🔗 Share this article

Although numerous rockers have drawn from epic fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the enchanted lifestyle. Sure, they might embellish their album covers with monsters, goblins, captive women and muscular warriors, but has any musician ever needed to recover a lost horn from a unicorn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Has a guitarist devoted hours straining their eyes in the rear of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own armor?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and additional ones as they embody their epic fantasies. Starting with knightly, catchy tunes to eye-popping live shows, costume design, music videos and album art, they’re more than a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a outfit with characters,” states vocalist, guitar player, sword-wielder and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle travels from a sold-out gig in Cologne to a second one in another town – they’re also doing five gigs in the UK now. “We played two shows and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I made a last-minute decision to put on an outfit. It was all highly handmade, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was unforgettable. I thought, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the ensemble – which features Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” alongside a plague doctor (bassist), proud bloodsucker (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – never turned back. Their latest album, the follow-up record, brings to mind of famous rock groups uniting to struggle onward through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that places them on the edge of far grander things.

The Bestiary was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “It made it a more powerful record,” she says of the team effort. “It was challenging at first – I often experienced a particular degree of satisfaction being a woman in music working independently. I’ve had numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘The other members write great riffs!’ and I think, ‘Hey – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scope of their stage presentation. “The saying I live by is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. At first, she had been on course for a university studies in art before balking at the possibility of so much debt. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “Whether it’s making masks, outfit planning, learning how to edit music videos … it’s all stuff I don’t know how to do, but it’s fun to figure it out as we go.”

As if building the group’s detailed mythology (“People are encouraging me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the vocalist self-educated how to make chainmail – a difficult task, though she confessedly entrusted her completely original reptilian-inspired outfit to a professional in the city. “It seems like actual armour,” she grins.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

As for audiences? They took to the stage blood, soft weapons and handmade props with as much gusto as the musicians. “We had a show in the Motor City and it seemed like a medieval event,” recalls Riley happily. “Everyone was in capes, animal hides, metal wear.”

This isn’t to say, though, that life on the road as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “Everything is constantly breaking and ends up duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Plus I come up with countless concepts as to how I desire the presentation, but we’re traveling in a bus with limited room. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a grand epic, then compress it into a small space.”

We faced further organizational challenges that didn’t affect mythic characters. “There was an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my sword in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “It was a worst-case scenario, because there’s not an different option of the performance where I am without a sword.”

Upcoming Plans

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is gung-ho about the future. “I aim to reach as far as possible – let’s do large venues,” she says. “The key element that’s really important to me is preserving the self-crafted look, guaranteeing all elements is custom-made. That’s an element I want to keep true to, regardless of we scale to. Plus, I desire to ride out on a magical horse at all performances. You know how famous musicians ride bikes on stage? That, but with a unicorn.”