Castle Rat

The Arc of Castle Rat

The pivots — what forced Castle Rat to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Abandoned Church Sessions

   Pinkerton gathered the original crew — guitarist Henry Black, bassist Ronnie Lanzilotta, and drummer Joshua Strmic — to drop the debut single 'It Isn't Clean' in 2020 before hauling gear out to Philadelphia. Tracking inside an abandoned church alongside producers Davis Shubs and Thomas Johnsen, they captured a massive, echoing doom crunch that culminated in the 2024 debut LP Into the Realm. The record balances galloping heavy metal rhythms against crawling doom, carried by Golden Mastering's lacquer cuts. It was raw, ambitious, and proved their visual aesthetic had real sonic muscle behind it.

2. 02

   The Changing of the Guard

   Right as the debut started moving units through King Volume, the foundation cracked when both Black and Lanzilotta walked out the door. Rather than folding the tent, Pinkerton and Strmic recruited guitarist Franco Vittore and bassist Charley Ruddell to immediately slip into the established stage armor. Standalone singles like 'Cry for Me' and 'Fresh Fur' closed out the debut era while the refreshed lineup hardened their stage dynamic on the road. The transition was seamless enough that the band never lost their road momentum.

3. 03

   The Dunn Expansion

   Turning to their fanbase via Kickstarter to dodge label interference, the band funded studio time with veteran heavy-music engineer Randall Dunn. Tracking with Dunn stripped away some of the cavernous church bleed in favor of monstrous low-end control and punchy, articulate fuzz across the 2025 sophomore album The Bestiary. Singles like 'WIZARD' and the 2026 cut 'SIREN' show off a tighter, meaner unit where Vittore's leads slice through the grime instead of floating in church hall echo. It took them from a regional novelty act to a lethal, road-tested doom powerhouse.

Influences

• Black Sabbath — Pinkerton has repeatedly cited Tony Iommi's blueprint as the ground zero for her guitar playing. You hear it immediately in the low-slung, tritone-heavy riffs anchoring tracks like 'Dagger Dragger'. Without Master of Reality, this band simply does not exist.
• Candlemass — The dramatic marriage of traditional epic doom tempo shifts and clean, soaring operatic vocals draws straight from Leif Edling's songwriting model. The unhurried stomp and theatrical dread across Into the Realm echo the solemn weight of Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. It is melodrama executed with absolute stone-faced sincerity.
• Electric Wizard — The filthy, wall-of-fuzz bass tone pushed by Lanzilotta and carried on by Ruddell takes heavy cues from Jus Oborn's abrasive guitar churn. You can hear that sludgy, bottom-heavy saturation driving the rhythm tracks on 'Feed the Dream'. It keeps the band's clean vocal lines from ever sounding too polished.
• Judas Priest — Beyond the doom crawl, the band weaves in galloping, twin-guitar-inspired traditional heavy metal riffs straight out of the British Steel era. The punchy tempo surges in 'Fresh Fur' borrow directly from Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing's playbook. They take the slow doom burn and snap it right into classic headbanging drive.
• Warlock — Doro Pesch laid down the template for commanding, fantasy-forward heavy metal vocal delivery fronting a wall of heavy guitars. Pinkerton channels that exact unapologetic warrior presence across tracks like 'WIZARD', carrying the melody right over the fuzz without flinching. It is clean, fierce metal singing with zero modern vocal-fry shortcuts.