‘Every Night, I Dream of Riding a Unicorn’: Medieval Metal Group Castle Rat

Although plenty of rockers have drawn from high fantasy, rarely any have genuinely embodied the enchanted existence. Sure, they may adorn their album covers with monsters, goblins, chained damsels and brawny barbarians, but has any musician ever needed to retrieve a missing unicorn horn from a wintry landscape in the heart of winter? Has a guitarist devoted hours straining their eyes in the interior of a tour bus, fixing their own metal mesh?

Immersed in the Legend

Formed in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have dealt with both these scenarios and more as they embody their epic fantasies. Starting with heraldic, memorable songs to stunning concerts, costume design, visuals and cover artwork, they’re more than a metal band as a complete sensory journey.

“Castle Rat wasn’t meant to be a themed musical group,” says vocalist, guitarist, sword-wielder and artistic leader Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport speeds from a packed show in a German city to another in Aschaffenburg – they’re also doing several shows in the UK now. “We played two shows and got booked on a October show, where I chose at the final moment to dress up. The entire setup was completely self-made, but we had a blast and the feeling in the room was incredible. I thought, ‘What if we could have this much fun always?’”

Development of Castle Rat

From that point on, the ensemble – which showcases Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a pestilence physician (low-end instrumentalist), aristocratic undead (guitarist) and mysterious druid (percussionist) – haven’t looked back. Their latest album, the group’s sophomore release, conjures visions of famous rock groups uniting to struggle onward through a heroic art landscape – a grand composition that sets them on the verge of greater success.

This album was a first for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her bandmates. “This helped a lot stronger record,” she says of the group work. “I struggled at first – I’d always felt a specific level of satisfaction as a woman in music working independently. There have been so many times where after a show and an audience member will say, ‘The band write great riffs!’ and I think, ‘Hey – I wrote all that.’”

Artistic Expression and Vision

As the band’s stature has grown, so has the breadth of their stage presentation. “The saying I live by is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. She was originally on path for a university studies in art before hesitating at the possibility of heavy loans. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to express artistic expression,” she says. “Whether it’s making masks, attire creation, mastering post-production music videos … everything is I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to discover on the fly.”

Even though building the band’s intricate lore (“People are encouraging me to record it because everything is stored,” Riley says, indicating her head) and stitching garments didn’t suffice, the singer learned on her own how to create armor – a challenging endeavor, though she admittedly entrusted her completely original scale armor design to a professional in the city. “It seems like actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Crowd Engagement and Difficulties

Regarding the fans? They took to the theatrical gore, toy blades and handmade props with similar excitement as the group. “We performed a concert in the Motor City and it resembled a medieval event,” recalls Riley happily. “The whole crowd was in robes, sheepskin, metal wear.”

That’s not to imply, nevertheless, that traveling lifestyle as fantasy adventurers has been plain sailing. “Each item is always failing and ends up repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Moreover I get numerous thoughts as to how I envision the aesthetics, but we are on the move in a vehicle with restricted capacity. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a grand epic, then compress it into minimal luggage.”

We’ve encountered further organizational challenges that didn’t affect legendary fantasy heroes. “We experienced an ‘disastrous’ moment when we performed at SonicBlast festival in Portugal and my luggage – which had my blade in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “This became a terrible situation, because there is no an alternative version of the show where I am without a sword.”

Goals Ahead

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is eager about the future. “My goal is as far as possible – we should play large venues,” she says. “The only thing that’s deeply meaningful to me is maintaining the DIY aesthetic, ensuring all elements is handmade. This is a feature I want to keep true to, no matter what we scale to. Plus, I want to make an entrance on a magical horse every night. Remember how some artists ride bikes on stage? Exactly that, but on a mythical creature.”