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Although many musicians have borrowed from high fantasy, few have genuinely embodied the mythical existence. Sure, they may adorn their album sleeves with monsters, imps, captive women and strong fighters, but has an artist ever needed to retrieve a lost horn from a unicorn from a snowy field in the midst of winter? Has a guitarist devoted hours squinting in the rear of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Formed in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have had to face these exact challenges and additional ones as they act out their grand tales. From medieval-inspired, earworm-heavy tunes to eye-popping live shows, outfit creation, videos and cover artwork, they’re not just a heavy metal group as a complete sensory journey.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a costumed concept band,” says singer, guitarist, blade-handler and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle speeds from a sold-out gig in Cologne to another in another town – they have several shows in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and were scheduled on a October show, where I made a last-minute decision to put on an outfit. Everything was super-DIY, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was electric. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have such enjoyment always?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the band – which features Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” together with a plague doctor (bassist), haughty vampire (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (drummer) – continued forward. Their latest album, the band’s second album, brings to mind of famous rock groups joining forces to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that places them on the edge of greater success.

The release was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her fellow members. “This helped a much better album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – There was a sense of a certain amount of pride as a female in music working independently. I’ve had so many times where I’ve got off stage and a person will say, ‘Those guys create awesome guitar parts!’ and I think, ‘Hey – I composed all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the breadth of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. She was originally on course for a university studies in art before hesitating at the prospect of so much debt. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply artistic expression,” she says. “Whether it’s crafting disguises, outfit planning, mastering post-production music videos … these are all things I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to figure it out in the moment.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“Everyone’s urging me to write it down because it’s all in here,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the vocalist learned on her own how to craft metal mesh – no mean feat, though she confessedly left her all-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

As for audiences? They loved the fake blood, foam swords and handmade props with similar excitement as the musicians. “We had a show in the Motor City and it looked like a Renaissance fair,” recalls Riley fondly. “Everyone was in cloaks, sheepskin, armor.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that touring existence as fantasy adventurers has been easy. “Each item is always failing and ends up duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Moreover I get countless concepts as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to give the sense like a mythic tale, then pack it down into a small space.”

We faced further organizational challenges that didn’t affect mythic characters. “We did have an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at a Portuguese festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my blade in it – got lost,” says Riley. “This became a nightmare, because there’s not an different option of the show where I don’t have a blade.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the future. “I want to go all the way – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The key element that’s truly essential to me is keeping the DIY aesthetic, ensuring everything is crafted by us. That’s an element I want to stay authentic to, regardless of we scale to. Oh, and I want to ride out on a mythical beast at all performances. Think about how legends do the motorcycle thing? That, but on a mythical creature.”