“I was like, ‘I think it’d be cool if I die and spit up blood and yada yada yada’”: You’ve probably seen their larger-than-life sword’n’sorcery concerts on social media, but Castle Rat’s fantasy shows are rooted in very real death anxieties

Riley Pinkerton of Castle Rat onstage in 2025

(Image credit: Amy E. Price/Getty Images)

Castle Rat singer/guitarist Riley Pinkerton has explained the real-life anxieties that have shaped their escapist heavy metal shows.

Talking exclusively in the new issue of Metal Hammer, the New York-based musician talks about her experience with death anxiety. She also reveals how the condition has informed the band’s shows, where she performs as ‘The Rat Queen’ and battles ‘The Rat Reaperess’. Or, as she summarises: “I go onstage, I battle death, I die, and I come back to life – because I don’t want to die.”

She explains: “I have major death anxiety, where I really don’t want to die. And one of my theories is that if I keep making a thing, I can’t be taken off this Earth because I have a job to do. That’s my deal with God, or whatever – if I’m really busy, you can’t take me yet.”

Pinkerton adds that the shows’ relation to her anxiety was unintentional at first. “It’s funny, because I didn’t set out to make a show about my death anxiety. I was like, ‘I think it’d be cool if I die and spit up blood and yada yada yada – but I have to come back to life because I still need to play another show the next night.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, this is entirely about that.’”

Pinkerton formed Castle Rat in 2019, after initially putting the band off due to the pressure of being a female guitar player in the heavy metal scene. “There’s this pressure,” she says, “that if you’re a girl playing guitar, you have to be really fucking good, or people are not going to take you seriously. But I don’t have a desire to be a shredder.”

The band first dressed up in their stage costumes for a Halloween show the same year they started, and footage of their concerts has gone viral. They released their second album, The Bestiary, last September; the album debuted at number 11 on the UK rock and metal chart and made it to number three on Hammer’s album of the year list.

Castle Rat will tour North America in the spring, supporting Amon Amarth and Dethklok. After that, they’ll hit the European festival circuit, with a UK stop scheduled for Bloodstock Open Air in Derbyshire on August 9.

The band are one of four cover stars of the new Hammer, which spotlights the best new metal bands making waves in 2026. As well as Castle Rat, we interview masked unit President, metalcore outfit Sleep Theory and deathcore mavericks Paleface Swiss about their stories so far. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.

The new cover of Metal Hammer with Castle Rat — (Image credit: Future (photo: Jonathan Pushnik))

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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