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While many musicians have drawn from fantasy lore, rarely any have fully embraced the mythical existence. Certainly, they might adorn their album covers with creatures, beasts, chained damsels and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever have to recover a misplaced mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the midst of winter? Did a performer spent time straining their eyes in the interior of a traveling vehicle, repairing their own chainmail?

Immersed in the Legend

Established in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have had to face these exact challenges and additional ones as they embody their grand tales. Starting with medieval-inspired, catchy songs to eye-popping performances, costume design, visuals and cover artwork, they’re more than a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a costumed concept band,” explains singer, guitarist, blade-handler and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van travels from a sold-out gig in a German city to another in another town – they have five gigs in the UK now. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a October show, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had an amazing time and the feeling in the room was unforgettable. I realized, ‘What if we could have this much fun every time?’”

Growth of the Group

After that, the group – which features Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” alongside a plague doctor (bass player), haughty vampire (guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (rhythm keeper) – haven’t looked back. Their latest album, the follow-up record, conjures visions of legendary heavy bands joining forces to fight their path through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that sets them on the brink of far grander things.

This album was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her collaborators. “That contributed to a much better album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a specific level of pride as a female in music going it alone. I’ve had so many times where after a show and some guy will say, ‘The other members create awesome guitar parts!’ and I respond, ‘Listen – I created all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scope of their production design. “My philosophy is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on path for a university studies in art before hesitating at the possibility of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply creativity,” she says. “Be it crafting disguises, costume design, figuring out video editing clips … these are all things I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to learn as we go.”

As if creating the ensemble’s complex backstory (“The team is pushing me to record it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and stitching garments were insufficient, the singer learned on her own how to create armor – no mean feat, though she admittedly delegated her brand-new scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They loved the fake blood, soft weapons and crafted rodent bones with similar excitement as the group. “We performed a show in Detroit and it looked like a medieval event,” reminisces Riley fondly. “All attendees was in capes, animal hides, armor.”

This isn’t to say, nevertheless, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been smooth. “All our gear is always failing and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Plus I get numerous thoughts as to how I want things to look, but we’re traveling in a van with restricted capacity. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a mythic tale, then store it into minimal luggage.”

There have been further organizational challenges that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We experienced an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at a music event in Portugal and my suitcase – which had my sword in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because we don’t have an different option of the performance where I don’t have a sword.”

Future Ambitions

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is enthusiastic about the what’s next. “I want to go as far as possible – I dream of huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s truly essential to me is maintaining the DIY aesthetic, guaranteeing each detail is handmade. It’s a component I want to keep true to, regardless of we scale to. Additionally, I wish to appear on a mythical beast every night. Think about how some artists ride bikes on stage? The same idea, but using a unicorn.”