We must all know of New York’s Castle Rat by now – they’ve not been around long, only one album before this, but the fantasy medieval theme jumps out. Whether we’ve all heard them might be a different matter. Delving into their new album The Bestiary is my first proper listen. I’m keen to put music to the name, to see if the clamour behind them is based on the music as well as, and hopefully more than the aesthetic.

The song titles alone read like a shuffled together gang of mobs and spells in some complex D&D styled card game. There’s an intro track that could be a metal marching call to war, and then into Wolf I. And lo and behold, I’m really enjoying it. It sounds as you’d imagine, but better – like a NWOBHM take on The Sword’s Age of Winters on horseback. I thought my ‘metal is serious business’ / ‘LARPing is for nerds’ / ‘natural wariness of hype’ would be kicking in, but no. I get it wholeheartedly.

In the few tracks that follow after, there are the elements you’d expect to find – galloping guitars (even if there is an unexpected gothic edge at times), chugging riffs and wild solos. Siren in particular is enlivening. But the album is thirteen tracks long, and Castle Rat deviate from the preconceptions a little with that length.

At first you feel a slight deflation, no longer riding the adrenaline into battle. But it doesn’t take long to start to appreciate these deviations and variance. The vocals really shine in these moments. There are acoustic tracks with string backing for full dramatic effect, going almost fully orchestral at a point or two. Not many metal bands could get away with this with modern day integrity intact, but this feels fittingly overblown. There are moments that are truly ethereal, others with a strong whiff of proto-doom.

Perhaps some of the spell cast early on is lost by midway, but all that means is I’m not dreaming of donning my plastic suit of armour and running to the hills. From a musical perspective I’m sold throughout, and actually, the peaks and valleys, the different temperaments, genres and moods reflects the rich narrative journey the album charts, evidence of a progressive, clever and wholly rounded album, that at times offers pure moments of unashamed joy.