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Although many artists have borrowed from high fantasy, only a handful have truly lived the fantasy lifestyle. Sure, they might decorate their album covers with ghouls, goblins, captive women and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever been forced to recover a lost mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the heart of winter? Has a performer taken the time peering in the interior of a tour bus, mending their own armor?

Immersed in the Legend

Created in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have encountered such situations and others as they act out their heroic dreams. From heraldic, earworm-heavy anthems to eye-popping concerts, outfit creation, videos and cover artwork, they’re more than a rock act as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” says singer, guitar player, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a packed show in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing several shows in the UK this week. “Initially, we performed twice and got booked on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to dress up. Everything was completely self-made, but we had an amazing time and the energy was electric. I thought, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun always?’”

Development of Castle Rat

After that, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” alongside a medic from history (bassist), aristocratic undead (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (drummer) – never turned back. Their latest album, the band’s second album, evokes images of classic metal icons uniting to struggle onward through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that sets them on the verge of far grander things.

The Bestiary was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her collaborators. “It made it a much better album,” she says of the team effort. “It was challenging at first – There was a sense of a specific level of pride as a female in music doing everything solo. There’ve been so many times where after a show and a person will say, ‘The other members write great riffs!’ and I think, ‘Wait – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

As their fame has grown, so has the scale of their visual elements. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. Initially, she was on course for a fine art degree before hesitating at the idea of financial burden. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to express creativity,” she says. “Be it making masks, attire creation, mastering post-production music videos … everything is I am unfamiliar with, but it’s fun to discover as we go.”

As if building the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to write it down because everything is stored,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the singer learned on her own how to craft metal mesh – no mean feat, though she admittedly left her completely original scalemail look to a professional in the city. “It seems like actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Fan Response and Obstacles

Regarding the fans? They embraced the stage blood, toy blades and crafted rodent bones with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We performed a gig in Detroit and it resembled a medieval event,” remembers Riley happily. “Everyone was in capes, sheepskin, armor.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been plain sailing. “All our gear is constantly breaking and gets fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Plus I’ll have endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we’re traveling in a bus with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to make it feel like a larger-than-life story, then compress it into a small space.”

We’ve encountered additional practical issues that didn’t affect mythic characters. “There was an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played a music event in the European country and my suitcase – which had my weapon in it – went missing,” says Riley. “This became a nightmare, because we don’t have an backup plan of the performance where I am without a weapon.”

Upcoming Plans

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is enthusiastic about the what’s next. “I aim to reach as far as possible – we should play huge arenas,” she says. “The key element that’s deeply meaningful to me is maintaining the DIY aesthetic, ensuring all elements is handmade. It’s a component I want to stay authentic to, no matter what we scale to. Oh, and I wish to appear on a mythical beast every night. Remember how famous musicians use vehicles in concerts? Exactly that, but using a unicorn.”