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Although many artists have taken inspiration from fantasy lore, rarely any have fully embraced the fantasy way of life. Sure, they might embellish their album sleeves with ghouls, imps, captive women and brawny barbarians, but has any musician ever have to retrieve a misplaced mythical horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Did anyone spent time peering in the rear of a traveling vehicle, repairing their own armor?

Immersed in the Legend

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have dealt with these exact challenges and others as they live out their epic fantasies. Starting with medieval-inspired, earworm-heavy songs to breathtaking concerts, costume design, videos and record designs, they’re not so much a heavy metal group as a total artistic immersion.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a outfit with characters,” states vocalist, guitar player, sword-carrier and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport travels from a full-capacity concert in a German city to another in another town – they’re also doing several shows in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to put on an outfit. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had an amazing time and the feeling in the room was incredible. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

Growth of the Group

From that point on, the group – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” joined by a plague doctor (bass player), proud bloodsucker (six-string player) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – continued forward. The Bestiary, the follow-up record, evokes images of classic metal icons collaborating to struggle onward through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a grand composition that places them on the verge of far grander things.

This album was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “This helped a much better project,” she says of the group work. “It was challenging at first – There was a sense of a certain amount of satisfaction as a woman in music going it alone. There’ve been so many times where I’ve got off stage and a person will say, ‘Those guys compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Hey – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scale of their stage presentation. “My motto is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. She was originally on path for a art school education before pulling back at the idea of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to express artistic expression,” she says. “From making masks, attire creation, figuring out video editing music videos … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s fun to discover on the fly.”

Even though building the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing were insufficient, the vocalist taught herself how to create armor – a difficult task, though she confessedly delegated her completely original scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she grins.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

As for audiences? They embraced the stage blood, foam swords and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the musicians. “We performed a concert in the Motor City and it seemed like a medieval event,” recalls Riley happily. “All attendees was in cloaks, sheepskin, metal wear.”

This isn’t to say, though, that touring existence as fantasy adventurers has been plain sailing. “Everything is constantly breaking and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Moreover I get endless ideas as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a van with limited room. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then compress it into nothing.”

We faced other logistical problems that wouldn’t have troubled mythic characters. “We experienced an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my blade in it – went missing,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because we don’t have an backup plan of the concert where I don’t have a weapon.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is enthusiastic about the days to come. “I aim to reach all the way – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is keeping the handmade style, ensuring everything is crafted by us. It’s a component I want to remain faithful to, no matter what we scale to. Oh, and I want to appear on a mythical beast each show. Think about how some artists ride bikes on stage? The same idea, but on a mythical creature.”