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

While plenty of rockers have borrowed from fantasy lore, only a handful have truly lived the enchanted lifestyle. Certainly, they might adorn their record jackets with ghouls, beasts, manacled maidens and muscular warriors, but has an artist ever needed to recover a lost unicorn horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Has a guitarist devoted hours squinting in the back of a tour bus, mending their own chainmail?

Immersed in the Legend

Formed in 2019, New York’s Castle Rat have had to face both these scenarios and more as they live out their heroic dreams. From heraldic, earworm-heavy songs to breathtaking concerts, costume design, visuals and cover artwork, they’re more than a metal band as a full immersive experience.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a outfit with characters,” says vocalist, guitar player, blade-handler and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the band’s tour van drives from a full-capacity concert in Cologne to one more in Aschaffenburg – they are playing multiple performances in the UK this week. “Initially, we performed twice and got booked on a spooky event, where I decided spontaneously to put on an outfit. Everything was completely self-made, but we had so much fun and the energy was unforgettable. It occurred to me, ‘How about if we could have this much fun at every show?’”

The Band’s Evolution

From that point on, the group – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rat Queen” together with a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), proud bloodsucker (lead guitarist) and mysterious druid (percussionist) – continued forward. Their latest album, the group’s sophomore release, evokes images 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 initial step for Pinkerton in that she opened the floor to her collaborators. “That contributed to a much better project,” she says of the collaborative process. “I had difficulty at first – There was a sense of a specific level of pride as a woman in music going it alone. There’ve been multiple instances where after a show and an audience member will say, ‘The other members write great riffs!’ and I think, ‘Wait – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has increased, so has the scale of their production design. “My motto is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton chuckles. At first, she had been on path for a university studies in art before balking at the prospect of heavy loans. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s various avenues to express creativity,” she says. “From making masks, outfit planning, mastering post-production clips … everything is I have no experience with, but it’s enjoyable to learn in the moment.”

Even though developing the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to record it because all the ideas are,” Riley says, pointing to her head) and sewing costumes wasn’t enough, the singer self-educated how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly left her brand-new scale armor design to a expert from NYC. “It’s as if actual armour,” she grins.

Audience Reaction and Challenges

Regarding the fans? They embraced the theatrical gore, foam swords and papier-mache rat skulls with similar excitement as the group. “We played a gig in Detroit and it resembled a historical festival,” recalls Riley fondly. “The whole crowd was in robes, animal hides, armor.”

However, this doesn’t mean, however, that touring existence as sword’n’sorcery vagabonds has been plain sailing. “Each item is frequently damaged and gets duct-taped together,” Riley says. “Moreover I come up with endless ideas as to how I desire the presentation, but we’re traveling in a van with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to make it feel like a grand epic, then pack it down into nothing.”

We faced other logistical problems that would never have plagued legendary fantasy heroes. “There was an ‘oh shit’ moment when we played a Portuguese festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my weapon in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “This became a worst-case scenario, because there is no an different option of the concert where I don’t have a blade.”

Goals Ahead

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is enthusiastic about the what’s next. “My goal is as far as possible – I dream of large venues,” she says. “The main aspect that’s truly essential to me is preserving the self-crafted look, guaranteeing each detail is handmade. That’s an element I want to stay authentic to, no matter what we achieve. Plus, I wish to make an entrance on a mythical beast every night. Remember how legends do the motorcycle thing? Exactly that, but using a unicorn.”