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While plenty of artists have drawn from high fantasy, few have fully embraced the mythical lifestyle. Certainly, they may embellish their record jackets with creatures, imps, manacled maidens and muscular warriors, but did a member ever needed to retrieve a misplaced unicorn horn from a snowy field in the heart of winter? Did a guitarist devoted hours peering in the interior of a tour bus, fixing their own metal mesh?

Immersed in the Legend

Established in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and others as they act out their epic fantasies. Starting with medieval-inspired, earworm-heavy songs to eye-popping performances, costume design, visuals and album art, they’re not so much a heavy metal group as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” states vocalist, guitar player, sword-wielder and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle drives from a full-capacity concert in a German city to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they have five gigs in the UK currently. “Initially, we performed twice and got booked on a October show, where I decided spontaneously to dress up. It was all super-DIY, but we had so much fun and the atmosphere was unforgettable. I realized, ‘What if we could have this much fun at every show?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” joined by a medic from history (bass player), aristocratic undead (guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – never turned back. The new record, the group’s sophomore release, brings to mind of famous rock groups collaborating to struggle onward through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that sets them on the verge of bigger achievements.

The release was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her bandmates. “That contributed to a much better project,” she says of the collaborative process. “I struggled at first – There was a sense of a particular degree of accomplishment being a woman in music working independently. There’ve been so many times where I finished performing and some guy will say, ‘The band compose cool melodies!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I composed all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

As the band’s stature has grown, so has the scale of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. She was originally on path for a university studies in art before balking at the prospect of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to demonstrate artistic expression,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, attire creation, figuring out video editing music videos … these are all things I don’t know how to do, but it’s enjoyable to figure it out on the fly.”

As if building the group’s detailed mythology (“People are encouraging me to write it down because it’s all in here,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the vocalist taught herself how to make chainmail – a difficult task, though she confessedly entrusted her all-new scalemail look to a professional in the city. “It feels like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

What about the crowd? They took to the fake blood, toy blades and crafted rodent bones with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We had a gig in the Motor City and it resembled a medieval event,” recalls Riley happily. “Everyone was in robes, animal hides, armor.”

This isn’t to say, though, that touring existence as mythical wanderers has been easy. “Everything is always failing and gets repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Moreover I get numerous thoughts as to how I want things to look, but we tour in a vehicle with limited room. It’s an interesting challenge to make it feel like a larger-than-life story, then store it into a small space.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that would never have plagued mythic characters. “There was an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my baggage – which had my weapon in it – went missing,” says Riley. “That was a worst-case scenario, because we don’t have an different option of the concert where I don’t have a weapon.”

Future Ambitions

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is eager about the future. “I want to go all the way – we should play stadiums,” she says. “The key element that’s truly essential to me is preserving the self-crafted look, guaranteeing everything is crafted by us. That’s an element I want to remain faithful to, whatever we achieve. Additionally, I want to ride out on a mythical beast every night. Think about how some artists use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but using a unicorn.”