Castle Rat shows come with lore. Riley Pinkerton sings and plays guitar as the Rat Queen, flanked by The Count on lead guitar, The Plague Doctor on bass and The Druid on drums, and somewhere in the set their arch-nemesis, the Rat Reaperess, turns up for a staged battle with swords, chainmail and blood. The Brooklyn band point to a Halloween 2019 gig as the night things turned, and released their debut, Into the Realm, in 2024. Second album The Bestiary followed in September 2025 on King Volume and Blues Funeral, drawing on Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden-esque moments, folk touches and Electric Wizard's heavy psychedelia. The festival lists this as one of only two U.S. performances the band have planned for 2027.