🔗 Share this article

While plenty of artists have drawn from fantasy lore, few have truly lived the mythical way of life. Sure, they might embellish their album sleeves with monsters, beasts, captive women and strong fighters, but has any musician ever have to find a misplaced mythical horn from a snowy field in the heart of winter? Did anyone devoted hours squinting in the interior of a tour bus, mending their own metal mesh?

Immersed in the Legend

Established in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have dealt with these exact challenges and additional ones as they live out their epic fantasies. Starting with medieval-inspired, catchy tunes to eye-popping concerts, outfit creation, music videos and cover artwork, they’re not just a heavy metal group as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” states singer, guitar player, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van speeds from a sold-out gig in Cologne to another in another town – they have multiple performances in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and were scheduled on a October show, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. The entire setup was super-DIY, but we had so much fun and the energy was unforgettable. It occurred to me, ‘What if we could have this much fun always?’”

Development of Castle Rat

Since then, the ensemble – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” joined by a medic from history (bass player), proud bloodsucker (six-string player) and mysterious druid (drummer) – continued forward. The Bestiary, the group’s sophomore release, conjures visions of famous rock groups collaborating to battle their way through a heroic art landscape – a epic masterpiece that places them on the verge of far grander things.

The Bestiary was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her fellow members. “This helped a lot stronger project,” she says of the collaborative process. “I struggled at first – I often experienced a particular degree of satisfaction being a woman in music working independently. I’ve had multiple instances where I finished performing and some guy will say, ‘Those guys write great riffs!’ and I’m like, ‘Listen – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As their fame has expanded, so has the scale of their visual elements. “The saying I live by is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. She was originally on path for a university studies in art before balking at the prospect of so much debt. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply creativity,” she says. “Be it crafting disguises, outfit planning, mastering post-production music videos … it’s all stuff I don’t know how to do, but it’s enjoyable to learn on the fly.”

Even though developing the group’s detailed mythology (“People are encouraging me to write it down because all the ideas are,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the vocalist self-educated how to craft metal mesh – no mean feat, though she admittedly entrusted her brand-new scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They loved the theatrical gore, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with as much gusto as the group. “We had a concert in Detroit and it resembled a historical festival,” recalls Riley happily. “All attendees was in capes, animal hides, metal wear.”

That’s not to imply, nevertheless, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “Each item is constantly breaking and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Additionally I get numerous thoughts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a bus with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to give the sense like a larger-than-life story, then store it into a small space.”

There have been additional practical issues that wouldn’t have troubled mythic characters. “We did have an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my blade in it – got lost,” says Riley. “It was a terrible situation, because we don’t have an different option of the performance where I am without a sword.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the what’s next. “I aim to reach to the top – let’s do large venues,” she says. “The main aspect that’s deeply meaningful to me is maintaining the handmade style, guaranteeing each detail is custom-made. That’s an element I want to remain faithful to, regardless of we scale to. Additionally, I want to make an entrance on a magical horse at all performances. Remember how famous musicians use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but with a unicorn.”