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While plenty of rockers have drawn from high fantasy, rarely any have fully embraced the fantasy existence. Admittedly, they may decorate their record jackets with creatures, beasts, captive women and strong fighters, but did a member ever needed to find a missing horn from a unicorn from a snowy field in the midst of winter? Has a guitarist taken the time squinting in the back of a tour bus, mending their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and additional ones as they embody their heroic dreams. Starting with heraldic, earworm-heavy anthems to stunning concerts, costume design, visuals and record designs, they’re more than a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a outfit with characters,” says singer, guitar player, blade-handler and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle travels from a sold-out gig in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing five gigs in the UK now. “After a couple of performances and got booked on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to dress up. It was all super-DIY, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was incredible. It occurred to me, ‘How about if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

Since then, the ensemble – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), aristocratic undead (six-string player) and secretive shaman (drummer) – haven’t looked back. Their latest album, the band’s second album, brings to mind of legendary heavy bands joining forces to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a heroic opus that sets them on the edge of far grander things.

This album was a first for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her fellow members. “This helped a much better project,” she says of the group work. “I struggled at first – I often experienced a certain amount of pride as a female in music working independently. There’ve been numerous occasions where I finished performing and some guy will say, ‘The other members write great riffs!’ and I’m like, ‘Listen – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has expanded, so has the scope of their stage presentation. “My philosophy is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. She was originally on course for a university studies in art before pulling back at the idea of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to demonstrate artistic expression,” she says. “Be it making masks, attire creation, figuring out video editing music videos … everything is I am unfamiliar with, but it’s exciting to figure it out in the moment.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“People are encouraging me to record it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, tapping her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the singer taught herself how to create armor – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly entrusted her completely original reptilian-inspired outfit to a professional in the city. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

Regarding the fans? They took to the fake blood, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with as much gusto as the group. “We performed a concert in Detroit and it seemed like a Renaissance fair,” recalls Riley with affection. “All attendees was in robes, animal hides, armor.”

This isn’t to say, however, that life on the road as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been plain sailing. “Each item is constantly breaking and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Additionally I come up with numerous thoughts as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a bus with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to give the sense like a grand epic, then compress it into minimal luggage.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that would never have plagued fictional warriors. “There was an ‘oh shit’ moment when we performed at SonicBlast festival in the European country and my baggage – which had my sword in it – went missing,” says Riley. “It was a terrible situation, because we don’t have an different option of the concert where I don’t have a blade.”

Goals Ahead

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is enthusiastic about the future. “My goal is to the top – we should play huge arenas,” she says. “The key element that’s deeply meaningful to me is preserving the self-crafted look, guaranteeing each detail is handmade. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, regardless of we achieve. Oh, and I want to make an entrance on a mythical beast every night. You know how some artists use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but with a unicorn.”