‘Every Night, I Dream of Riding a Unicorn’: Swords’n’Sorcery Heavy Metal Group Castle Rat

Although many artists have taken inspiration from epic fantasy, rarely any have truly lived the enchanted existence. Admittedly, they may embellish their album sleeves with monsters, imps, captive women and strong fighters, but has an artist ever needed to find a lost unicorn horn from a frost-covered ground in the heart of winter? Did a performer taken the time straining their eyes in the back of a traveling vehicle, fixing their own metal mesh?

Living the Fantasy

Created in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have encountered these exact challenges and additional ones as they embody their grand tales. From medieval-inspired, memorable songs to eye-popping performances, costume design, visuals and cover artwork, they’re more than a metal band as a complete sensory journey.

“The band wasn’t intended to be a costumed concept band,” states vocalist, guitar player, sword-carrier and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport travels from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to a second one in another town – they are playing several shows in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and received an offer on a October show, where I made a last-minute decision to put on an outfit. Everything was completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the feeling in the room was electric. I realized, ‘Imagine if we could have this much fun always?’”

Development of Castle Rat

After that, the band – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a medic from history (low-end instrumentalist), haughty vampire (six-string player) and mysterious druid (percussionist) – haven’t looked back. The Bestiary, the band’s second album, evokes images of legendary heavy bands uniting to battle their way through a heroic art landscape – a heroic opus that places them on the brink of far grander things.

This album was a initial step for Pinkerton in that she invited input to her fellow members. “It made it a more powerful album,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – I often experienced a particular degree of pride as a female in music going it alone. There’ve been numerous occasions where I’ve got off stage and a person will say, ‘Those guys compose cool melodies!’ and I think, ‘Listen – I composed all that.’”

Artistry and Imagination

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scope of their stage presentation. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on course for a university studies in art before pulling back at the possibility of heavy loans. “The exciting part about Castle Rat is there’s so many different ways to express artistic expression,” she says. “Be it crafting disguises, attire creation, learning how to edit music videos … these are all things I have no experience with, but it’s fun to figure it out on the fly.”

As if building the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to document it because everything is stored,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the vocalist learned on her own how to create armor – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly left her brand-new scalemail look to a expert from NYC. “It feels like actual armour,” she beams.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

Regarding the fans? They embraced the stage blood, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with equal enthusiasm as the musicians. “We played a concert in the Motor City and it seemed like a medieval event,” recalls Riley with affection. “Everyone was in capes, animal hides, armor.”

This isn’t to say, however, that life on the road as fantasy adventurers has been easy. “All our gear is always failing and becomes repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I get countless concepts as to how I desire the presentation, but we are on the move in a van with limited room. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a grand epic, then store it into a small space.”

There have been further organizational challenges that didn’t affect mythic characters. “There was 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 worst-case scenario, because there is no an backup plan of the performance where I don’t have a weapon.”

Future Ambitions

As a genuine leader, Riley is eager about the future. “I want to go all the way – we should play stadiums,” she says. “The key element that’s really important to me is keeping the handmade style, making sure all elements is custom-made. It’s a component I want to remain faithful to, no matter what we scale to. Additionally, I want to appear on a magical horse every night. Think about how legends use vehicles in concerts? That, but with a unicorn.”