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While plenty of musicians have drawn from fantasy lore, only a handful have fully embraced the enchanted lifestyle. Certainly, they may decorate their album sleeves with creatures, goblins, captive women and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever have to find a lost unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Has a performer devoted hours straining their eyes in the interior of a tour bus, repairing their own metal mesh?

Immersed in the Legend

Formed in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and additional ones as they act out their heroic dreams. From medieval-inspired, catchy songs to eye-popping performances, outfit creation, music videos and album art, they’re more than a heavy metal group as a complete sensory journey.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a themed musical group,” explains singer, guitarist, blade-handler and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport drives from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to a second one in another town – they have multiple performances in the UK this week. “Initially, we performed twice and got booked on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to put on an outfit. The entire setup was highly handmade, but we had a blast and the feeling in the room was incredible. It occurred to me, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement at every show?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” together with a plague doctor (bassist), aristocratic undead (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (drummer) – never turned back. Their latest album, the band’s second album, conjures visions of famous rock groups uniting to fight their path through a heroic art landscape – a epic masterpiece that places them on the edge of far grander things.

The Bestiary was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “This helped a much better project,” she says of the team effort. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a particular degree of accomplishment as a woman in music going it alone. There’ve been so many times where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘The other members compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Wait – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scale of their visual elements. “My philosophy is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. At first, she had been on path for a art school education before balking at the prospect of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “Be it creating face coverings, outfit planning, mastering post-production clips … everything is I have no experience with, but it’s fun to discover in the moment.”

Even though developing the ensemble’s complex backstory (“The team is pushing me to document it because everything is stored,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the vocalist self-educated how to create armor – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly delegated her brand-new scale armor design to a New York-based specialist. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

Regarding the fans? They embraced the fake blood, toy blades and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the group. “We performed a show in the Motor City and it looked like a Renaissance fair,” remembers Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in cloaks, animal hides, chainmail.”

This isn’t to say, however, that traveling lifestyle as mythical wanderers has been smooth. “All our gear is always failing and becomes fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Additionally I get countless concepts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we are on the move in a van with only so much space. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a mythic tale, then compress it into minimal luggage.”

We’ve encountered other logistical problems that wouldn’t have troubled mythic characters. “We did have an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in the European country and my baggage – which had my sword in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “It was a terrible situation, because there’s not an different option of the concert where I don’t have a sword.”

Upcoming Plans

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is gung-ho about the future. “I aim to reach all the way – let’s do huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is preserving the DIY aesthetic, ensuring all elements is crafted by us. This is a feature I want to stay authentic to, whatever we grow into. Additionally, I want to ride out on a mythical beast each show. Think about how famous musicians do the motorcycle thing? That, but on a mythical creature.”