I don’t usually shoot metal. You’re more likely to catch me at an indie rock concert or a hootenanny. But Castle Rat was a band I had to see in person. On Tuesday night, Oct. 20, at The Palladium in Worcester, that instinct paid off in a big way. The Summon the Beasts tour is the New York band’s biggest headline run yet, and I wanted to see how a group with so much lore and theatrics attached to it was in a live setting.
The crowd was itching to go long before the lights dropped. The upstairs was closed, but the floor was as packed as I’ve ever seen it at the Palladium, and plenty of people had dressed for the occasion. The merch line wrapped around the entire venue, and with the kind of merch the band had, I get it. The table went far past t-shirts, with temporary tattoos, foil posters, skateboard decks and rat plushies carrying tiny swords. Castle Rat has built a whole world, and fans (myself included) were lining up to take a piece of it home.
Unto Others opened with a set of long hair and thrashing metal. They did their job well, but the room was clearly waiting for the main event.
That main event is a full production. Riley Pinkerton took the stage in battle attire as The Rat Queen, with a gold scale-mail top, warpaint and a white guitar. She was flanked by guitarist The Count in a long coat and corpse paint, bassist The Plague Doctor in a beaked mask and cowboy hat, and drummer The Druid looking quite sinister behind the kit. It played out like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign on stage, just with better riffs. A glowing-eyed Wizard drifted through the smoke with a staff, a wolf-masked figure in white crept across the floor, and a Unicorn made its way into the story. The Rat Reaperess, in a rat-skull mask, corset and scythe, kept turning up throughout the set as a reminder of what was coming.
The band barely spoke to the crowd outside the story they were telling, which made the night feel like half stage play, half metal concert. Songs like “Wizard,” “Wolf I” and “Dragon” sat alongside dedicated bass, guitar and drum solos, so every member got a moment under the lights. The set leaned heavily on theater, and raised the bar for what I want to see in all my concerts going forward.
The story ended with a battle. The Reaperess finally slew a sword-wielding Rat Queen in front of a roaring room. The Plague Doctor then raised a vial of blood into the green haze, The Rat Queen drank it, and she rose to bring the night home with the encore, “Cry for Me” and “Siren.” It was a ridiculous, theatrical and completely earned finish.
It’s remarkable how fast Castle Rat has built this following in such a specific corner of heavy music. The Bestiary earned best-of-2025 praise from Rolling Stone and drew raves from NPR and Kerrang!, and the band played to roughly 75,000 people this spring, including a sold-out Anaheim headline show. Seeing them in Worcester, one night before the tour wrapped at New York’s Webster Hall, made it clear why. They have turned a medieval doom concept into something fans dress up for and wait in line around the block to be part of. I went in curious and left with my new favorite band. Next time they’re on tour, this is a show you need to be at.
CASTLE RAT SETLIST:
Phoenix I
Dagger Dragger
Wizard
Wolf I
Bass Solo
Feed the Dream
Unicorn
Guitar Solo
Path of Moss
Crystal Cave
Fresh Fur
Dragon
Drum Solo
Serpent
Encore:
Cry for Me
Siren
