The Mountain Goats Announces Dungeons & Dragons-Inspired Album

American rock band The Mountain Goats has just announced a new album called In League With Dragons, inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, and set for release on April 26th.

My favorite quote from that NPR interview, "I am earnestly hoping that a new genre called "dragon noir" will spring from the forehead of nearly two years' work on these songs, but, if not, I am content for this to be the sole example of the style."

And the song they include is excellent in my opinion. Very D&D.

YOUNGER

[Verse 1]
Crank that siren high
Drain the wellspring dry
Map out your coordinates
Send out scouts by day
Dole out mercenary pay
For restless young subordinates

It never hurts to give thanks to the local gods
You never know who might be hungry
It never hurts to scan the windows on the upper floor
I saw a face there once before when I was younger

[Verse 2]
Set the torch aflame
Call the night by name
Stake out your dark position
Lie in wait
By the gleaming city gate
Try not to lose sight of the mission

It never hurts to give thanks to the broken bones
You had to use to build your ladder

[Verse 3]
Moment close at hand
Half of you will never understand
And it doesn't really matter
Big smile on my face
Capsule just in case
Underneath my tongue

Voices on the breeze
I heard voices once like these when I was younger

[Bridge]
Blood rushing to my face
I know that sweet warm taste
And the bitter trace

[Verse 4]
Storm right down that hill
If I don’t, no one will
Follow me right through the chaos
This whole house is doomed
Even the big parts get consumed
Prepare a grave for Menelaus

It never hurts to give thanks to the navigator
Even when he's spitting out random numbers

I knew what those figures meant
And what they hoped to represent
When I was younger
[Outro: saxophone solo]

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I wouldn't use Eluveitite either, or death metal. Flexor's theme song would be Hail and Kill by Manowar most likely. Maybe Victory is mine by Virgin Steele. Somethign epic and powerful and dripping with glory.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ye gods, those aren’t lyrics, it’s a novella! As a musician, the thought of trying to remember those lyrics live gives me heart palpitations.

I’ve been singing in bands for almost 25 years and I still have to work so hard to remember my own lyrics. The funny thing is, my memory is otherwise exceedingly good. Fortunately, I’ve gotten pretty good at improvising and bluffing my way through it when I forget on stage.

Bal-Sagoth: To Dethrone The Witch-Queen Of Mytos K'Unn (The Legend Of The Battle Of Blackhelm Vale)

 

[reelo]

Ye gods, those aren’t lyrics, it’s a novella! As a musician, the thought of trying to remember those lyrics live gives me heart palpitations.

I’ve been singing in bands for almost 25 years and I still have to work so hard to remember my own lyrics. The funny thing is, my memory is otherwise exceedingly good. Fortunately, I’ve gotten pretty good at improvising and bluffing my way through it when I forget on stage.

The band was actually known for the long song-titles, like so:

"The Dark Liege of Chaos is Unleashed At the Ensorcelled Shrine of A'Zura Kai (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire: Part II)"

or

"And Lo, When the Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud the Citadel of the Obsidian Crown."

 

[Parmandur]

For me, though I love-love-love Heavy Metal, the soundtrack of D&D is primarily Glenn Yarbough, Howard Shore, America, Nobuo Uematsu, Don Mclean and Joe Hisaishi.

I do find this interesting in terms of what is the "soundtrack of D&D":

Favorite Musicians: I listen mostly to classical, Spanish guitar, jazz, and some blues too. Of composers, I am drawn to Mozart and Beethoven. Segovia surely was master of the guitar, and the "modern" jazz musicians are my favorites--Parker, Davis, Gillespie, Hinton, Rich, Anita O'Day, Billie Holliday, Stan Kenton--all that lot. As to blues, well all the 1940s and 50s performers are fine by me, from Joe Turner and BB King to Leadbelly and Big Momma Thornton.

https://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/lynch01may01.html

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Hell yes. His works are magical, mythic, sweet, sorrowful.

Joe Hisaishi.

 

[Parmandur]

Hell yes. His works are magical, mythic, sweet, sorrowful.

I also can't think of much that is more D&D than Nausica and Castle in the Sky.

 

[Grimstaff]

Since we’re posting song lyrics, here’s “Scorched Earth” from Can Der Graaf Generator:

Just one crazy moment while the dice are cast
He looks into the future and remembers what is past
Wonders what he's doing on this battlefield
Shrugs to his shadow, impatient, too proud yet to kneel

In his wake he leaves scorched earth and work in vain;
Smoke drifts up behind him - he is free again
Free to run before the onslaught of a deadly foe
Leaving nothing fit for pillage, hardly leaving home
It's far too late to turn, unless it's to stone
Charging madly forward, tracks across the snow;
Wind screams madness to him, ever on he goes
Leaving spoor to mark his passage, trace his weary climb
Cross the moor and make the headland -
Stumbling, wayward, blind
In the end his footprints extend as one single line

This latest exponent of heresy is goaded into an attack
Persuaded to charge at his enemy
Too late, he knows it is
Too late now to turn back, too soon by far to falter
The past sits uneasily at his rear
He's walking right into the trap
Surrounded, but striving through will and fear
Ahead of him he knows there waits an ambuscade
But the dice slip through his fingers
And he's living from day to day
Carrying his world around upon his back
Leaving nothing behind but the tell-tale of his track

 

[doctorbadwolf]

See, for me, I’m not looking for music that’s telling dnd stories, most of the time. This upcoming album, I’m excited about because of John Darnielle’s talent for evoking stories in his music, without necessarily spelling it all out.

Albums like Beat The Champ and Goths tell stories, but do so with music that is just really damn good even if you ignore the stories being told.

I listen to songs like Damn These Vampires, and I feel mentally energized to tell stories.

I can listen to Opeth, Cellar Darling, Unleash The Archers, Eluveitie, Leprous, or even Nightwish and Metallica, or silly stuff like Glory Hammer, all day, but most of it doesn’t do anything for me in terms of inspiring dnd characters or stories.

Some of the stuff y’all mention is flying past me simply because I don’t like certain styles of metal vocals, but I get why, if you do like those bands’ sound in the first place, it could do it for ya.

 

[Eis]

Been a fan of the Mountain Goats ever since I google searched some lyrics (Lovecraft in Brooklyn) that I saw referenced here on Enworld....love that song so thanks, somebody

If you want to go a little softer with a song that reminds...well....me at least....of rpgs you should check out Another New World by Josh Ritter....a man's push to explore farther and farther leads to the loss of everything good in his life (his beloved ship, Annabelle Lee)....just a great song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsGXWTJ-r_c

 

[Mallus]

I had no idea The Mountain Goats had a D&D-inspired album coming out until I saw the live performance from Wizards HQ on Facebook last week. Can't wait until it's released! It sounds almost frighteningly custom-designed for me - with song names like "Clemency for the Wizard-King" and "Passaic, 1975" (I was born in Passaic, NJ & went to school from grades 4-12 there). The Mountain Goats are great live, def. catch them on tour if you can.

Here's one of their best songs...

[video=youtube;Vm-NW1RwPY8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm-NW1RwPY8[/video]