🔗 Share this article

While many artists have drawn from high fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the mythical existence. Certainly, they could decorate their album covers with monsters, imps, manacled maidens and strong fighters, but did a member ever have to retrieve a misplaced mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the midst of winter? Has a performer devoted hours peering in the interior of a road transport, mending their own armor?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have had to face such situations and additional ones as they live out their epic fantasies. From heraldic, catchy anthems to eye-popping performances, outfit creation, music videos and record designs, they’re not just a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” states vocalist, guitar player, blade-handler and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport drives from a sold-out gig in a German city to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they have five gigs in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and got booked on a October show, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. It was all highly handmade, but we had an amazing time and the atmosphere was incredible. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

Since then, the band – which features Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” joined by a plague doctor (bassist), proud bloodsucker (guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – never turned back. The Bestiary, the follow-up record, evokes images of classic metal icons uniting to battle their way through a mythical painted realm – a epic masterpiece that places them on the edge of greater success.

The Bestiary was a first for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her collaborators. “It made it a lot stronger project,” she says of the team effort. “It was challenging at first – I’d always felt a particular degree of accomplishment being a woman in music working independently. There’ve been so many times where after a show and a person will say, ‘Those guys create awesome guitar parts!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scale of their production design. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. At first, she had been on path for a fine art degree before balking at the possibility of financial burden. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to apply artistic expression,” she says. “Be it making masks, outfit planning, mastering post-production clips … these are all things I am unfamiliar with, but it’s enjoyable to learn as we go.”

Even though developing the group’s detailed mythology (“Everyone’s urging me to document it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and sewing costumes wasn’t enough, the vocalist learned on her own how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly left her brand-new scalemail look to a professional in the city. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

What about the crowd? They embraced the stage blood, soft weapons and handmade props with similar excitement as the band. “We played a gig in the Motor City and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” reminisces Riley fondly. “The whole crowd was in robes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

This isn’t to say, though, that touring existence as fantasy adventurers has been easy. “All our gear is always failing and becomes fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Moreover I get numerous thoughts as to how I desire the presentation, but we are on the move in a van with restricted capacity. It’s a fascinating test to make it feel like a mythic tale, then pack it down into nothing.”

We faced other logistical problems that wouldn’t have troubled legendary fantasy heroes. “We experienced an ‘disastrous’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in the European country and my suitcase – which had my blade in it – went missing,” says Riley. “That was a nightmare, because we don’t have an alternative version of the show where I don’t have a blade.”

Goals Ahead

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “I aim to reach to the top – we should play huge arenas,” she says. “The main aspect that’s really important to me is preserving the handmade style, making sure everything is handmade. That’s an element I want to keep true to, regardless of we grow into. Oh, and I desire to appear on a mythical beast every night. Remember how some artists ride bikes on stage? Exactly that, but using a unicorn.”