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

Medieval fantasy metal phenomenon CASTLE RAT present their captivating second album The Bestiary! Castle Rat is a Medieval Fantasy Heavy Metal band led by the Rat Queen on a mission to expand and defend `The Realm' from those who seek to destroy it.

She is joined by The Count, The Plague Doctor, and The All-Seeing Druid. Together they face the relentless wrath of their arch nemesis: Death Herself _ `The Rat Reaperess." Second album The Bestiary is a riff-laden compendium of mystical creatures and cautionary tales from a world forgotten, telling allegorical tales of mythic beasts and the Wizard who summons them, weaving powerful heavy anthems and dark enchantments to create a bewitching and unforgettable heavy metal odyssey.

As if Grace Slick would KISS Black Sabbath since a thousand years. Emerging from New York's vile, creature-infested underground, the fantasy heavy metal purveyors made first big waves with its live performances and later with debut album "Into The Realm" in 2024.

Since their formation in 2019, CASTLE RAT have created a vivid labyrinth of fantasy lore ,carried out countless battles with riffs, swords and hard rockin' spells against "The Rat Reaperess" Recorded by Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Wolves in the Throne Room, Björk) and mixed by Jonathan Nuñez (Torche, Restless Spirit), the album features spellbinding tracks of epic carnage and mystical metal.

The Bestiary Zoetrope comes in semi-rigid transparent PVC sleeve with flap, also still on CD (fold-out digipak), MC (with fold-out inlay) and LP (colored vinyl, single-pocket jacket, including fold-out lyrics insert)!