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While plenty of musicians have borrowed from epic fantasy, only a handful have genuinely embodied the mythical lifestyle. Sure, they may embellish their album covers with ghouls, goblins, captive women and strong fighters, but has any musician ever been forced to recover a missing mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the midst of winter? Has a guitarist spent time peering in the back of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Established in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and others as they act out their grand tales. Starting with medieval-inspired, catchy tunes to stunning live shows, outfit creation, visuals and cover artwork, they’re not so much a heavy metal group as a full immersive experience.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a themed musical group,” says vocalist, guitar player, blade-handler and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport drives from a packed show in a German city to one more in another town – they have several shows in the UK now. “After a couple of performances and got booked on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. Everything was super-DIY, but we had so much fun and the feeling in the room was incredible. It occurred to me, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun always?’”

The Band’s Evolution

Since then, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a plague doctor (bass player), proud bloodsucker (six-string player) and secretive shaman (rhythm keeper) – never turned back. Their latest album, the group’s sophomore release, conjures visions of legendary heavy bands uniting to battle their way through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that sets them on the edge of bigger achievements.

The release was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her bandmates. “That contributed to a more powerful record,” she says of the collaborative process. “It was challenging at first – I’d always felt a particular degree of accomplishment as a woman in music doing everything solo. I’ve had so many times where after a show and an audience member will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I respond, ‘Listen – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As their fame has increased, so has the scope of their stage presentation. “My philosophy is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. She was originally on course for a university studies in art before hesitating at the possibility of heavy loans. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “Whether it’s making masks, costume design, mastering post-production song visuals … it’s all stuff I am unfamiliar with, but it’s exciting to learn in the moment.”

Even though developing the ensemble’s complex backstory (“People are encouraging me to write it down because everything is stored,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the singer taught herself how to create armor – no mean feat, though she confessedly delegated her brand-new scalemail look to a professional in the city. “It seems like actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

Regarding the fans? They loved the theatrical gore, foam swords and handmade props with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We performed a concert in Detroit and it looked like a Renaissance fair,” recalls Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in robes, animal hides, armor.”

This isn’t to say, nevertheless, that touring existence as mythical wanderers has been plain sailing. “All our gear is constantly breaking and becomes repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have numerous thoughts as to how I desire the presentation, but we tour in a bus with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to make it feel like a mythic tale, then pack it down into nothing.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that didn’t affect mythic characters. “There was an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my blade in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “That was a worst-case scenario, because there’s not an different option of the show where I don’t have a blade.”

Upcoming Plans

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “I want to go as far as possible – let’s do huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s deeply meaningful to me is keeping the self-crafted look, guaranteeing everything is crafted by us. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, whatever we scale to. Oh, and I desire to make an entrance on a mythical beast every night. Think about how legends do the motorcycle thing? The same idea, but on a mythical creature.”