Castle Rat began in the days of old. In the midst of a plague-ridden world, four magical characters came together under inimitable circumstances to rise against the evil Rat Reaperess, who is Death incarnate. Castle Rat is led by the Rat Queen, who was anointed her powers after aiding the beast known as the Castle Rat.
The Rat Queen is joined by the Count who, just inches from death, was brought back to life by the Plague Doctor whose exact origins are not quite known. The Plague Doctor has significant ties with the all-seeing Druid, who led these beings away from the darkness of the plague. By powers unbeknownst to mere mortals, these four characters were brought together for one purpose – to put an end to Death herself as they venture forth into the realm. All while delivering hard-hitting, enigmatic Doom Metal, of course.
Castle Rat released their debut record, Into the Realm, back in April via King Volume Records. The group, while on their journey to vanquish the Rat Reaperess (Maddy Wright), aims to bring listeners within the realm as they themselves venture through. With the Rat Queen (Riley Pinkerton) on vocals, the Count (Franco Vittore) on guitar, the Plague Doctor (Ronnie Lanzilotta) on bass, and the Druid (Joshua Strmic) on drums, Castle Rat is reminiscent of a world featuring battle maidens, mystical beings and a killer, prowling metal soundtrack.
Taking inspiration from groups like Dio, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, Castle Rat carries a sound as old as time and has a lore as deep as groups like Ghost or Kiss. The group and its extensive lore is the brainchild of frontwoman Riley Pinkerton, who crafted each individual character and their backstory.
Joshua Strmic, The Druid of Castle Rat, sat down with Ghost Cult Mag to discuss the groups origins and influences, admitting that he himself wasn’t introduced to doom metal until joining the group. Now, he is influenced by defining doom metal groups like Candle Mass and Electric Wizard. As they’ve brought the genre into the limelight, Strmic says fans have admitted to falling in love with doom metal because of Castle Rat, despite never listening to the music before.
“I’m glad that Castle Rat has been this introduction to the genre,” he says. “I have a lot of friends that aren’t into metal who love Castle Rat and are now starting to listen to more metal, which makes me so happy.”
The theatrics and entertaining live shows from the band are what draws non-metal fans into their world, Strmic says.
“Regardless of liking metal or not, I think people love to be entertained,” he says.
As well as their theatrical onstage performances, it is also the Rat Queen’s vocals and musicality that bring in people who don’t typically listen to heavy metal, he says.
“I know a lot of people don’t like the whole operatic [vocals],” he admits. “Riley has this softer, more approachable vocal style that I think, when accompanied with super heavy music, opens up the spectrum of people who are attracted to it.”
As the All-Seeing Druid, the lore claims he joined the band after receiving visions of the other band members. Once joining them, he was the sole guide that led the band into safety and helped them escape Death. As a person, Joshua finds many similarities between his dutiful character and himself.
“I do like to tend to my community and the people I love, and when finding out about my character and the lore behind it, it really started to make so much sense,” he says. “I really identified with it pretty quickly. Also, I love the somewhat mysterious nature of the character and his origin…I’m not going to exactly claim that I, as a human, am all-seeing, but I do pride myself in my power of intuition.
These similarities go beyond his personality, and even seeps into his musicianship as well.
“The nomadic nature of a druid and a musician, I do think they both share that,” he says. “I’ve always been that way, just very nomadic in general. And then I also think drums are very much the most connected instrument to nature. It’s very much rooted in human history. I feel I’m biased, but I think they’re at the center of music and it just expanded from there. So druids being ancient, all knowing, all seeing, wise, connected with nature, I do think that’s a very obvious parallel.”
Many parallels can be found within the growing universe and legacy of Castle Rat. This includes the potential negative connotations of a rat itself. Often seen as symbols of disease or death, Castle Rat has turned the rat into a symbol of power and positivity.
“Rats are very resilient creatures and I think that is something that the band kind of centers around,” Joshua says. “They get a bad rap in general, but I think they’re very intelligent creatures and able to thrive under severe, less than ideal conditions, which is something that I also think we admire and try to embody. And a strong sense of community as well. Bringing people into the realm, that is a major core philosophy of Castle Rat and the realm. We view rats in a very positive light. I mean, I think they’re fucking metal as hell.”
Another major symbol within the realm of Castle Rat is, of course, the realm itself. The namesake of their debut album title and the world within every character travels into, Joshua says the realm represents togetherness for the band and wanting to bring listeners into their world, but there’s also an interdimensional aspect.
“I think the coolest and funkiest part of the lore is that when I rescue everyone [and] open up the portal to the other dimension, we end up in England in the 70s,” he says. “So we’re seen in our costumes, and people think we are the newest metal glam band that’s arrived on the scene. That’s a major part of the lore.”
Essentially, when Castle Rat performs on stage, each concert is the band coming out of a portal and entering this dimension. Once the concert is over, they venture back into the portal, into another time, place, and realm.
While every character within the Castle Rat universe is intersected, the Druid shares a special bond with the Plague Doctor. While not much is known about the Plague Doctor, it is said that he has ties to the early Druidic people and has had long correspondence with the Druid of Castle Rat.
“This is a pretty cool part of the lore that I feel like goes unnoticed,” Joshua says. “The Plague Doctor actually comes from an extraterrestrial race. I don’t want to straight up say he’s an alien, but in a way he is. The Plague Doctor is the oldest, he gave the Druidic people our power of seeing the future. So the Plague Doctor actually has way more of an ancient role than the Druid even, which is really sick.”
Castle Rat’s debut record Into the Realm came out in April, and now the band is preparing to open up for stoner doom metal group Green Lung on the latter’s first ever North American tour this September. Regarding their inaugural musical release, Joshua says he’s excited for more and more listeners to be introduced to the lore.
“I think once people understand what the realm is, getting into the lore, I feel like they’re immediately hooked,” he says. “And I’m starting to see that happening just on a bigger and bigger scale and that’s really exciting to me.”
While many might perceive the record as a concept album, Joshua wants listeners to know that it’s more of a collection of the Rat Queen’s personal experiences.
“They are stories of the Rat Queen and her own personal travels or trials and tribulations,” he explains. “Most of this record is really having to do with who the Rat Queen is and what she has experienced in her life,which is awesome.”
Joshua goes on to praise the songwriting from Riley, and how she weaves together multiple layers of symbolism within her artistry.
“She’s good at also using medieval terminology and vocabulary too in her songwriting, which I think is super sick,” he says. “And she does that on this record. It’s very much drawn from her own personal experiences. But she’s worded it in ways that easily and beautifully tie in with the realm and the medieval setting that it’s taking place in.”
Throughout their lore, Castle Rat will tell you that their sole mission is, “To expand and defend the realm from those who seek to destroy it.” While this can mean the band defeating the Rat Reaperess during their live shows, this statement also alludes to the band’s values of creating a safe and inclusive space for fans.
“When you see us, we want you to feel like you belong here and you are included,” Joshua says. “It’s very much a message of joy and inclusion. I had an aha moment with that when I realized this isn’t just a metal band that dresses up and fucking sword fights on stage. I got that when I would have fans coming up to us after shows telling us how they felt about it. It’s emotional. That message of inclusion, warmth and acceptance was very much radiating without the overtly hippie fucking message, which I love. I think it’s kind of cool that it’s under the guise of some sort of scary-ish metal band.”
From Castle Rat, you’ll find a universe and ever-expanding story that is fueled by medieval battles, fantastical characters, and undying heavy metal. But most of all, you’ll find acceptance.
“You are in this realm with all of us,” says the all-seeing Druid. “We are all together. I think people are drawn to that.”
Buy Castle Rat music and merch here:
https://castleratband.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-realm-2
WORDS BY JUSTICE PETERSEN