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Although many artists have drawn from high fantasy, few have fully embraced the fantasy way of life. Admittedly, they might adorn their record jackets with ghouls, goblins, manacled maidens and muscular warriors, but did a member ever have to recover a missing unicorn horn from a frost-covered ground in the midst of winter? Did a performer devoted hours peering in the back of a road transport, mending their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered such situations and more as they embody their epic fantasies. From knightly, earworm-heavy tunes to stunning concerts, outfit creation, music videos and album art, they’re more than a heavy metal group as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a themed musical group,” explains singer, guitar player, sword-carrier and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van speeds from a sold-out gig in a German city to another in another town – they have five gigs in the UK now. “Initially, we performed twice and got booked on a October show, where I made a last-minute decision to wear a costume. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had a blast and the feeling in the room was electric. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have such enjoyment every time?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the ensemble – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” alongside a plague doctor (low-end instrumentalist), proud bloodsucker (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – continued forward. The new record, the follow-up record, conjures visions of legendary heavy bands joining forces to battle their way through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that positions them on the verge of greater success.

The release was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “That contributed to a more powerful album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a certain amount of satisfaction being a woman in music doing everything solo. There have been multiple instances where after a show and an audience member will say, ‘The band write great riffs!’ and I’m like, ‘Listen – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

As the band’s stature has expanded, so has the scale of their visual elements. “My philosophy is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on track for a fine art degree before balking at the possibility of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to express creativity,” she says. “Be it creating face coverings, costume design, mastering post-production music videos … it’s all stuff I have no experience with, but it’s fun to learn as we go.”

Even though creating the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the vocalist self-educated how to create armor – a difficult task, though she confessedly delegated her completely original scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

What about the crowd? They loved the stage blood, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with similar excitement as the band. “We performed a show in Detroit and it looked like a historical festival,” recalls Riley happily. “All attendees was in cloaks, animal hides, metal wear.”

That’s not to imply, however, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been smooth. “Everything is constantly breaking and ends up fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Additionally I come up with countless concepts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s a fascinating test to create the impression like a grand epic, then store it into a small space.”

We faced further organizational challenges 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 weapon in it – got lost,” says Riley. “That was a terrible situation, because there is no an different option of the show where I am without a weapon.”

Upcoming Plans

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “My goal is as far as possible – let’s do large venues,” she says. “The key element that’s truly essential to me is keeping the self-crafted look, making sure everything is handmade. That’s an element I want to remain faithful to, whatever we grow into. Plus, I desire to make an entrance on a magical horse at all performances. You know how some artists do the motorcycle thing? That, but with a unicorn.”