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Although plenty of rockers have taken inspiration from high fantasy, only a handful have fully embraced the mythical way of life. Certainly, they might adorn their album sleeves with ghouls, beasts, captive women and muscular warriors, but did a member ever been forced to retrieve a missing horn from a unicorn from a wintry landscape in the midst of winter? Has anyone devoted hours straining their eyes in the back of a road transport, mending their own chainmail?

Living the Fantasy

Established in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have had to face these exact challenges and more as they live out their grand tales. From knightly, catchy songs to breathtaking live shows, attire styling, videos and record designs, they’re not so much a heavy metal group as a complete sensory journey.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” says singer, guitarist, sword-carrier and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport travels from a sold-out gig in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they are playing five gigs in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and got booked on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had a blast and the feeling in the room was electric. I realized, ‘What if we could have such enjoyment at every show?’”

Development of Castle Rat

After that, the band – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a medic from history (bassist), proud bloodsucker (guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – continued forward. Their latest album, the band’s second album, brings to mind of classic metal icons uniting to battle their way through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that sets them on the edge of greater success.

The Bestiary was a first for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her fellow members. “It made it a much better project,” she says of the collaborative process. “It was challenging at first – I’d always felt a certain amount of accomplishment as a female in music working independently. There have been multiple instances where I’ve got off stage and an audience member will say, ‘The other members write great riffs!’ and I respond, ‘Hey – I wrote all that.’”

Artistry and Imagination

With their growing popularity has grown, so has the scale of their visual elements. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on course for a art school education before hesitating at the possibility of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s crafting disguises, costume design, mastering post-production song visuals … everything is I am unfamiliar with, but it’s exciting to discover in the moment.”

As if creating the ensemble’s complex backstory (“People are encouraging me to record it because everything is stored,” Riley says, tapping her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the vocalist self-educated how to craft metal mesh – a difficult task, though she confessedly delegated her completely original scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It seems like actual armour,” she beams.

Fan Response and Obstacles

What about the crowd? They embraced the fake blood, toy blades and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We played a concert in Detroit and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” reminisces Riley fondly. “Everyone was in robes, sheepskin, chainmail.”

That’s not to imply, however, that life on the road as mythical wanderers has been smooth. “All our gear is frequently damaged and gets duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Moreover I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a van with limited room. It’s a unique problem to make it feel like a grand epic, then pack it down into nothing.”

There have been additional practical issues that didn’t affect legendary fantasy heroes. “We did have an ‘disastrous’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in the European country and my suitcase – which had my sword in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “This became a worst-case scenario, because there is no an different option of the show where I am without a weapon.”

Upcoming Plans

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “I want to go as far as possible – we should play huge arenas,” she says. “The main aspect that’s truly essential to me is preserving the DIY aesthetic, making sure each detail is crafted by us. This is a feature I want to keep true to, whatever we scale to. Plus, I want to appear on a unicorn every night. Remember how famous musicians do the motorcycle thing? The same idea, but on a mythical creature.”