{"id":505688,"date":"2026-03-05T18:29:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505688\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:29:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:29:18","slug":"the-birth-death-and-perpetual-rebirth-of-castle-rat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505688\/","title":{"rendered":"The birth, death and perpetual rebirth of Castle Rat"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s early December, and snowing heavily in Saugerties. That\u2019s nothing unusual for upstate New York, but it is something of a novelty for Riley Pinkerton. The Castle Rat<\/a> frontwoman moved here from Brooklyn last summer, but the band\u2019s intense touring schedule has meant that it\u2019s only now, some five months later, that she\u2019s actually been able to spend time in the new house she shares with her boyfriend.<\/p>\n

2025 was a crazy year for Castle Rat and Riley Pinkerton. They\u2019ve gone from being relative unknowns \u2013 albeit relative unknowns with a fantastic, Dungeons & Dragons-inspired image \u2013 to one of the most talked-about new bands in metal. Videos of Riley, clad in a chainmail bikini and brandishing a huge sword onstage, have gone viral.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Their mix of doom, trad metal and nerd-bait fantasy lyrics has struck a chord with those on the lookout for something larger-than-life and unembarrassed to be ridiculous \u2013 Castle Rat\u2019s second album, The Bestiary<\/a>, came in at No.3 in Metal Hammer\u2019s Albums Of 2025<\/a> list.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Right now, though, Riley and her bandmates \u2013 lead guitarist Franco Vittore (aka The Count), bassist Charley Ruddell (aka The Plague Doctor) and drummer Josh Strmic (aka The Druid) \u2013 are having a well-earned break. No touring, no writing, no recording, no nothing. So there should be plenty of time for the singer to leave her mark on her new abode. Except that those months on the road being immediately followed by an empty void has taken its toll on her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m struggling with that,\u201d Riley admits. \u201cI had a psychiatry appointment and I have anti-anxiety meds now, because I spun out as soon as I got home. It\u2019s literally just been go, go, go, go, go \u2013 and my anxiety was building up on the road, too. I was like, \u2018I need to talk to someone about this\u2019, and at least give myself a safety net so that I can function. Because I can\u2019t let this get in the way of my job, which is my dream job. I\u2019m like: \u2018Why am I anxious about my dream job?\u2019 It\u2019s because it means a lot to me, so then I put a lot of pressure on myself. So it\u2019s been a wild transition.”<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m a homebody. I love being home \u2013 to the degree that sometimes I think it\u2019s crazy that I\u2019m a touring musician, because home means the most to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI go onstage, I battle death, I die, and I\u00a0come back to life \u2013 because I don\u2019t want to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley Pinkerton<\/p>\n

When she is on tour \u2013 or at least when she\u2019s onstage \u2013 Riley assumes the role of The Rat Queen. Her story is acted out onstage, as well as within Castle Rat\u2019s songs. The narrative revolves around her battling her arch nemesis, The Rat Reaperess (Maddy Wright), in a fantasy world known as The Realm. Riley is its Rat Queen, wearing chainmail outfits and wielding a gigantic sword, modelling her look on the aesthetics of 1970s fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. It\u2019s campy and self-aware, but it never undermines the glowering, doom-laden dramatics of the music.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

When she\u2019s at home, though, like she is now, she\u2019s simply Riley Pinkerton \u2013 a normal human with normal worries, no chainmail in sight. Her flowing red hair is the only remnant of her character that remains. Of course, the two are still heavily intertwined. For a start, her onstage moniker stems from the fact that she was affectionately nicknamed The Rat by her family when she was a kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was probably more like a princess at that point,\u201d she quips.<\/p>\n

Secondly, she heavily infuses the band\u2019s songs with her own, real-world emotions.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cI have major death anxiety, where I really don\u2019t want to die,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd one of my theories is that if I keep making a thing, I can\u2019t be taken off this Earth because I have a job to do. That\u2019s my deal with God, or whatever \u2013 if I\u2019m really busy, you can\u2019t take me yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rat Reaperess is a metaphor for that anxiety; her way of confronting and combating it, albeit onstage, to feel a little more at ease when it comes to her own mortality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go onstage, I battle death, I die, and I come back to life \u2013 because I don\u2019t want to die,\u201d she says about the epic showdown between the two characters. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, because I didn\u2019t set out to make a show about my death anxiety. I was like, \u2018I think it\u2019d be cool if I die and spit up blood and yada yada yada \u2013 but I have to come back to life because I still need to play another show the next night.\u2019 And then I was like, \u2018Oh, this is entirely about that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also, she says, \u201ca deeper level about the Rat Reaperess\u201d that she \u201cwould love to go into in a comic book or book book\u201d, but that\u2019s for the future. For now, though, she\u2019s focused on the music. She just wants it understood that, despite what that character represents, she doesn\u2019t consider her a malevolent being.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never refer to her as evil,\u201d says Riley. \u201cI say she\u2019s our arch nemesis, but it\u2019s not a show about good versus evil. It\u2019s life versus death. The Rat Reaperess is just doing her job, and we paint her as the bad guy, but really we\u2019re completely going against the natural order in evading that. Honestly, in the natural world, we\u2019re the bad guys, and that\u2019s something that I want to explore, and I think is important for me. That tone is important \u2013 where death isn\u2019t bad or evil, it\u2019s just something that I don\u2019t understand. The fear of the unknown freaks me out. So she more represents that anxiety than\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

She never finishes her sentence. Hearing something behind her, she turns abruptly to the source of the noise and her thought trails off. It turns out that it\u2019s just one of the joys of country living \u2013 a rodent running around the house. \u201cI have a mouse. Fitting!\u201d she chuckles after a few seconds of distraction. \u201cI just heard it in the stove. The stove isn\u2019t on. We\u2019re good.\u201d She looks relieved \u2013 almost as if it could actually have been The Rat Reaperess herself.<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 7<\/p>\n

\"PressBow before your Rat Queen: Riley Pinkerton(Image credit: Jonathan Pushnik)\"PressDrummer Joshua Strmic (“The Druid”) (Image credit: Jonathan Pushnik)\"PressGuitarist Franco Vittore (“The Count”) (Image credit: Jonathan Pushnik)\"PressBassist Charley Ruddell (“The Plague Doctor”) (Image credit: Jonathan Pushnik)\"PressCastle Rat’s nemesis – The Rat Reaperess (Madeline Wright)(Image credit: Jonathan Pushnik)\"PressDefenders Of The Realm(Image credit: Jonathan Pushnik)\"Press(Image credit: Jonathan Pushnik)<\/p>\n

Riley Pinkerton was born in New York, but mainly grew up in Michigan with her mother. She would, however, travel to New York and stay with her dad, who still lives there \u201cin a tiny one-bedroom\u201d. It was his sofa she crashed on when she first moved there with dreams of making it as a folk singer. There are, for the curious, still videos of that previous musical incarnation online, including one at a Sofar Sounds NYC gig.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh God,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s so bad! I\u2019ve got to get someone to take that down. Damn.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stayed at her dad\u2019s place while she worked on finding a job and a place to live, and eventually did both. It sounds like both were quintessential New York experiences for her \u2013 she started working at a now-closed doughnut shop on St Marks Place, and found a place a few blocks away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this old drunk Irish guy who had a storage room in his six-floor walk-up in the East Village that I rented,\u201d she remembers with a sly smile that reveals the folly, naivety and wonder of her youth. \u201cI could stand in there and touch both walls. There was a lofted bed, so I couldn\u2019t put my arms up standing in my room, but then if I went up there, I couldn\u2019t sit up in bed without hitting my head on the ceiling. It was the smallest space ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked at the doughnut shop and paid my rent, and that\u2019s about it. We didn\u2019t even have a working stove \u2013 it was tiny tiny. But I remember feeling like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m doing it. I\u2019m living in the East Village, dreaming about Debbie Harry and CBGB – I\u2019m doing it!\u2019 But I wasn\u2019t really doing anything. I was just working at a doughnut shop and drinking a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not long after, Riley moved to Brooklyn, and she stayed in different parts of the Big Apple\u2019s hippest borough for about a decade before eventually relocating upstate. But that time was a formative period for her. Not only did she meet some \u201cpretty legit dudes\u201d at the doughnut shop pre-Castle Rat that she was \u201cable to build more of a rock\u2019n\u2019roll band around\u201d, someone she met early on in her New York days booked her first show. That same person also gave her the kick she needed to follow her real musical inspirations (mainly Black Sabbath) rather than do the folk thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe started a band that was, like, full Sabbath worship, where she had an SG [Gibson SG, the guitar played by Tony Iommi and Angus Young, among others],\u201d remembers Riley. \u201cI went to see her and it was the first time I saw someone doing the thing. I was like, \u2018Oh, you can just do it!\u2019 It broke some wall I had up\u2026 To see someone get up there and do that blew my mind open. I was like, \u2018Oh, yeah. Just do the stuff that you love. Like, why am I complicating it and trying to find whatever it is I\u2019m looking for?\u2019 And so that was really the impetus for leaning in.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019d owned an SG since she was 18, but resisted playing it because of the inherent burden that comes with doing so and being female. But after seeing her friend do it, Riley decided she was just going to follow her heart, and the medieval fantasy doom metal of Castle Rat was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this pressure,\u201d she says, \u201cthat if you\u2019re a girl playing guitar, you have to be really fucking good, or people are not going to take you seriously. But I don\u2019t have a desire to be a shredder. People who do, will. They\u2019ll sit down and obsess over scales, and that\u2019ll be the thing that excites them, and they\u2019ll become good at it. I\u2019ve just never felt that way about guitar. I feel that way about songwriting and worldbuilding: that\u2019s where I shred. That\u2019s what really excites me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somewhat ironically, that all started by chance. After playing their first two shows, their third was booked for October 31, 2019. For those first two they\u2019d worn all black in an attempt to be less conspicuous. After all, they were still finding their footing and their confidence. Then, for that Halloween gig, they decided to dress up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so much fun,\u201d remembers Riley. \u201cAnd I felt everyone onstage sort of relax into their roles because they weren\u2019t showing up as themselves. Our drummer at the time was not into metal at all \u2013 I\u2019d worked with him on folk stuff \u2013 and he was like, \u2018I feel like a poser up here.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Just don\u2019t talk to anyone, and if they ask you about Sabbath, leave the room.\u2019 So he was really into the costumes because it allowed him to play a character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castle Rat – \u201cWIZARD\u201d (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Castle<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The rest is history-in-the-making. After that gig, Riley wrote and devised the lore of The Realm and its characters, and they became a permanent, and intrinsic, part of the band\u2019s identity. In 2024, they released debut album Into The Realm and \u2013 as the past six months have shown both the band and the world \u2013 things have snowballed ever since. And while they might now have a much-needed few months of nothingness, the future is looking incredibly bright.<\/p>\n

First on the books after that rest and recuperation is opening up for Amon Amarth and Dethklok\u2019s Amonklok co-headline US tour, which will see Castle Rat play the biggest stages of their career to date. For some people, that might be intimidating, but not for Riley.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, she\u2019ll be playing those gigs sober. She stopped drinking five years ago, after partying too hard on her birthday \u201cto a degree that was frightening and involved me vomiting up blood\u201d. It wasn\u2019t intended to be a permanent thing, but \u2013 in much the same way Castle Rat\u2019s existence is a confluence of happy accidents and perfect timing \u2013 that\u2019s just the way things worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal that I had with myself was that I wouldn\u2019t drink until the pandemic was over and shows were back,\u201d she says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine getting onstage without a shot or two of whiskey and a cigarette as my vocal warm-up \u2013 what the fuck?! \u2013 because that was the only way I knew how to do it. But our first show back out of the pandemic was the day before my birthday. I was like, \u2018Am I really going to end my sobriety one day shy of a year sober? That\u2019s stupid.\u2019 So I was like, \u2018OK, maybe it\u2019s worth seeing if I can do this sober. And if I can play this show sober, then I can pretty much do anything sober.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s more than proved that\u2019s the case. For now, though, you\u2019ll find her in upstate New York, hopefully defeating her post-tour anxiety by chasing mice, turning her house into a home, and making her Castle Rat dreams come true.<\/p>\n

The Bestiary is out now via Blues Funeral Recordings. Castle Rat play Welcome To Rockville in May and Bloodstock Festival in August.<\/p>\n

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