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Although numerous musicians have taken inspiration from high fantasy, only a handful have truly lived the enchanted existence. Admittedly, they might adorn their album sleeves with creatures, imps, captive women and muscular warriors, but did a member ever have to find a misplaced mythical horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Did a guitarist devoted hours straining their eyes in the interior of a traveling vehicle, mending their own metal mesh?

Immersed in the Legend

Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered such situations and additional ones as they act out their heroic dreams. From knightly, earworm-heavy anthems to breathtaking performances, attire styling, videos and cover artwork, they’re not so much a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a costumed concept band,” states vocalist, guitar player, blade-handler and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle travels from a packed show in Cologne to another in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK currently. “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 super-DIY, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was incredible. I thought, ‘How about if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

From that point on, the group – which features Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a plague doctor (bass player), haughty vampire (six-string player) and enigmatic nature priest (percussionist) – never turned back. The new record, the follow-up record, conjures visions of famous rock groups joining forces to struggle onward through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a heroic opus that places them on the verge of bigger achievements.

The release was a first for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her bandmates. “It made it a more powerful album,” she says of the team effort. “I had difficulty at first – There was a sense of a certain amount of pride as a female in music doing everything solo. There have been numerous occasions where after a show and an audience member will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I respond, ‘Wait – I wrote all that.’”

Artistry and Imagination

As the band’s stature has expanded, so has the breadth of their visual elements. “My philosophy is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. She was originally on track for a art school education before pulling back at the prospect of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to express artistic expression,” she says. “Be it creating face coverings, outfit planning, learning how to edit clips … these are all things I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to discover on the fly.”

As if creating the group’s detailed mythology (“Everyone’s urging me to document it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, indicating her head) and sewing costumes didn’t suffice, the vocalist self-educated how to craft metal mesh – a difficult task, though she admittedly delegated her completely original scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They embraced the fake blood, soft weapons and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the group. “We played a show in the Motor City and it seemed like a medieval event,” recalls Riley happily. “All attendees was in capes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

However, this doesn’t mean, nevertheless, that traveling lifestyle as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “Everything is frequently damaged and ends up fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Plus I’ll have endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a van with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into nothing.”

We faced further organizational challenges that would never have plagued mythic characters. “There was an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we performed at a music event in the European country and my baggage – which had my weapon in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “It was a worst-case scenario, because there is no an backup plan of the performance where I lack a sword.”

Upcoming Plans

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is eager about the days to come. “My goal is all the way – I dream of stadiums,” she says. “The main aspect that’s really important to me is preserving the self-crafted look, making sure everything is crafted by us. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, no matter what we grow into. Plus, I wish to appear on a mythical beast at all performances. You know how legends use vehicles in concerts? Exactly that, but using a unicorn.”