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Although plenty of rockers have taken inspiration from high fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the enchanted existence. Certainly, they may embellish their album covers with creatures, goblins, captive women and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever been forced to recover a missing mythical horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Has anyone spent time peering in the rear of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own armor?

Immersed in the Legend

Created in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have had to face these exact challenges and others as they act out their epic fantasies. From knightly, catchy tunes to eye-popping performances, costume design, music videos and album art, they’re not so much a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” states singer, guitar player, sword-wielder and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van travels from a sold-out gig in a German city to another in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. Everything was completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the feeling in the room was electric. I realized, ‘How about if we could have this much fun every time?’”

Growth of the Group

From that point on, the group – which features Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” together with a medic from history (bass player), aristocratic undead (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – continued forward. Their latest album, the group’s sophomore release, evokes images of classic metal icons uniting to struggle onward through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that sets them on the edge of far grander things.

This album was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her bandmates. “It made it a much better album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I struggled at first – I often experienced a certain amount of pride as a female in music working independently. There’ve been so many times where after a show and a person will say, ‘Those guys compose cool melodies!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has grown, so has the scope of their production design. “The saying I live by is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. Initially, she was on path for a art school education before pulling back at the idea of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, attire creation, mastering post-production song visuals … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to learn as we go.”

Even though creating the group’s detailed mythology (“People are encouraging me to write it down because all the ideas are,” Riley says, tapping her head) and stitching garments wasn’t enough, the vocalist taught herself how to make chainmail – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly entrusted her brand-new scale armor design to a professional in the city. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

As for audiences? They loved the stage blood, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We performed a gig in the Motor City and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” recalls Riley happily. “All attendees was in robes, sheepskin, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that life on the road as mythical wanderers has been plain sailing. “All our gear is always failing and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Moreover I’ll have countless concepts as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a van with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to make it feel like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into a small space.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that wouldn’t have troubled fictional warriors. “We experienced an ‘oh shit’ moment when we performed at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my sword in it – got lost,” says Riley. “That was a nightmare, because there’s not an backup plan of the show where I lack a sword.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is enthusiastic about the future. “I aim to reach as far as possible – we should play large venues,” she says. “The only thing that’s deeply meaningful to me is keeping the DIY aesthetic, making sure all elements is handmade. That’s an element I want to remain faithful to, regardless of we scale to. Oh, and I want to make an entrance on a unicorn every night. You know how some artists use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but with a unicorn.”