Castle Rat: Majestic Ventura Theater - Ventura, California - 10/2/26
Castle Rat is a doom metal band formed in New York in 2019. They released their second album The Bestiary in 2025. They toured with Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth earlier this year and catapulted their popularity. They played two Southern California shows recently and both shows sold out ahead of time. Now, they have a headlining tour, and the tour made a stop at the Majestic Ventura Theater in Ventura, California. The locals showed up to the show and a Castle Rat show was the perfect way to spend a Friday night.
The lights went out and two mysterious figures in the forms of a wizard and a wolf came on stage. They danced and looked around on stage and at the audience. After a while, they left the stage. The members of Castle Rat came on stage with vocalist/guitarist Riley Pinkerton being the last one. Castle Rat started their show with "Dagger Dagger." The doom music filled the venue, and you couldn't help but headbang right away. Up next was the fan-favorite "Wizard" and it featured the wizard character coming back on stage. The song itself is very catchy and easy to sing along to. The third song was "Wolf 1" and it featured the wolf character coming back on stage dancing to the music. After the song ended, the band members left the stage with only bassist Charley Ruddell being the only one on stage. He gave the audience a beautiful bass solo as he was bathed in green light and fog. The rest of the band eventually came back on stage and the show went on. More songs that were played included Feed the Dream, Unicorn, and Fresh Fur. Drummer Joshua Strmic and guitarist Franco Vittore gave their respective solos in between songs. One of the best songs performed was “Serpent” and it featured a snake costume dancing around and eventually got into a battle with Pinkerton as she picked up a sword and shield. The snake ran away and Pinkerton was confronted by Death. Death eventually defeated and slain Pinkerton. Vittore gave Pinkerton a red potion which revived her. Pinkerton made her way to the front of the stage to spit out the red liquid making it for one of the best parts of the show. The band left the stage, and everything seemed quiet. The audience kept chanting the band’s name. After a little while, Castle Rat came back out for some encores. The first encore was their most beautiful song, “Cry for Me,” which funny enough was made into a bumper sticker that can be purchased at their merch table. The final song of the night was “Siren.” The whole show was spectacular from start to finish. Like watching movies like Masters of the Universe or Red Sonja. Castle Rat is set to be a massive band within the next few years and hopefully they come back to Ventura real soon.
