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Although plenty of artists have taken inspiration from fantasy lore, few have truly lived the fantasy lifestyle. Admittedly, they may embellish their album sleeves with creatures, beasts, manacled maidens and muscular warriors, but has any musician ever been forced to find a lost unicorn horn from a frost-covered ground in the midst of winter? Did a performer devoted hours squinting in the rear of a road transport, repairing their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have had to face these exact challenges and additional ones as they live out their grand tales. Starting with knightly, memorable anthems to eye-popping concerts, costume design, videos and album art, they’re not so much a heavy metal group as a full immersive experience.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a outfit with characters,” states vocalist, guitarist, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle drives from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to a second one in another town – they have several shows in the UK now. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a spooky event, where I decided spontaneously to dress up. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was incredible. It occurred to me, ‘What if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the band – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” joined by a plague doctor (bass player), proud bloodsucker (six-string player) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – haven’t looked back. Their latest album, the follow-up record, evokes images of legendary heavy bands uniting to fight their path through a heroic art landscape – a grand composition that places them on the brink of bigger achievements.

The Bestiary was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her fellow members. “It made it a lot stronger record,” she says of the group work. “It was challenging at first – I often experienced a certain amount of accomplishment being a woman in music going it alone. There have been so many times where after a show and a person will say, ‘Those guys write great riffs!’ and I think, ‘Hey – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has expanded, so has the breadth of their production design. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on course for a university studies in art before balking at the possibility of heavy loans. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “Whether it’s crafting disguises, attire creation, mastering post-production clips … it’s all stuff I don’t know how to do, but it’s fun to discover as we go.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to document it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, tapping her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the vocalist taught herself how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly left her all-new scalemail look to a New York-based specialist. “It feels like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

What about the crowd? They loved the fake blood, soft weapons and handmade props with similar excitement as the band. “We had a show in the Motor City and it looked like a historical festival,” remembers Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in capes, wool garments, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that life on the road as mythical wanderers has been smooth. “Each item is always failing and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I get countless concepts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we tour in a vehicle with only so much space. It’s a fascinating test to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then store it into nothing.”

We’ve encountered other logistical problems that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We experienced an ‘oh shit’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my baggage – which had my sword in it – went missing,” says Riley. “It was a worst-case scenario, because there’s not an different option of the performance where I don’t have a blade.”

Future Ambitions

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is enthusiastic about the days to come. “My goal is all the way – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The key element that’s truly essential to me is preserving the DIY aesthetic, ensuring everything is custom-made. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, regardless of we achieve. Oh, and I desire to ride out on a mythical beast at all performances. Think about how famous musicians use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but using a unicorn.”