New York heavy metal force Castle Rat announce their biggest London headline show to date, with the band set to bring their immersive blend of doom, stoner metal and medieval fantasy to Camden’s Electric Ballroom on 27th May 2027.
Tickets go on sale at 10am BST on Friday 2nd October, as Castle Rat continue to expand their increasingly ambitious live world following a rapid rise that has taken them from the underground to major festivals and some of the biggest stages of their career.
Castle Rat
The announcement arrives as the band continue their Summon The Beasts Tour 2026, their biggest headline tour so far. The current North American run follows an extensive touring period that has seen Castle Rat perform alongside Amon Amarth and Dethklok, as well as headline shows and major festival appearances.
The band’s spectacular live presence has become as important to their identity as the music itself. Built around swords, sorcery, monsters, theatrical costumes and a deliberately constructed fantasy mythology, Castle Rat turn every performance into something approaching a heavy metal role-playing adventure.
At the centre of that world is Riley Pinkerton, known as The Rat Queen, who handles lead vocals and rhythm guitar. She is joined by Franco Vittore, The Count, on lead guitar and backing vocals; Charley Ruddell, The Plague Doctor, on bass; and Josh Strmic, The All-Seeing Druid, on drums.
Together, the quartet face their recurring nemesis, Death, Herself — The Rat Reaperess — as the band continues to develop the visual mythology surrounding its music.
The theatrical presentation is matched by a sound deeply rooted in heavy metal’s darker traditions. Castle Rat combine doom-heavy riffs, fuzzed-out guitar textures, stoner-metal momentum and classic heavy-metal theatrics, creating music that feels deliberately larger than the individual songs.
The band’s most recent album, The Bestiary, pushed that approach further. Produced by Randall Dunn, the album followed their 2024 debut Into The Realm and established a more expansive version of the band’s sound.
Released in late 2025, The Bestiary helped propel Castle Rat into a new level of international attention, building on the foundation established by Into The Realm, which has now accumulated 10 million Spotify streams and reached the top of Bandcamp’s Best-Selling Hard Rock/Alt Rock Albums chart upon release.
The band’s rise has been accompanied by an increasingly demanding touring schedule. Following two sold-out tours in late 2024, Castle Rat embarked on a headline US tour in March 2025 before spending six weeks touring Europe, including appearances at Desertfest, Hellfest and Copenhell. The group subsequently joined Amon Amarth and Dethklok for a major run before launching their current North American headline tour.
This year alone, the band have performed in front of approximately 75,000 people across headline shows, major rock festivals and their touring commitments, culminating in a sold-out 1,400-capacity headline show in Anaheim. They also made a major impression at the UK’s Bloodstock festival, further strengthening their connection with British metal audiences.
The next step will be considerably more intimate than the largest festival stages but significant in its own way: a headline appearance at Camden’s Electric Ballroom. The 27th May 2027 show represents the biggest London headline date of Castle Rat’s career so far, giving UK fans another opportunity to enter the band’s increasingly elaborate realm of riffs, ritualistic imagery and theatrical heavy metal.
The London announcement also arrives alongside the release of the recent Dragon video, providing another visual introduction to the world that Castle Rat have built around The Bestiary and their live performances.
For listeners drawn to doom, stoner metal and classic heavy metal — and anyone looking for something considerably more theatrical than a conventional gig — Castle Rat continue to make the stage an extension of their music.
With their largest London headline show now confirmed, the Rat Queen and her fellow warriors are preparing to return to the UK in 2027 and summon a new chapter in the band’s rapidly expanding world.
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