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

While numerous musicians have taken inspiration from fantasy lore, few have fully embraced the fantasy way of life. Admittedly, they could adorn their album covers with creatures, imps, chained damsels and strong fighters, but has any musician ever needed to retrieve a missing unicorn horn from a frost-covered ground in the heart of winter? Has a guitarist spent time peering in the rear of a tour bus, mending their own armor?

Living the Fantasy

Formed in 2019, the Brooklyn-based Castle Rat have dealt with these exact challenges and more as they embody their epic fantasies. From medieval-inspired, memorable songs to eye-popping concerts, costume design, music videos and cover artwork, they’re not just a metal band as a complete sensory journey.

“It wasn’t planned to be a themed musical group,” says vocalist, guitar player, sword-wielder and visionary Riley Pinkerton as the musicians’ transport drives from a sold-out gig in a German city to one more in Aschaffenburg – they have multiple performances in the UK currently. “After a couple of performances and were scheduled on a spooky event, where I chose at the final moment to wear a costume. It was all super-DIY, but we had so much fun and the atmosphere was incredible. It occurred to me, ‘What if we could have so much excitement always?’”

Growth of the Group

Since then, the ensemble – which includes Pinkerton as the “Rodent Monarch” alongside a pestilence physician (bassist), haughty vampire (six-string player) and secretive shaman (percussionist) – haven’t looked back. The new record, the group’s sophomore release, conjures visions of legendary heavy bands uniting to fight their path through a heroic art landscape – a epic masterpiece that places them on the brink of far grander things.

The release was a first for Pinkerton in that she welcomed contributions to her bandmates. “That contributed to a lot stronger album,” she says of the team effort. “I struggled at first – There was a sense of a specific level of pride as a woman in music doing everything solo. I’ve had numerous occasions where after a show and an audience member will say, ‘The band compose cool melodies!’ and I’m like, ‘Hey – I wrote all that.’”

Creative Output and Ideas

With their growing popularity has increased, so has the scope of their stage presentation. “My philosophy is always that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” Pinkerton smiles. Initially, she was on track for a university studies in art before balking at the prospect of so much debt. “The fun thing about Castle Rat is there’s numerous methods to demonstrate artistry,” she says. “From creating face coverings, attire creation, mastering post-production song visuals … these are all things I don’t know how to do, but it’s exciting to discover in the moment.”

As if creating the group’s detailed mythology (“The team is pushing me to write it down because everything is stored,” Riley says, indicating her head) and making clothing didn’t suffice, the singer self-educated how to craft metal mesh – a challenging endeavor, though she confessedly entrusted her all-new reptilian-inspired outfit to a New York-based specialist. “It’s as if actual armour,” she smiles proudly.

Fan Response and Obstacles

What about the crowd? They took to the fake blood, foam swords and crafted rodent bones with similar excitement as the group. “We had a gig in Detroit and it seemed like a historical festival,” remembers Riley fondly. “The whole crowd was in robes, sheepskin, armor.”

That’s not to imply, however, that traveling lifestyle as fantasy adventurers has been plain sailing. “Each item is always failing and gets repaired with tape,” Riley says. “Additionally I come up with endless ideas as to how I want things to look, but we tour in a vehicle with only so much space. It’s a unique problem to create the impression like a larger-than-life story, then compress it into nothing.”

We faced further organizational challenges that would never have plagued fictional warriors. “There was an ‘uh-oh’ moment when we appeared at SonicBlast festival in the European country and my baggage – which had my weapon in it – was misplaced,” says Riley. “That was a worst-case scenario, because there’s not an backup plan of the performance where I lack a weapon.”

Goals Ahead

In the spirit of a hero, Riley is gung-ho about the what’s next. “I want to go to the top – we should play large venues,” she says. “The key element that’s deeply meaningful to me is maintaining the DIY aesthetic, ensuring everything is crafted by us. This is a feature I want to keep true to, no matter what we scale to. Oh, and I want to appear on a unicorn each show. Remember how famous musicians use vehicles in concerts? The same idea, but on a mythical creature.”