🔗 Share this article

While plenty of rockers have taken inspiration from high fantasy, few have genuinely embodied the fantasy lifestyle. Sure, they may adorn their album covers with creatures, beasts, manacled maidens and strong fighters, but did a member ever needed to retrieve a misplaced mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the midst of winter? Has a performer spent time squinting in the rear of a tour bus, repairing their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Formed in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have encountered both these scenarios and additional ones as they act out their grand tales. Starting with medieval-inspired, catchy songs to eye-popping performances, outfit creation, music videos and cover artwork, they’re not just a heavy metal group as a complete sensory journey.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a costumed concept band,” states singer, guitarist, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport drives from a sold-out gig in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they have multiple performances in the UK now. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a spooky event, where I made a last-minute decision to dress up. It was all highly handmade, but we had a blast and the energy was incredible. It occurred to me, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

Since then, the group – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” alongside a plague doctor (low-end instrumentalist), proud bloodsucker (guitarist) and mysterious druid (drummer) – haven’t looked back. The new record, the band’s second album, brings to mind of classic metal icons uniting to battle their way through a mythical painted realm – a grand composition that positions them on the verge of far grander things.

The release was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her bandmates. “That contributed to a much better album,” she says of the team effort. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a particular degree of pride as a woman in music doing everything solo. There have been numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘The other members compose cool melodies!’ and I respond, ‘Listen – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the breadth of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. She was originally on course for a university studies in art before pulling back at the idea of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply artistic expression,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, outfit planning, mastering post-production music videos … everything is I am unfamiliar with, but it’s enjoyable to learn as we go.”

As if developing the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the singer learned on her own how to craft metal mesh – no mean feat, though she confessedly entrusted her all-new scale armor design to a New York-based specialist. “It feels like actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

What about the crowd? They took to the theatrical gore, toy blades and handmade props with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We had a concert in the Motor City and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” reminisces Riley happily. “All attendees was in robes, animal hides, metal wear.”

This isn’t to say, though, that traveling lifestyle as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been plain sailing. “Each item is constantly breaking and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a vehicle with only so much space. It’s an interesting challenge to give the sense like a larger-than-life story, then compress it into a small space.”

There have been other logistical problems that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We did have an ‘disastrous’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – went missing,” says Riley. “That was a nightmare, because there’s not an backup plan of the show where I don’t have a blade.”

Upcoming Plans

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the days to come. “I want to go to the top – we should play large venues,” she says. “The key element that’s really important to me is maintaining the DIY aesthetic, guaranteeing all elements is handmade. This is a feature I want to stay authentic to, no matter what we scale to. Oh, and I desire to make an entrance on a unicorn at all performances. You know how some artists ride bikes on stage? Exactly that, but on a mythical creature.”