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While many artists have drawn from high fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the mythical way of life. Admittedly, they might decorate their record jackets with monsters, goblins, chained damsels and muscular warriors, but did a member ever been forced to find a misplaced mythical horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Did a guitarist devoted hours peering in the interior of a tour bus, mending their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and additional ones as they act out their grand tales. Starting with heraldic, earworm-heavy anthems to eye-popping concerts, attire styling, visuals and album art, they’re not so much a heavy metal group as a full immersive experience.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a outfit with characters,” says vocalist, guitar player, sword-wielder and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van travels from a packed show in a German city to a second one in another town – they are playing multiple performances in the UK now. “We played two shows and got booked on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. It was all highly handmade, but we had an amazing time and the feeling in the room was electric. I realized, ‘How about if we could have this much fun every time?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” joined by a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), proud bloodsucker (six-string player) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – continued forward. The Bestiary, the band’s second album, evokes images of famous rock groups collaborating to struggle onward through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that positions them on the edge of greater success.

This album was a first for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her collaborators. “This helped a more powerful record,” she says of the team effort. “It was challenging at first – I’d always felt a certain amount of accomplishment as a woman in music working independently. I’ve had so many times where after a show and some guy will say, ‘The band compose cool melodies!’ and I respond, ‘Wait – I created all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has expanded, so has the scale of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. At first, she had been on course for a art school education before pulling back at the idea of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to demonstrate creativity,” she says. “Be it crafting disguises, costume design, mastering post-production music videos … everything is I am unfamiliar with, but it’s fun to learn in the moment.”

As if creating the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to write it down because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the vocalist learned on her own how to create armor – no mean feat, though she confessedly left her all-new scale armor design to a New York-based specialist. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They took to the fake blood, toy blades and handmade props with similar excitement as the musicians. “We performed a show in the Motor City and it seemed like a historical festival,” recalls Riley happily. “Everyone was in capes, sheepskin, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, however, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been plain sailing. “Each item is always failing and gets fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Moreover I come up with endless ideas as to how I want things to look, but we’re traveling in a van with limited room. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then store it into a small space.”

We’ve encountered additional practical issues that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We did have an ‘disastrous’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my blade in it – went missing,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because there’s not an different option of the show where I lack a blade.”

Future Ambitions

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is enthusiastic about the days to come. “I want to go to the top – let’s do huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is preserving the self-crafted look, ensuring each detail is handmade. That’s an element I want to keep true to, regardless of we achieve. Oh, and I desire to ride out on a mythical beast at all performances. You know how legends ride bikes on stage? That, but with a unicorn.”