‘My Fantasy Is to Ride a Unicorn Nightly’: Swords’n’Sorcery Heavy Metal Band Castle Rat

Although plenty of rockers have drawn from fantasy lore, rarely any have fully embraced the fantasy existence. Certainly, they might embellish their record jackets with ghouls, beasts, chained damsels and strong fighters, but did a member ever needed to recover a lost horn from a unicorn from a frost-covered ground in the midst of winter? Did anyone spent time straining their eyes in the interior of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own chainmail?

Embracing the Mythos

Established in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have dealt with such situations and additional ones as they embody their epic fantasies. From heraldic, earworm-heavy tunes to breathtaking performances, attire styling, visuals and cover artwork, they’re not so much a metal band as a full immersive experience.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” says vocalist, guitar player, blade-handler and creative overlord Riley Pinkerton as the group’s vehicle drives from a sold-out gig in a German city to one more in another town – they’re also doing several shows in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a Halloween gig, where I decided spontaneously to wear a costume. It was all highly handmade, but we had a blast and the atmosphere was incredible. I realized, ‘What if we could have such enjoyment every time?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” joined by a pestilence physician (bass player), haughty vampire (guitarist) and mysterious druid (percussionist) – continued forward. The Bestiary, the band’s second album, brings to mind of legendary heavy bands joining forces to battle their way through a Frank Frazetta fantasy world – a epic masterpiece that sets them on the edge of far grander things.

The release was a first for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her collaborators. “It made it a much better album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I struggled at first – There was a sense of a particular degree of satisfaction as a female in music doing everything solo. I’ve had multiple instances where I finished performing and a person will say, ‘The other members compose cool melodies!’ and I respond, ‘Wait – I created all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scope of their production design. “My motto is always that if something is valuable, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton laughs. At first, she had been on course for a fine art degree before pulling back at the idea of so much debt. “What’s enjoyable about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to demonstrate artistic expression,” she says. “From crafting disguises, costume design, learning how to edit song visuals … everything is I am unfamiliar with, but it’s exciting to figure it out as we go.”

Even though developing the band’s intricate lore (“The team is pushing me to record it because it’s all in here,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the singer taught herself how to make chainmail – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly left her completely original scalemail look to a professional in the city. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Fan Response and Obstacles

What about the crowd? They loved the stage blood, soft weapons and crafted rodent bones with as much gusto as the band. “We had a gig in Detroit and it resembled a Renaissance fair,” remembers Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in cloaks, sheepskin, chainmail.”

This isn’t to say, however, that life on the road as mythical wanderers has been smooth. “Each item is frequently damaged and ends up duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Plus I come up with endless ideas 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 unique problem to give the sense like a larger-than-life story, then pack it down into minimal luggage.”

We faced additional practical issues that would never have plagued fictional warriors. “There was an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in the European country and my suitcase – which had my blade in it – got lost,” says Riley. “It was a nightmare, because there is no an different option of the show where I am without a weapon.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is gung-ho about the future. “I aim to reach as far as possible – we should play huge arenas,” she says. “The only thing that’s really important to me is preserving the handmade style, making sure all elements is custom-made. That’s an element I want to keep true to, regardless of we scale to. Plus, I wish to ride out on a unicorn every night. Think about how legends ride bikes on stage? The same idea, but using a unicorn.”