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While numerous artists have borrowed from fantasy lore, rarely any have truly lived the enchanted way of life. Admittedly, they might adorn their record jackets with monsters, goblins, captive women and muscular warriors, but has an artist ever been forced to recover a lost mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the heart of winter? Did anyone devoted hours squinting in the interior of a tour bus, fixing their own armor?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered such situations and additional ones as they embody their heroic dreams. From heraldic, earworm-heavy tunes to stunning performances, attire styling, music videos and album art, they’re more than a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” says singer, guitarist, blade-handler and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle speeds from a packed show in Cologne to another in another town – they have several shows in the UK currently. “We played two shows and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to put on an outfit. The entire setup was highly handmade, but we had a blast and the feeling in the room was electric. I realized, ‘How about if we could have so much excitement every time?’”

Development of Castle Rat

After that, the ensemble – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” together with a plague doctor (bass player), haughty vampire (six-string player) and secretive shaman (rhythm keeper) – haven’t looked back. The Bestiary, the group’s sophomore release, brings to mind of famous rock groups collaborating to battle their way through a mythical painted realm – a grand composition that positions them on the verge of bigger achievements.

This album was a first for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her bandmates. “It made it a lot stronger project,” she says of the collaborative process. “It was challenging at first – I often experienced a certain amount of pride being a woman in music doing everything solo. I’ve had multiple instances where I finished performing and some guy will say, ‘The other members compose cool melodies!’ and I respond, ‘Hey – I composed all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scale of their production design. “My motto is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on path for a fine art degree before pulling back at the possibility of heavy loans. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to apply artistic expression,” she says. “From making masks, attire creation, figuring out video editing clips … everything is I am unfamiliar with, but it’s exciting to learn on the fly.”

Even though creating the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to document it because everything is stored,” Riley says, tapping her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the vocalist self-educated how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly left her completely original scalemail look to a professional in the city. “It seems like actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Fan Response and Obstacles

As for audiences? They took to the stage blood, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the musicians. “We had a concert in Detroit and it looked like a historical festival,” remembers Riley fondly. “Everyone was in cloaks, wool garments, armor.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that traveling lifestyle as mythical wanderers has been easy. “All our gear is always failing and gets fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Plus I come up with endless ideas as to how I want things to look, but we tour in a van with only so much space. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a mythic tale, then compress it into a small space.”

We faced additional practical issues that wouldn’t have troubled legendary fantasy heroes. “We experienced an ‘disastrous’ moment when we played a Portuguese 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 alternative version of the concert where I am without a sword.”

Upcoming Plans

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the days to come. “My goal is all the way – I dream of large venues,” she says. “The key element that’s deeply meaningful to me is keeping the self-crafted look, guaranteeing each detail is custom-made. This is a feature I want to keep true to, no matter what we grow into. Additionally, I want to appear on a mythical beast every night. Think about how legends ride bikes on stage? Exactly that, but on a mythical creature.”