🔗 Share this article

While numerous rockers have taken inspiration from fantasy lore, rarely any have fully embraced the mythical existence. Certainly, they could decorate their record jackets with monsters, beasts, chained damsels and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever been forced to find a lost horn from a unicorn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Has a guitarist devoted hours peering in the back of a tour bus, fixing their own metal mesh?

Immersed in the Legend

Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and more as they live out their grand tales. From knightly, catchy songs to eye-popping concerts, attire styling, music videos and cover artwork, they’re more than a heavy metal group as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a outfit with characters,” explains singer, guitar player, sword-carrier and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van speeds from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to a second one in Aschaffenburg – they have five gigs in the UK currently. “Initially, we performed twice and were scheduled on a Halloween gig, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the energy was electric. I realized, ‘What if we could have this much fun every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

From that point on, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” together with a pestilence physician (bass player), aristocratic undead (six-string player) and enigmatic nature priest (percussionist) – haven’t looked back. The Bestiary, the follow-up record, conjures visions of classic metal icons collaborating to battle their way through a mythical painted realm – a heroic opus that positions them on the brink of far grander things.

The Bestiary was a first for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her fellow members. “This helped a more powerful record,” she says of the collaborative process. “I struggled at first – I’d always felt a particular degree of accomplishment as a female in music going it alone. There’ve been numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘The band write great riffs!’ and I think, ‘Hey – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has expanded, so has the scale of their visual elements. “My motto is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. She was originally on track for a art school education before balking at the prospect of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate creativity,” she says. “From crafting disguises, costume design, figuring out video editing music videos … it’s all stuff I am unfamiliar with, but it’s enjoyable to figure it out as we go.”

As if building the group’s detailed mythology (“Everyone’s urging me to write it down because it’s all in here,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the singer taught herself how to craft metal mesh – a difficult task, though she admittedly entrusted her completely original reptilian-inspired outfit to a New York-based specialist. “It seems like actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

Regarding the fans? They embraced the fake blood, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the group. “We had a show in Detroit and it resembled a historical festival,” remembers Riley happily. “Everyone was in cloaks, sheepskin, chainmail.”

However, this doesn’t mean, though, that traveling lifestyle as mythical wanderers has been plain sailing. “Each item is frequently damaged and ends up fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Moreover I’ll have countless concepts 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 give the sense like a grand epic, then pack it down into nothing.”

There have been other logistical problems that didn’t affect fictional warriors. “We experienced an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played SonicBlast festival in the European country and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – got lost,” says Riley. “This became a worst-case scenario, because there is no an different option of the concert where I don’t have a weapon.”

Future Ambitions

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is gung-ho about the days to come. “I aim to reach all the way – I dream of large venues,” she says. “The only thing that’s truly essential to me is maintaining the handmade style, ensuring all elements is custom-made. It’s a component I want to remain faithful to, regardless of we scale to. Oh, and I want to ride out on a mythical beast each show. Remember how some artists use vehicles in concerts? Exactly that, but with a unicorn.”