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Although numerous musicians have borrowed from high fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the mythical existence. Admittedly, they might embellish their album sleeves with ghouls, imps, captive women and strong fighters, but has an artist ever have to recover a missing horn from a unicorn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Has a performer taken the time peering in the rear of a road transport, fixing their own chainmail?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have had to face such situations and additional ones as they embody their epic fantasies. Starting with knightly, catchy tunes to eye-popping live shows, costume design, videos and record designs, they’re more than a heavy metal group as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” states vocalist, guitar player, blade-handler and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle speeds from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they have five gigs in the UK currently. “We played two shows and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I made a last-minute decision to wear a costume. It was all highly handmade, but we had so much fun and the atmosphere was incredible. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement at every show?’”

The Band’s Evolution

From that point on, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” together with a plague doctor (low-end instrumentalist), proud bloodsucker (guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – never turned back. The new record, the band’s second album, evokes images of classic metal icons uniting to battle their way through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that positions them on the edge of greater success.

The release was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her fellow members. “It made it a much better record,” she says of the group work. “I had difficulty at first – There was a sense of a specific level of satisfaction being a woman in music doing everything solo. There have been multiple instances where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘Those guys create awesome guitar parts!’ and I think, ‘Hey – I created all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scale of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. Initially, she was on track for a university studies in art before hesitating at the possibility of financial burden. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply artistic expression,” she says. “Whether it’s making masks, attire creation, figuring out video editing clips … it’s all stuff I have no experience with, but it’s fun to discover in the moment.”

As if building the ensemble’s complex backstory (“Everyone’s urging me to write it down because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the singer self-educated how to create armor – no mean feat, though she admittedly entrusted her all-new scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It seems like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

What about the crowd? They loved the fake blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with similar excitement as the musicians. “We played a gig in Detroit and it resembled a medieval event,” remembers Riley with affection. “All attendees was in capes, animal hides, armor.”

This isn’t to say, nevertheless, that life on the road as fantasy adventurers has been smooth. “Each item is frequently damaged and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I desire the presentation, but we’re traveling in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into minimal luggage.”

There have been further organizational challenges that didn’t affect mythic characters. “There was an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we performed at a Portuguese festival in the European country and my baggage – which had my sword in it – got lost,” says Riley. “That was a terrible situation, because we don’t have an different option of the performance where I don’t have a sword.”

Upcoming Plans

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is enthusiastic about the days to come. “I aim to reach as far as possible – we should play stadiums,” she says. “The only thing that’s truly essential to me is preserving the handmade style, making sure everything is custom-made. That’s an element I want to remain faithful to, no matter what we achieve. Additionally, I desire to appear on a mythical beast each show. You know how some artists use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but with a unicorn.”