🔗 Share this article

While many artists have taken inspiration from epic fantasy, few have genuinely embodied the mythical way of life. Certainly, they might decorate their album sleeves with monsters, imps, chained damsels and strong fighters, but has any musician ever have to recover a missing mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the depths of winter? Has a performer devoted hours peering in the interior of a road transport, repairing their own chainmail?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and others as they live out their heroic dreams. Starting with medieval-inspired, earworm-heavy songs to eye-popping live shows, outfit creation, music videos and record designs, they’re more than a metal band as a total artistic immersion.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a themed musical group,” explains vocalist, guitarist, blade-handler and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a sold-out gig in Cologne to a second one in another town – they’re also doing several shows in the UK this week. “We played two shows and got booked on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to put on an outfit. The entire setup was highly handmade, but we had an amazing time and the feeling in the room was incredible. It occurred to me, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun every time?’”

The Band’s Evolution

From that point on, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” alongside a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), aristocratic undead (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (rhythm keeper) – continued forward. Their latest album, the band’s second album, evokes images of famous rock groups joining forces to struggle onward through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a heroic opus that sets them on the edge of far grander things.

The release was a new experience for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her collaborators. “It made it a lot stronger record,” she says of the team effort. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a certain amount of pride as a female in music doing everything solo. I’ve had so many times where after a show and some guy will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I’m like, ‘Wait – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has grown, so has the scale of their production design. “My motto is always that if an effort matters, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. Initially, she was on track for a university studies in art before balking at the possibility of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to apply creativity,” she says. “From crafting disguises, costume design, mastering post-production music videos … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to learn as we go.”

Even though building the group’s detailed mythology (“People are encouraging me to write it down because everything is stored,” Riley says, tapping her head) and sewing costumes wasn’t enough, the vocalist self-educated how to make chainmail – a difficult task, though she confessedly left her brand-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Fan Response and Obstacles

As for audiences? They loved the fake blood, toy blades and papier-mache rat skulls with as much gusto as the group. “We had a concert in the Motor City and it resembled a medieval event,” reminisces Riley fondly. “All attendees was in robes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

However, this doesn’t mean, however, that life on the road as mythical wanderers has been easy. “All our gear is always failing and ends up duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Additionally I’ll have countless concepts as to how I want things to look, but we are on the move in a van with only so much space. It’s a fascinating test to give the sense like a mythic tale, then store it into nothing.”

There have been additional practical issues that didn’t affect mythic characters. “We did have an ‘disastrous’ moment when we performed at a Portuguese festival in the European country and my suitcase – which had my blade in it – went missing,” says Riley. “That was a terrible situation, because we don’t have an alternative version of the show where I am without a weapon.”

Goals Ahead

Like a true warrior queen, Riley is eager about the future. “I want to go all the way – let’s do stadiums,” she says. “The key element that’s truly essential to me is keeping the handmade style, ensuring all elements is custom-made. It’s a component I want to keep true to, whatever we grow into. Additionally, I want to appear on a mythical beast every night. Remember how famous musicians ride bikes on stage? That, but using a unicorn.”