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While plenty of rockers have borrowed from fantasy lore, only a handful have fully embraced the mythical existence. Certainly, they could adorn their record jackets with creatures, goblins, chained damsels and brawny barbarians, but has an artist ever needed to retrieve a missing mythical horn from a wintry landscape in the depths of winter? Did anyone taken the time straining their eyes in the rear of a road transport, fixing their own armor?

Immersed in the Legend

Established in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and additional ones as they live out their epic fantasies. From heraldic, memorable anthems to eye-popping concerts, outfit creation, music videos and cover artwork, they’re more than a heavy metal group as a total artistic immersion.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a outfit with characters,” explains singer, guitarist, sword-wielder and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a sold-out gig in Cologne to one more in another town – they’re also doing multiple performances in the UK this week. “We played two shows and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I decided spontaneously to put on an outfit. It was all super-DIY, but we had so much fun and the atmosphere was electric. I thought, ‘How about if we could have such enjoyment every time?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the group – which features Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” together with a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), haughty vampire (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (percussionist) – never turned back. The new record, the follow-up record, conjures visions of famous rock groups collaborating to fight their path through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that places them on the brink of greater success.

The Bestiary was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her fellow members. “It made it a lot stronger project,” she says of the team effort. “I struggled at first – I often experienced a certain amount of pride being a woman in music going it alone. There have been so many times where I’ve got off stage and some guy will say, ‘The other members create awesome guitar parts!’ and I respond, ‘Listen – I created all that.’”

Artistry and Imagination

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scale of their visual elements. “My motto is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. Initially, she was on course for a art school education before hesitating at the prospect of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate artistic expression,” she says. “From crafting disguises, costume design, mastering post-production song visuals … everything is I have no experience with, but it’s exciting to learn on the fly.”

Even though developing the ensemble’s complex backstory (“Everyone’s urging me to record it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, indicating her head) and stitching garments wasn’t enough, the singer self-educated how to make chainmail – no mean feat, though she confessedly left her completely original scalemail look to a New York-based specialist. “It feels like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

What about the crowd? They embraced the stage blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the band. “We had a gig in Detroit and it seemed like a historical festival,” remembers Riley with affection. “All attendees was in robes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

However, this doesn’t mean, however, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “All our gear is always failing and gets fixed temporarily,” Riley says. “Plus I’ll have countless concepts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we are on the move in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s a fascinating test to give the sense like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into minimal luggage.”

We faced other logistical problems that would never have plagued legendary fantasy heroes. “We experienced an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my suitcase – which had my sword in it – got lost,” says Riley. “This became a nightmare, because there’s not an different option of the show where I am without a weapon.”

Goals Ahead

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is gung-ho about the what’s next. “My goal is all the way – let’s do huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s deeply meaningful to me is maintaining the DIY aesthetic, ensuring each detail is crafted by us. It’s a component I want to remain faithful to, whatever we scale to. Oh, and I wish to appear on a mythical beast every night. Think about how some artists do the motorcycle thing? That, but with a unicorn.”