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While many musicians have drawn from fantasy lore, only a handful have genuinely embodied the fantasy lifestyle. Admittedly, they could adorn their album covers with ghouls, imps, captive women and brawny barbarians, but has any musician ever needed to find a missing unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the midst of winter? Has a guitarist spent time straining their eyes in the rear of a road transport, fixing their own armor?

Immersed in the Legend

Established in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have dealt with these exact challenges and additional ones as they act out their grand tales. Starting with knightly, memorable songs to eye-popping performances, costume design, music videos and album art, they’re more than a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” states singer, guitarist, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van speeds from a full-capacity concert in a German city to one more in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing five gigs in the UK now. “Initially, we performed twice and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I made a last-minute decision to dress up. Everything was highly handmade, but we had a blast and the energy was unforgettable. I thought, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun every time?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” together with a pestilence physician (bassist), haughty vampire (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (percussionist) – continued forward. The new record, the follow-up record, evokes images of legendary heavy bands uniting to battle their way through a mythical painted realm – a epic masterpiece that sets them on the brink of bigger achievements.

The Bestiary was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her bandmates. “That contributed to a lot stronger album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a particular degree of accomplishment as a woman in music doing everything solo. There have been multiple instances where I’ve got off stage and a person will say, ‘The other members compose cool melodies!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has expanded, so has the scale of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. She was originally on track for a art school education before hesitating at the idea of so much debt. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, outfit planning, figuring out video editing clips … these are all things I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to discover on the fly.”

Even though building the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to document it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and sewing costumes wasn’t enough, the vocalist taught herself how to create armor – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly delegated her completely original reptilian-inspired outfit to a New York-based specialist. “It’s as if actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

As for audiences? They loved the stage blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with similar excitement as the group. “We performed a show in the Motor City and it looked like a Renaissance fair,” remembers Riley fondly. “All attendees was in capes, animal hides, metal wear.”

This isn’t to say, however, that traveling lifestyle as fantasy adventurers has been plain sailing. “All our gear is constantly breaking and gets repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have countless concepts as to how I desire the presentation, but we tour in a vehicle with only so much space. It’s a fascinating test to make it feel like a larger-than-life story, then compress it into a small space.”

We faced other logistical problems that wouldn’t have troubled fictional warriors. “We did have an ‘oh shit’ moment when we performed at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my suitcase – which had my sword in it – went missing,” says Riley. “That was a nightmare, because there’s not an different option of the show where I don’t have a sword.”

Goals Ahead

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the what’s next. “I want to go to the top – I dream of large venues,” she says. “The main aspect that’s really important to me is preserving the handmade style, guaranteeing everything is handmade. That’s an element I want to stay authentic to, whatever we scale to. Oh, and I wish to appear on a unicorn each show. Think about how famous musicians ride bikes on stage? That, but with a unicorn.”