‘My Fantasy Is to Ride a Unicorn Nightly’: Medieval Heavy Metal Group Castle Rat

Although numerous rockers have taken inspiration from high fantasy, rarely any have fully embraced the enchanted lifestyle. Certainly, they could adorn their record jackets with creatures, imps, chained damsels and strong fighters, but has any musician ever been forced to retrieve a missing mythical horn from a frost-covered ground in the heart of winter? Did a guitarist devoted hours straining their eyes in the back of a traveling vehicle, mending their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and more as they live out their heroic dreams. Starting with knightly, catchy tunes to breathtaking live shows, outfit creation, visuals and cover artwork, they’re not so much a rock act as a total artistic immersion.

“It wasn’t planned to be a costumed concept band,” says vocalist, guitar player, sword-carrier and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van speeds from a packed show in Cologne to one more in another town – they have five gigs in the UK this week. “After a couple of performances and were scheduled on a Halloween gig, where I chose at the final moment to put on an outfit. The entire setup was super-DIY, but we had an amazing time and the feeling in the room was electric. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have so much excitement at every show?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Queen Rat” alongside a medic from history (bass player), haughty vampire (lead guitarist) and enigmatic nature priest (percussionist) – continued forward. Their latest album, the group’s sophomore release, brings to mind of legendary heavy bands collaborating to battle their way through a mythical painted realm – a grand composition that positions them on the verge of far grander things.

The Bestiary was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her fellow members. “It made it a lot stronger record,” she says of the group work. “I had difficulty at first – I’d always felt a specific level of pride as a female in music doing everything solo. I’ve had multiple instances where after a show and a person will say, ‘The band create awesome guitar parts!’ and I respond, ‘Hey – I created all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

As their fame has expanded, so has the scale of their visual elements. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. She was originally on path for a fine art degree before hesitating at the prospect of so much debt. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate creativity,” she says. “Whether it’s creating face coverings, outfit planning, figuring out video editing music videos … these are all things I am unfamiliar with, but it’s enjoyable to discover as we go.”

As if creating the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to document it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing wasn’t enough, the vocalist self-educated how to make chainmail – a difficult task, though she confessedly delegated her completely original scale armor design to a New York-based specialist. “It seems like actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

As for audiences? They embraced the fake blood, soft weapons and papier-mache rat skulls with similar excitement as the musicians. “We played a show in the Motor City and it looked like a medieval event,” remembers Riley happily. “Everyone was in cloaks, animal hides, armor.”

That’s not to imply, nevertheless, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been easy. “All our gear is frequently damaged and gets repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I get endless ideas as to how I desire the presentation, but we are on the move in a bus with only so much space. It’s an interesting challenge to create the impression like a grand epic, then store it into nothing.”

There have been other logistical problems that would never have plagued fictional warriors. “We experienced an ‘oh shit’ moment when we performed at a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my sword in it – got lost,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because we don’t have an alternative version of the show where I lack a sword.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the future. “I aim to reach all the way – we should play huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s deeply meaningful to me is keeping the self-crafted look, making sure all elements is handmade. This is a feature I want to remain faithful to, whatever we grow into. Plus, I desire to ride out on a mythical beast each show. Think about how some artists use vehicles in concerts? Exactly that, but with a unicorn.”