🔗 Share this article

While many rockers have taken inspiration from high fantasy, only a handful have truly lived the mythical way of life. Admittedly, they could decorate their album sleeves with creatures, goblins, manacled maidens and muscular warriors, but has any musician ever been forced to recover a misplaced horn from a unicorn from a frost-covered ground in the heart of winter? Has a performer spent time straining their eyes in the interior of a road transport, repairing their own armor?

Embracing the Mythos

Formed in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have had to face both these scenarios and additional ones as they embody their heroic dreams. Starting with heraldic, catchy songs to breathtaking performances, costume design, visuals and cover artwork, they’re more than a heavy metal group as a complete sensory journey.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” states singer, guitar player, sword-carrier and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van drives from a sold-out gig in a German city to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they have multiple performances in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. It was all completely self-made, but we had a blast and the energy was electric. I thought, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun always?’”

Growth of the Group

After that, the group – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” alongside a plague doctor (bassist), aristocratic undead (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – never turned back. Their latest album, the group’s sophomore release, brings to mind of legendary heavy bands joining forces to struggle onward through a mythical painted realm – a heroic opus that places them on the edge of far grander things.

This album 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 – There was a sense of a certain amount of accomplishment as a female in music working independently. There have been numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and an audience member will say, ‘Those guys create awesome guitar parts!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scope of their production design. “My motto is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. At first, she had been on track for a art school education before balking at the possibility of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to apply creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, costume design, learning how to edit song visuals … these are all things I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to figure it out in the moment.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, tapping 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 entrusted her brand-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They embraced the stage blood, foam swords and crafted rodent bones with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We performed a gig in Detroit and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” reminisces Riley with affection. “All attendees was in capes, wool garments, metal wear.”

That’s not to imply, however, that touring existence as mythical wanderers has been smooth. “Each item is frequently damaged and becomes duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have endless ideas as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we tour in a bus with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a grand epic, 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 performed at a music event in the European country and my luggage – which had my blade in it – got lost,” says Riley. “It was a worst-case scenario, because we don’t have an different option of the performance where I don’t have a sword.”

Upcoming Plans

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is eager about the future. “I want to go to the top – let’s do huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is preserving the self-crafted look, ensuring each detail is custom-made. It’s a component I want to stay authentic to, whatever we grow into. Plus, I want to make an entrance on a mythical beast every night. You know how some artists do the motorcycle thing? That, but using a unicorn.”