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Although many rockers have drawn from high fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the fantasy way of life. Admittedly, they might decorate their record jackets with creatures, beasts, manacled maidens and muscular warriors, but has any musician ever been forced to recover a missing unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the depths of winter? Did anyone taken the time straining their eyes in the interior of a traveling vehicle, mending their own metal mesh?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have had to face such situations and others as they live out their heroic dreams. Starting with medieval-inspired, earworm-heavy anthems to stunning performances, attire styling, videos and album art, they’re not so much a heavy metal group as a full immersive experience.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” states vocalist, guitarist, blade-handler and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport drives from a sold-out gig in Cologne to another in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and got booked on a spooky event, where I made a last-minute decision to put on an outfit. Everything was highly handmade, but we had an amazing time and the feeling in the room was unforgettable. It occurred to me, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

From that point on, the ensemble – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” together with a pestilence physician (bass player), aristocratic undead (six-string player) and secretive shaman (percussionist) – never turned back. The Bestiary, the follow-up record, conjures visions of famous rock groups joining forces to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that places them on the verge of far grander things.

The release was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her collaborators. “This helped a much better project,” she says of the group work. “I struggled at first – There was a sense of a certain amount of satisfaction being a woman in music working independently. I’ve had numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and an audience member will say, ‘The band compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Hey – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scale of their stage presentation. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. Initially, she was on track for a university studies in art before hesitating at the possibility of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to apply artistic expression,” she says. “From crafting disguises, outfit planning, learning how to edit clips … these are all things I am unfamiliar with, but it’s fun to discover on the fly.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to write it down because all the ideas are,” Riley says, tapping her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the singer learned on her own how to make chainmail – no mean feat, though she admittedly entrusted her all-new scalemail look to a New York-based specialist. “It seems like actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

As for audiences? They loved the theatrical gore, soft weapons and crafted rodent bones with similar excitement as the band. “We had a gig in Detroit and it resembled a medieval event,” remembers Riley fondly. “The whole crowd was in robes, sheepskin, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, however, that touring existence as mythical wanderers has been easy. “Each item is constantly breaking and gets repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I get endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we tour in a bus with restricted capacity. It’s an interesting challenge to give the sense like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into minimal luggage.”

We faced additional practical issues that wouldn’t have troubled legendary fantasy heroes. “There was an ‘oh shit’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my blade in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “It was a worst-case scenario, because there is no an alternative version of the show where I don’t have a blade.”

Future Ambitions

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is enthusiastic about the what’s next. “My goal is as far as possible – we should play large venues,” she says. “The key element that’s deeply meaningful to me is preserving the DIY aesthetic, making sure everything is handmade. That’s an element I want to remain faithful to, whatever we achieve. Additionally, I desire to appear on a unicorn every night. Remember how famous musicians use vehicles in concerts? That, but with a unicorn.”