The Best Metal Album of 2025 gets a high-quality zoetrope animation version. A bright, detailed collectible for music lovers.

Emerging from New York’s vile, creature-infested underground, fantasy heavy metal purveyors CASTLE RAT have announced details of their impending sophomore album ‘The Bestiary’, to be released on September 19th by King Volume Records (North America) and Blues Funeral Recordings (UK/Europe).

Since their formation in 2019, CASTLE RAT have created a vivid labyrinth of fantasy lore led by ‘The Rat Queen’ aka Riley Pinkerton. Together with ‘The Count,’ ‘The Plague Doctor’ and ‘The All-Seeing Druid’, the group has carried out countless battles against ‘The Rat Reaperess’ with riffs, swords and spells on stages across the country.

Recorded by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Wolves in the Throne Room, Bjrk) and mixed by Jonathan Nuez (Torche, Restless Spirit), the band’s latest odyssey features 13 spellbinding tracks