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While plenty of artists have drawn from high fantasy, only a handful have genuinely embodied the enchanted lifestyle. Certainly, they may adorn their album covers with ghouls, goblins, manacled maidens and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever needed to retrieve a lost unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Has a guitarist spent time peering in the rear of a tour bus, repairing their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have encountered such situations and more as they act out their grand tales. Starting with medieval-inspired, earworm-heavy tunes to breathtaking performances, attire styling, music videos and album art, they’re not so much a metal band as a complete sensory journey.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a costumed concept band,” says vocalist, guitarist, sword-carrier and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport travels from a packed show in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they have multiple performances in the UK this week. “Initially, we performed twice and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. It was all completely self-made, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was incredible. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun at every show?’”

Development of Castle Rat

Since then, the group – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” alongside a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), aristocratic undead (guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (percussionist) – continued forward. Their latest album, the band’s second album, brings to mind of classic metal icons joining forces to struggle onward through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that places them on the verge of far grander things.

The release was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her fellow members. “This helped a much better album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a specific level of accomplishment as a female in music doing everything solo. I’ve had multiple instances where I finished performing and an audience member will say, ‘The other members create awesome guitar parts!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I wrote all that.’”

Artistry and Imagination

As the band’s stature has expanded, so has the breadth of their stage presentation. “My motto is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on course for a art school education before hesitating at the possibility of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, costume design, learning how to edit music videos … it’s all stuff I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to discover on the fly.”

Even though developing the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to record it because everything is stored,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the singer learned on her own how to create armor – a difficult task, though she confessedly delegated her all-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Fan Response and Obstacles

What about the crowd? They embraced the fake blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We played a concert in Detroit and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” recalls Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in robes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

This isn’t to say, nevertheless, that touring existence as mythical wanderers has been easy. “Everything is constantly breaking and becomes repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I come up with numerous thoughts as to how I desire the presentation, but we tour in a vehicle with only so much space. It’s a fascinating test to create the impression like a mythic tale, then pack it down into a small space.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that would never have plagued legendary fantasy heroes. “We did have an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in the European country and my suitcase – which had my blade in it – got lost,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because there’s not an different option of the performance where I am without a blade.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager 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 maintaining the handmade style, making sure everything is handmade. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, no matter what we grow into. Oh, and I desire to make an entrance on a mythical beast each show. You know how legends use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but with a unicorn.”