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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Alex Deller

‘I want to ride out on a unicorn every night’: swords’n’sorcery heavy metal band Castle Rat

Castle Rat L-R: Charley Ruddell, Riley Pinkerton, Franco Vittore and Joshua Strmic.
Eye-popping … Castle Rat (from left) Charley Ruddell, Riley Pinkerton, Franco Vittore and Joshua Strmic. Photograph: Peter Beste

While many a rocker has cribbed from high fantasy, few have truly walked the walk. Sure, they might bedeck their album sleeves with ghouls, goblins, manacled maidens and brawny barbarians, but did a member of Cirith Ungol ever have to retrieve a missing unicorn horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Has Yngwie Malmsteen spent time squinting in the back of a tour bus, repairing his own chainmail?

Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have had to face both these scenarios and more as they live out their epic fantasies. From heraldic, earworm-heavy anthems to eye-popping live shows, costume design, videos and album art, they’re not so much a metal band as a full immersive experience.

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