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While many musicians have taken inspiration from high fantasy, few have truly lived the enchanted lifestyle. Certainly, they may adorn their album covers with monsters, imps, captive women and muscular warriors, but has any musician ever been forced to retrieve a lost mythical horn from a snowy field in the heart of winter? Has a guitarist taken the time squinting in the back of a road transport, fixing their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and more as they embody their epic fantasies. Starting with heraldic, memorable songs to eye-popping performances, outfit creation, visuals and record designs, 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, guitar player, blade-handler and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a packed show in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK this week. “Initially, we performed twice and got booked on a Halloween gig, where I made a last-minute decision to dress up. It was all completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the atmosphere was electric. It occurred to me, ‘What if we could have this much fun at every show?’”

The Band’s Evolution

After that, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” joined by a medic from history (bass player), haughty vampire (six-string player) and mysterious druid (percussionist) – haven’t looked back. The new record, the band’s second album, conjures visions of famous rock groups uniting to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that places them on the brink of far grander things.

This album was a first for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her collaborators. “That contributed to a lot stronger album,” she says of the team effort. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a specific level of accomplishment being a woman in music working independently. There have been so many times where I finished performing and some guy will say, ‘The band compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Wait – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has grown, so has the breadth of their production design. “The saying I live by is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. Initially, she was on path for a fine art degree before balking at the idea of so much debt. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to apply creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, attire creation, figuring out video editing music videos … everything is I have no experience with, but it’s enjoyable to learn on the fly.”

Even though building the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to record it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and stitching garments wasn’t enough, the vocalist self-educated how to make chainmail – a difficult task, though she admittedly left her brand-new scalemail look to a New York-based specialist. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

What about the crowd? They embraced the theatrical gore, soft weapons and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the band. “We performed a concert in Detroit and it resembled a medieval event,” remembers Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in cloaks, wool garments, chainmail.”

That’s not to imply, however, that traveling lifestyle as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “All our gear is frequently damaged and gets fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have countless concepts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a van with only so much space. It’s an interesting challenge to make it feel like a mythic tale, then store it into a small space.”

We faced other logistical problems that would never have plagued mythic characters. “We did have an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played a music event in Portugal and my baggage – which had my blade in it – got lost,” says Riley. “This became a nightmare, because there’s not an backup plan of the show where I lack a weapon.”

Goals Ahead

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “I want to go all the way – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The key element that’s deeply meaningful to me is keeping the self-crafted look, making sure each detail is crafted by us. This is a feature I want to keep true to, regardless of we scale to. Plus, I desire to appear on a unicorn at all performances. Think about how legends ride bikes on stage? That, but with a unicorn.”