The album cover features artwork by prolific metal band artist Mario E. Lopez M.:

Marta Gabriel is the mastermind behind Leatherwitch and plays all instruments on the track other than a guest guitar solo by Giuseppe Taormina. As Marta explained in this Female Fronted Power interview, “I love fantasy, horror, mythology, and classic heavy metal imagery, so naturally those influences appear in the lyrics.”

Marta was previously in the band Crystal Viper. Fans of cosmic horror will appreciate that Crystal Viper released two albums, The Cult (2021) and The Silver Key (2024), that were influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Marta explained how she discovered Lovecraft in a Defenders of the Faith interview:

You can order the First Spell album from Listenable Records.

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Doppelgangers: Heavy Metal & Prog Rock

In a recent episode of his History in Five Songs podcast, Martin Popoff described the various ways in which the development and characteristics of both heavy metal and progressive rock music are similar. Martin identified that among the “shared stuff” between the two genres is “fantasy themes, sci-fi themes, and mythology.” He explained that a common approach to both is looking at literature and old poetry with “lots of examples in both genres of Tolkien.”

These elements also overlap with the themes in many tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). I got a kick out of Martin riffing on the use of “demons” and “wizards” in metal and prog as if he had been recently reading old school Dungeons & Dragons modules:

Another doppelganger quality that relates to TTRPGs that Martin covers is the way “album cover art is very important in both genres” with “a lot of fantasy illustration.” These are some of the reasons why metal and prog are the two most common music genres for TTRPG inspiration. But not the only ones, as you can see by browsing through the full archive of this newsletter!

In addition to the more than 360 episodes of the History in Five Songs podcast he has recorded, Martin Popoff has written over 7000 record reviews and published over 100 books. He is an expert in hard rock, metal, prog, punk, and post-punk, so be sure to check out his website if you dig those genres. I had the pleasure of being a contributor to the following books by Martin:

• Dominance and Submission: The Blue Öyster Cult Canon

• Run with the Wolves: Rainbow on Record

• Judas Priest: Album by Album

Listen to the full History in Five Songs podcast episode here:

Battlesnake Killed Satan!

I expect things in the world to improve considerably now that Critical Hit Parader favorites Battlesnake have whacked Old Scratch. They submitted their forensic proof of the deed in the following 100% human-made video:

As you can see from the following artwork, the game captures the vibe of Masters of the Universe, Thundarr the Barbarian, and other Saturday morning cartoons:

James publishes games under the Barrel Rider Games banner. I previously covered his Wizard Van zine (including its list of music inspiration) and his “Spahn Doctrine” post, which compares being a dungeon master (DM) to being a rock star. With all this music-inspired RPG content in his portfolio, I was excited when James agreed to the following interview we conducted via email…

Matt: Late in the development of the game, you changed the name from “ RetroQuest: Sword & Power Fantasy Roleplaying” to “Blades of Power: Synth & Sorcery Roleplaying.” I was excited to see a music term like “synth” now part of the name. What was the significance of that change for you?

James: Blades of Power: Synth & Sorcery Roleplaying began life as RetroQuest: Timeless Fantasy Roleplaying. It was originally going to be a simple B/X clone to fill a potential gap in the market, but as I continued writing it I found myself getting bored. Do we really need another B/X clone? I mean, aren’t we kinda past that at this point in the OSR? So, I thought back to my earliest fantasy influences. The ones I knew of before I discovered D&D in the early 1990s via the big black coffin box. This meant Masters of the Universe, Thundarr the Barbarian, ThunderCats, Conan the Adventurer, and a handful of other Saturday morning cartoons. I’d been playing tabletop RPGs since 1987, beginning with West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, but when I finally got to D&D those influences were what I expected to find.

I didn’t find them and while I absolutely loved D&D, I was a little disappointed. So, I initially decided to inject a bit of that Saturday morning cartoon energy into RetroQuest. That’s when it became RetroQuest: Sword & Power Fantasy Roleplaying. But, the more I injected that vibe into the game, the more I wanted to inject more. So, I did. Each PC having a theme song. Epic Wizardry, The Draconis Maximus. Arcane Paradox and Arcanus Maximus. Magic items like the Techno-Sword, Holo-Cloak, Flybite, and Ultra-Helm. Monsters like Hoglins and Temporal Barbarians. By the time I was satisfied, the game wasn’t really a trip down memory lane like the name “RetroQuest” implies. The name Blades of Power sounds like a line of muscle-bound action figures with an accompanying cartoon. The “Synth and Sorcery” part came about for several reasons. Alliteration is memorable. And I recalled that during much of the writing I was listening to ambient synth music or synthwave and power metal artists. Music itself had become infused in the vibe of the game. Plus, the word “Synth” has such an 80s vibe to it. It was a single word, heck a single syllable, that spoke volumes about what the game is.

Matt: One of the rules of the game that you have discussed in your newsletter is the Theme Song. Can you describe how that works and why it seemed important for Blades of Power characters to have a theme song?

James: It’s really simple. You imagine your character doing something badass. It can be anything you think is really cool. Now, what song is playing behind that scene? That’s your character’s Theme song. One of the biggest problems I see in tabletop RPGs - especially with new gamers and in OSR games - is players coming up with a backstory for their character. Either they find it to be awkward, or in the case of traditionally lethal OSR games, they don’t feel the need to bother. But a Theme Song isn’t a background. Music, you see, is magic.You can hear a song and just “get it.” When Freddie Mercury sings “Don’t Stop Me Now” you know EXACTLY who that singer is and what they’re expressing. You know how they’d act, what they’d do. You get their vibe. Backstory doesn’t matter. In a roleplaying game context, you know how to roleplay that character. It works for instrumental music too and in those cases, is called a leitmotif. When you hear The Imperial March, you know exactly who Darth Vader is and what he does - before he ever says a word or does a thing. The magic of music is that its shorthand for human identity and the actions that define that identity. I simply incorporated as a shortcut to roleplay.

Matt: In your previous Wizard Van game, you had a section for “Kick Ass Music & Awesome Album Covers.” Do you have a similar list of music that inspired Blades of Power?

James: Oh hell yes. There’s an entire appendix of inspirations. Vibes are so important in roleplaying games. It’s not just about what you do, but about how you do it and the context in which those actions are done. This includes animated cartoons (obviously), films, books, and music. A lot of it is music I listened to while writing the game. In addition to a lot of synthwave and metal ambient mash-ups found on YouTube that I listened to while writing the game, there was a lot of power metal: Angus McSixx, Dragonforce, Sabaton, and Windrose in particular. But there’s plenty of classic metal and hard rock in there too - stuff like Dio and Led Zeppelin. There’s also bombastic opera rock in there like Bonnie Tyler and Meatloaf. But, if there is a single album or soundtrack that had the most influence on Blades of Power it would be the soundtrack to the 1986 film Transformers: The Movie. The mixture of hair metal, Stan Bush’s ridiculous and awesomely earnest Dare and The Touch, and Vince Di Cola’s synth score perfectly encapsulate the vibe I feel most suits Blades of Power.

Matt: What is your origin story for listening to music and playing TTRPGs? Have you always seen a connection between the two?

James: Solitude. I spent a lot of time listening to music while reading RPG books. Way more than I did actively playing them. This music was the soundtrack to the adventure promised by these games that played out in my mind with every character I made but never played, every monster I imagined defeating, every ruin I dared to conquer in my mind. RPGs are inherently musical in nature, because they’re inherently theatrical. I talk about theatricality and actively compare running roleplaying games to being at a rock concern in a post on my Substack entitled “The Spahn Doctrine.”

Matt: At Critical Hit Parader, we have a concept of an Appendix LP: a list of inspirational and educational listening that influence and enhance tabletop roleplaying. What bands/artists would be on your all-time personal Appendix LP?

James: If we’re talking across all genres, my curated list would include (but is not limited to): the score of the Star Wars films (particularly Episodes III, IV, V, and VI), the Transformers: The Movie soundtrack, Angus McSixx’s album Master of the Universe, Nightwish’s Silmarillion concept album Nightfall in Middle-Earth,The Cover-Up by The Proto-Men (a soundtrack for a film that doesn’t actually exist), Fellowship’s album The Saberlight Chronicles, Age of Exile’s album Trial of the Sword, Scandroid’s self-titled album, and pretty much anything by The Lonely Mountain Band. And as far as a single song that sums up my philosophy as a GM, that’d be The Greatest Show from the 2017 musical film The Greatest Showman.

Pledge your support for Blades of Power: Synth & Sorcery Roleplaying here.

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Performance Check: Music for Your RPGs

If you enjoy playing music to enhance the roleplaying experience at your table, you might be interested in another project that is crowdfunding now. Performance Check is a series of “soundtracks for TTRPGs that everyone can use at their tables, streams, or jam to while writing or prepping games.”

Each track is royalty free (and AI free!) and has a different theme, such as High Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Horror/Corruption, and Science Fiction.

Listen to sample tracks and pledge your support from the Performance Check campaign page.

Today, let’s dig into New Zealand bands with connections to fantasy. First up is Earth Tongue. Earlier this year, the heavy psych rock band released an album called Dungeon Vision that is inspired by the fantasy movie genre.

This is not the first time the band has focused on a movie genre as explained in this Louder Sound article:

Watch the official video for the title track featuring dungeon-themed miniatures and painted backdrops:

Preview the full album and purchase a download copy from the the Earth Tongue Bandcamp page.

The Dungeon Vision album cover artwork is by Lily Paris West. West is a musician herself, playing bass and providing vocals for New Zealand’s Mermaidens. As explained in this Rolling Stone Australia article, the indie rock trio’s sound brings together “touches of indie, emo, alternative rock, and psychedelia.” I dig their unusual vocal melodies and harmonies.

Mermaidens have said they have a “love for pushing the boundaries of audio-visual creativity,” which they demonstrate in their trippy, sci-fi video for “Sour Lips”:

The band discovers the key to guitar playing in an unlikely place in the humorous video to “I like to be alone”:

Check out Mermaidens full discography from their Bandcamp page.

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We started our adventure with visions of a dungeon, so let’s end it with Dragon. The band Dragon was formed in New Zealand in the early ‘70s, and they were inducted into The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2011. They achieved international success, especially in Australia. Dragon showcased catchy hooks with distinctive vocals from the late Marc Hunter. Their sound at times incorporated prog rock and new wave elements.

My favorite Dragon tune is “Rain” from their 1984 album Body and the Beat:

I also have to point out that they have had some most excellent band logos:

Disappointingly, rather than being inspired by fantasy stories or the most popular roleplaying game, the band allegedly took the name Dragon from a consultation with the I Ching. That said, the lyrics from their song “April Sun in Cuba” might refer to a dice rolling result…

…and I can’t be the only one who thinks of Hunter’s Mark in conjunction with the name of Dragon vocalist Marc Hunter.

We also had a suggestion box where people could nominate the musicians and songs that influence their tabletop roleplaying. Included among the nominees were bands you would expect (e.g., Iron Maiden, Manowar, Dio, Castle Rat, Led Zeppelin) and some you would not (Minor Threat - thanks, Gabriel!).

My favorite part was getting music suggestions that were completely new to me. I’m excited to share two of these in case they are new to you as well…

“This Thing Will Not Die” by The Acid Helps

The Acid Helps is (was?) a Los Angeles band that Revolver described as having a “fun-loving blend of chunky stoner rock, heavy grunge and noisy alt-metal.” Their YouTube channel provided the band’s primary influences:

They got some recognition several years ago when they landed the opening band slot on a Tool tour, however, they appear to have released only two songs. Check out the trippy, groovy, and progressive “This Thing Will Not Die”:

Guitarist/singer Tim Dawson was also involved as an engineer and guitarist on the Legend of The Seagullmen progressive super-group project. As explained on their Bandcamp page, '“Legend of the Seagullmen is a genre destroying super-group crafting conceptual rock 'n' roll hymns of epic proportions.” The band included Danny Carey (Tool) on drums and the late Brent Hinds (Mastodon) on guitar. The band created nautical characters for each member and performed in costume on stage.

Listen to the Legend of the Seagullmen album here:

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Jean-Michel Jarre - Revolutions

I’m exposing my electronic music ignorance when I admit that Jean-Michel Jarre is a new-to-me artist. He is considered a legendary musical pioneer, and his 1976 album Oxygène sold over 18 million copies.

The nomination we received at Dungeon Con was for his 1988 album Revolutions. Listen to the title track here to inspire your next retro-cyber adventure:

Science fiction fans might also appreciate that Jean-Michel Jarre created the soundtrack to Captain Blood, a French video game.

You can here some of the soundtrack music at the following:

Jarre’s appropriateness for video game music transcended gaming generations, as “Oxygène Pt. 4” was used for the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack:

Bruce Dickinson Wargamer

Iron Maiden was tied for the most frequently mentioned band in our poll of gamers at Dungeon Con. I summarized the band’s appeal in the initial Critical Hit Parader zine:

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickison had much in common with the early inventors and players of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games. He read fantasy literature, played tabletop war games, and painted miniatures.

So, let’s close this newsletter with a couple of illustrative quotes from Bruce’s autobiography What Does This Button Do?…

Tollerton explained the parallels between being an RPG game master and a songwriter:

Earlier this year, they released a song called “Time Walk,” which tells the tale of Wyndol the wizard as he wanders the multiverse searching for the power to live forever, and the woes that befall him on the journey. Listen to the tune here:

Tollerton further explains the character’s motives:

The band’s credits Black Sabbath and The Sword as influences. If those are your jam (they’re certainly mine), I encourage you to follow the Gozer Bandcamp page.

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Next, Boston stoner/fuzz band GOZU released their sixth album this week, and it’s a banger. They continue with their self-described attributes of virtues of “massive groove with undeniable melody.”

The songs are personal, emotionally heavy, and sung with authenticity. But the song titles are disconnected from any of the lyrical content and instead expose the band’s cultural touchstones and appreciation for the squared circle. Song names include “Corinthian Leatherface,” “Midnight Express,” and “Killer Khan.” This is a tradition for the band, as previous albums included songs called “Tom Cruise Control,” “Joe Don Baker,” “The Magnificient Muraco,” and “The People vs. Mr. T.”

The band has cited diverse influences on the album, including Queens of the Stone Age, Iron Maiden, Queen, Motown, Jellyfish, Marshall Tucker Band, The Allman Brothers, and Pete Townshend.

Watch the official video for the song “Banacek” here:

You might think that a band with such impeccable pop culture taste and artistic sensibilities had perhaps rolled funny looking dice in the basement at some point. I’m sorry to report, that no, they have not played Dungeons & Dragons. I don’t just mean that I could find no evidence of them playing D&D. GOZU have come right out and said it. Here’s a quote from vocalist/guitarist Marc “Gaff” Gaffney from an Invicta Magazine interview:

Don’t hold it against them. Preview and order VI by GOZU from the band’s Bandcamp page:

Neither GOZU not Gozer should be confused with Gozr, the sci-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG). Created by artist/game designer J.V. West, Gozr is both a game and a work of art. Each page is illustrated and hand-lettered in West’s distinctive style.

According to West, the game is inspired by Heavy Metal magazine, “especially the work of the late Richard Corben, as well as many other sci-fantasy books and movies.” Corben was the creator of the classic Den character who was featured in many issues of Heavy Metal. In the Heavy Metal animated movie, Den was voiced by John Candy.

Richard Corben also was the artist behind the Meatloaf Bat out of Hell album cover.

Here’s the story behind the artwork according to a Print magazine article by Bill McCool.

Learn more about Gozr and find links to purchase in multiple formats from the J.V. West website.

To summarize the distinctions between these cool, but similarly-named projects…

• Gozer: Plays Heavy Metal; Plays D&D

• GOZU: Plays Heavy Metal; Does Not Play D&D

• Gozr: Inspired by Heavy Metal; Is a Descendant of D&D

First, Goodman Games announced that “The Classic Era of Elric will include a line of sourcebooks, adventures, maps, and additional supplements, all designed for compatibility with both Fifth Edition and Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing game systems.” Goodman Games has done excellent RPG adaptations of other Appendix N authors (Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber), so I have high expectations for the Elric product line. Sign up at the pre-launch page to be notified when this project goes live some time in 2027.

Next, Free League Publishing announced “Legends of Stormbringer, a new officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game based on the iconic fantasy works of Michael Moorcock, planned for release in 2027.” Here are some additional details from the company announcement:

The preliminary cover design shared by Free League Publishing for the game features the iconic Stormbringer painting by Michael Whelan.

The same artwork was used for Cirith Ungol’s debut album Frost and Fire. I’m such a fan of the painting that I bought a print of it from the Michael Whelan online shop.

Elric was first given the TTRPG treatment with the game Stormbringer by Chaosium in 1981, which was written by Ken St Andre and Steve Perrin. You can learn about other released Elric TTRPG materials from the Stormbringer! RPG website.

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In honor of these game announcements, let’s roll a six-sided die and count down that many great songs about Elric…

6. Blind Guardian - “Fast to Madness”

White hair and red eyes
he's holding the crown
the king of the island
Elric of Melniboné
he's born for destruction
he's ruled by the gods
eternal hero
the scale of the universe

Perhaps better known for their J.R.R. Tolkien-inspired songs, German power metal band Blind Guardian showed their love for Michael Moorcock in this song from their 1989 sophomore album Follow the Blind.

5. Cirith Ungol - “Nadsokor”

Mighty balance in the sky
Determines who's the next one, next one to die
The black sword feeds on the souls that fell
Drags them with it back to hell

The title of this song from the aforementioned Cirith Ungol references one of the cities of the Young Kingdoms that Elric visits.

4. Hawkwind - "Elric the Enchanter"

Sprawling in a Ruby Throne
His head cupped in his hands
The Lord of Dragons, Elric's thoughts
Were of quests to far-off lands

The Black Sword was at his side
Murmuring in its scabbard cold
Waiting for the moment to arrive
To drink the very essence of souls

English space rock legends Hawkwind released an entire album of Moorcock-inspired music in 1985 called The Chronicle of the Black Sword.

3. Diamond Head - “Borrowed Time”

On scorched earth return me to be a simple man
I am destined by the gods to walk this land
An embittered poet, a slave to this black blade
Oh, my heart still searches for truth, a lost age
I have loved, I have lost
I have killed those who have loved me so
I have loved, at what cost
Lord, I don't know
I'm living on borrowed time

Michael Whelan is not the only renowned artist associated with Elric-related album covers, as Rodney Matthews created the masterpiece on the cover of Diamond Head’s Borrowed Time album.

2. Smoulder - “Victims of Fate”

I raise the witch’s knife into the storm, I call upon
The last king of Melniboné
With the third one drawn to our side
The Vanishing tower appears, within the sorcerer hides...

Smoulder’s epic song about Elric and other incarnations of the Eternal Champion features a spoken word intro by Michael Moorcock himself.

1. Blue Öyster Cult - “Black Blade”

I am the Black Blade
Forged a million billion years ago
My cosmic soul it goes on for eternity
Carving out destiny
Bringing in the Lords of Chaos
Bringing up the Beasts of Hades
Sucking out the souls of heroes
Laying waste to knights and ladies
My master is my slave

The last verse of BÖC’s “Black Blade” is from the point of view of the sword Stormbringer, who confirms Elric’s fear that he is not the sword’s master.

For more songs about Elric and other Michael Moorcock characters, read the article Chronicle of the Black Sword: Rock and Metal Inspired by Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse by Dave Ritzlin.

The comic is based on the works of Robert Anton Wilson (RAW) and Robert Shea. I have covered RAW’s influence on games and music in a previous newsletter:

Here are some details from the Tales of Illuminatus! project description:

I conducted an interview over email with creator Bobby Campbell. We both studied with RAW at the Maybe Logic Academy, and Bobby provides observations and insights that I think will be valuable to musicians, game designers, writers, and other creators. Enjoy our conversation!

Matt: There have been many musicians, writers, and visual artists who have been inspired by the works of Robert Anton Wilson. What do you think it is about his writing and ideas that has been so influential to folks who are creatively wired?

Great question! I like describing Robert Anton Wilson as the Velvet Underground of writers, due to his outsized impact on pop culture, relative to his modest level of traditional mainstream success. It does very much seem like everyone who reads Robert Anton Wilson starts some sort of creative endeavor.

I think there’s probably some degree of artistic self-selection within RAW’s audience, because his books have this zen koan quality that requires imaginative speculation and interpretation. (As E. E. Cummings said to crazy Uncle Ezra, “I know what you’re up to you goddamn sadist, you’re trying to make people think!”) If you’re not interested in riffing along with his books you’re probably not going to get very far with them. This creates a kind of creative quality over quantity effect within his readership.

And then there’s the info-density, this embarrassment of memetic richness in his work, where he’s burning through a ridiculous volume of ideas on page after page, which would keep most authors busy for years and years, but he just keeps flowing in new directions. His books are an absolute smorgasbord of conceptual delights, which seems to invite further elaboration, if not outright appropriation!

So if you’re Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, for example, of course you feel comfortable taking the Justified Ancients of Mummu from Illuminatus! and forming a very successful band around their mythos, because it’s barely even a drop extracted from a sea of novelty, who would even care or notice? As indeed RAW absolutely did not! When John Higgs asked RAW what he thought about The JAMs/The KLF, who had hit records using his ideas, he had never even heard of them.

And then there’s also his close associations with Discordianism and its copyleft ethos, or grassroots collaborative groups like the Church of the Subgenius, all of which encourages the laissez faire spread of this guerrilla ontology.

Finally, there’s the context within which many people find themselves discovering RAW, which typically tends to be at some sort of crisis or transformation point. Those that make it through the cosmic intensity of a Dark Night of the Soul/Chapel Perilous experience usually come out the other end with quite a story to tell, and if RAW’s ideas helped safely deliver them through that underworld journey, it makes sense that his influence would shine through in the telling.

Matt: Your Tales of Illuminatus! comic series has featured in-universe musical productions. Can you talk about how those fit in with the project and how you collaborated with the musicians on them?

Most certainly! I think it originally started just as a practical problem solving exercise, because within the original trilogy there are several significant storylines, and recurring motifs, involving songs, bands, and the music industry, all of which converge in the climax of the narrative at the Walpurgisnacht rock festival.

The main villains of the book are a crypto-nazi rock band called the American Medical Association, who are part of the Illuminati controlled corporate record business, which is opposed by an indie rock label, run by John Dillinger, called Laughing Buddha Jesus Phallus Inc.

So really the idea of incorporating musical productions into the project emerged pretty organically from the text itself, but took on a life of its own as the implementations got worked out...

In the opening trip of Illuminatus! the song “Rock Around the Clock” features very prominently, almost too prominently not to re-contextualize for younger audiences. The first step of which was to get a new version of the song recorded. Fortunately, one of my best friends since high school is dynamite Dan Robinson of The Headies and Danny and the Darlings, the hardest working man in punk rock, who crafted a perfect RAW rendition of our de facto theme song, but then this created a story problem...

In Illuminatus! “Rock Around the Clock” is performed by Robert Pearson’s band. (In the novel they’re called Clark Kent and His Supermen, but in the comic it’s Kal-El Hajj and His Supermen.) I needed to keep Robert Pearson’s band in the story, but also wanted to keep the Danny and the Darlings version of the song relevant to the plot, and that’s where the concept of the cassette tape came from.

I’ve always loved the mythology around Raekwon’s “Purple Tape,” the early cassette demo release of “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx,” which spread like wildfire in the mid 90’s. So the idea was that Danny and the Darlings would have a similar hit mixtape, circulating through the underground music scene, including their gritty rendition of “Rock Around the Clock,” which would also explain why a hip band would be playing a song from the 50s in the mid 70s.

Dan then took it upon himself to create the full Jukebox Musical mixtape, taking slightly more b side rock staples and crafting a wild spiritual journey through the early history of Rock and Roll. (Never mind the metafictional implications of the cassette tape existing both in real life and the Illuminatus story universe!)

The cherry on top of this plot is that this would also coincide with the emergence of blank cassette tapes as a new form of physical media, which the record industry was terrified of, that whole “home recording is killing the music industry” business, which is exactly what Laughing Buddha Jesus Phallus wants! So the proliferation of blank tapes becomes a pointed attack from Dillinger’s LBJP against the Illuminati controlled music industry.

(From what I hear, on the streets of Illuminatus, another disruptive Danny and the Darlings cassette has started to spread, a punk rock opera called “Goddamned Wonderful.”)

And then on the Illuminati Records Ltd. (IRL) side of things, in the original trilogy there is this massive line-up of bands, I think 201 in total, listed as performing at the Walpurgisnacht Rock Festival, and I’ve had a long-standing dream of making them real, at least in some sense. Back in like 2009 I made a couple dozen album covers based on those bands, which sat dormant until early 2023 when the great DJ Steve Fly and I were talking about it, just as the comic was starting up, and he had an idea about bringing them to life, using both traditional and artificial music production tools.

(In the comic IRL goes by Ingolstadt Records Ltd., and are the record label for the American Medical Association, but are planning to openly operate as Illuminati Records Ltd. after their long awaited triumph at the Woodstock Europa rock festival.)

I’ve worked collaboratively with Steve for 20+ years on all sorts of weird art shenanigans, and we both studied with RAW himself at the Maybe Logic Academy, so I was delighted for him to use his unique expertise to bring this apocryphal catalog of music to life. I was, and remain, a bit squeamish about the usage of generative tools, but in terms of artistic purity Fly is as pristine as it gets, so we rolled the dice, and ended up with a convincing top 40 playlist from the universe next door.

Narratively, the idea became that these tracks were literally produced by the corporate music machine, (Eagle-eyed readers will discover the machinations of GWB-666, the total information awareness system from RAW’s Schrödinger’s Cat behind it all!) and so the IRL vs. LBJP showdown becomes a John Henry story, where man made music takes on the machine, building towards inevitable human triumph.

Though in the intervening years the problems surrounding AI have become such a hot mess that it’s certainly not worth pursuing further production, so with our antagonist already established, DJ Steve Fly has switched teams and is now hard at work on a fully human LBJP release - without spoiling too much, it does indeed involve the wild and wonderful legacy of his longtime friend and collaborator, the legendary John Sinclair! Who is also now a character in the story :)))

Matt: The campaign for issue #3 includes an option for a cassette tape. What does physical media mean to you in this day and age?

I’m old enough to remember when the internet represented a leveling of the playing field in terms of indie art distribution. There was this small window of opportunity where you could use the web to bypass traditional gatekeepers, and make your art available directly to an audience in a competitive way.

However, in the current era of algorithmically curated walled gardens and overwhelming creative superfluity, that situation has reversed somewhat, and these days it seems like there’s better opportunities to connect in physical spaces.

Heck, at least when you publish physical editions of your work it graduates from the pejorative classification of “content” to, at worst, an object, if not a product, and hopefully, eventually, a successfully circulating artwork.

Physical media has become much easier to produce and the quality has improved pretty dramatically. Back when I first started making comics the minimum order for a print run was 1,000 copies, and they looked like shit, which for a fledgling small press operation was prohibitively expensive and cumbersome disadvantage. (Boxes and boxes of unsold issues of Fun Time Comix still haunt various garages!)

There remain serious issues with rising production and shipping costs, but at least those affect big and small publishers alike, and I think it’s currently very possible to create competitive alternative culture.

Part of the idea with the cassette tape is keeping all our options open, remaining agile, because it’s very likely that we’ve discarded more advanced communicative technology in favor of things that are merely newer.

For example: Nick Herbert, one of the “hippies that saved physics,” author of the awesome Quantum Reality, and good friend of RAW, told me that the best customers for his books are libraries. There are thousands and thousands of libraries in the United States alone. It’s probably the most advanced and sophisticated media distribution model imaginable! And it doesn’t even need to be invented, just utilized.

Ultimately, I think a hybrid approach is what will work best. When working with niche subject matter, such as Discordianism, you still need the internet because the audience is so distributed. I don’t know that there are 1,000 people in my tri-state area that are into this kinda stuff, but without physical media your work ends up as content grist for the social media mill.

So I think the middle both/and path is ideal for a project like this.

Matt: Do you listen to music when creating your art? If so, any faves?

For sure! Though I tend to split time equally between podcasts/audio books, tv/sports, music, and silence, depending on what part of the process I’m in.

Music is best for sketching/initially composing pages and then again for adding on final touches.

All the high energy emotional work.

I tend to accumulate a playlist of songs that I listen to obsessively, and then wipe it all away and start fresh. Right now in my playlist is MF Doom, Belle and Sebastian, The Coup, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Ramones, Doechii, Prodigy of Mob Deep, Billy Bragg, Otis Redding, Dolly Parton, Bouncing Souls, Hot Water Music, Danny and the Darlings, The Headies, Man Without Plan, Marina and the Diamonds, Plow United, The Crash, Kreayshawn, They Might Be Giants, Wu Tang Clan, and Power of IV.

Though since classical music plays such a huge part of the current issue I’ve also been listening to a bunch of Mozart and Beethoven. Really enjoying Glenn Gould’s renditions especially.

Matt: Music plays a role in RAW’s original Illuminatus! trilogy, for example with the list of bands playing the Walpurgisnacht rock festival. Any chance you will be creating in-world music-related artifacts for future issues, such as festival posters or t-shirts?

That’s the dream! I definitely have the Woodstock Europa festival poster in mind, at least to be featured in the comic, if not offered as a print. I’ve been slightly hesitant to get too into merch just yet, because of various logistical issues, but we are indeed offering our first ever poster during our current Kickstarter campaign, so if that goes well we can build on that and start offering more traditional swag.

I feel a bit queasy about print on demand merch. I don’t like the idea of selling a $25 shirt, from which I make like $3, and then it washes out after the first time you wear it. It’s a rip off for everyone but the print company.

It’s just about figuring out high quality production, with a decent price per unit, that can be reliably shipped from both the US & UK/EU.

TBH, traditionally, shirts sell way better than comics, so if we want to keep this lasagna flying it’d be a good idea to get it figured out :)))

Pledge your support at the Tales of Illuminatus! campaign page. It includes options to order the complete series to date so you can get caught up if you missed the first two issues.

Dungeon Con is hosted by Goodman Games, and I want to honor someone who meant some thing very special to that company, as well as the larger tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) industry as a whole. Lou Zocchi, the “Godfather of Dice", passed away earlier this month. Avid tabletop roleplaying gamers will be well aware of his contributions to the industry. He started as war game designer, became an editor for Avalon Hill’s magazine The General, and eventually started his own company Gamescience. As explained by Bob Brinkman in this Goodman Games profile, it was with Gamescience where he “became a pioneering manufacturer of polyhedral dice for RPGs.” Lou’s obituary provides more details:

In reading the various tributes to Lou Zocchi, I was tickled to learn that he was also a guitar teacher and multi-talented performer:

RIP Lou Zocchi!

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Pirate Borg Guitarist

I recently learned of that another well-regarded game designer is a talented musician as well. Luke Stratton is the creative force behind the Pirate Borg TTRPG, which he publishes under the name Limithron. Luke explains his deep musical background in the “About” page of the Limithron website:

Let’s spin this tune by Gygax to salute Luke as another dice thrower and rock n’ roller!

I especially liked how he explained the impact that music would have later on the choices he made as a player:

When he decided to run the The Lost Mines of Phandelver Dungeons & Dragons module for friends, he appropriately used The Lost Mines of Phandelver (Original Soundtrack) by Josh Barron.

Here’s a description of the music from Josh:

Josh has created music for other genres including noir, horror, and romance that you can preview from his website. Listen to the full The Lost Mines of Phandelver (Original Soundtrack) here:

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Summoning: From Satan to Tolkien

Now, what if you are looking for soundtrack music for your next gaming session, but the adventure you are scoring is an ash-choking, mud-crawling excursion into Mordor? May I humbly suggest the 1995 album Minas Morgul by the Austrian black metal band Summoning.

The band’s use of slower rhythms played on keyboard drums following the firing of their drummer made the album more atmospheric than previous black metal. They also moved away from the genre’s more typical satanic lyrics to words inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien, as explained by Summoning co-founder Michael "Silenius" Gregor in this Ultimate Guitar article:

According to a Metal Storm review, it was “one of the very first Black Metal bands that used Tolkien’s themes in their lyrics.” The name of the album comes from The Lord of the Rings, and this Tolkien Gateway article provides a detailed description of the “Fallen Twin City of Minas Tirith.” Here is a reference to Minas Morgul found within Tolkien’s work:

It’s hard to argue with Ultimate Guitar’s description of Summoning’s album Minas Morgul:

See if you agree by listening to the track “Lugburz” here:

I’m sure this brought both a smile and a tear to host Stephen Colbert who is a Tolkien fan and who will be leaving the show. He is co-writing the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past film. This Consequence article has details on the project:

Tom Bombadil fans rejoice! Like many Critical Hit Parader readers, Colbert was also an obsessed Dungeons & Dragon player as a youth. Watch the full Plant performance of “Ramble On” here:

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Deathstalker Reboot Soundtrack Album

Late last year, a reboot of the 1984 sword & sorcery movie Deathstalker had a limited release in theaters.

The movie is now available on VOD, Blu-ray and DVD. Fans of heavy rock might be interested that this Guardian review of the movie says “this is one of those fantasy films soundtracked by gnarly heavy metal riffs (as opposed to the strings-horns-drums type of thing).” Even better for lovers of sword & sorcery-inspired music is that a soundtrack album of the 2025 Deathstalker movie has been released as well. Here are some details from a Film Music Reporter article:

You can check out the track that features Slash here:

If you’re not familiar with the original 1983 version, here’s a trailer:

And you can watch the trailer for the 2025 reboot here:

Dice Rolling in Space

Whether you like space rock (e.g., Hawkwind) or songs about astronauts (e.g., “Space Oddity” by David Bowie), I think you will appreciate this video of how to roll a 20-sided die in space that has been making the rounds:

Per this Bell of Lost Souls article, the astronaut is Rabea Rogge (the first German woman in space) from the Fram2 mission last year. The video put me in the mood for some Tang & Traveller!

Here is a description from Tristan Zimmerman’s Molten Sulfur Blog:

Rewards at the highest level even include a “fine musical instrument”!

Tristan Zimmerman previously published another TTRPG with music themes called Shanty Hunters, in which “your character is a sailor or scholar drawn to the sea lanes to document shanties.”

Pledge your support at the Ballad Hunters campaign page.

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Human League - Board Game Origins

I’ve written previously about how the band Hüsker Dü was named after a board game:

Now thanks to a terrific article by Pé Dupre, I learned that The Human League was also inspired by a board game to come up with their band name. This American Songwriter article provides additional details:

How cool is that?

Pé is an expert on disco, synth-pop, post-punk and more. I’ve learned a lot from his newsletter The Twelve Inch. Read his full article about The Human League and subscribe here:

The Twelve Inch

🎤 The Human League Story: From Failure to “Don’t You Want Me”

A few weeks ago I dedicated an episode to Homosapien, the first solo single of Pete Shelley…

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3 months ago · 16 likes · 12 comments · The Twelve Inch (Disco/80s)

The band’s name, of course, come from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. According to the group’s website, vocalist Christian Liljegren thought “Narnia” would be a great name for a band after having watched the animated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. One of the songs in Narnia’s catalog that is directly about Lewis’s stories is “The Witch and the Lion” from the band’s 2001 Desert Land album:

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Narnia are not the only musicians to be inspired by the fiction of C.S. Lewis. Below are four more examples…

Aslan

The Irish rock band Aslan “took their name from the heroic lion in C.S. Lewis’s series of books chronicling the fictional land of Narnia.” Although they do not have any songs named “Puddleglum” or “Queen Prunaprismia,” they do have a song called “Goodbye Charlie Moonhead”:

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Marc Bolan’s Tyrannosaurus Rex (later T. Rex) have a message on the back of their debut album that reads “Dedicated to Aslan and the Old Narnians”:

The Waterboys

The song “Church Not Made with Hands” by the Waterboys has the lyric “Bye bye shadowlands/The term is over/And holidays have all begun.” This appears to reference the text in Lewis’s The Last Battle that reads as follows:

Check out the song here:

Sarah Sparks

Singer/songwriter Sarah Sparks released an album called Into the Lantern Waste in 2014. According to this StoryWarren review, the “songs are inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia and explore C.S. Lewis’s message of redemption through a combination of storytelling and soulful melodies.” Listen here:

In preparation for the con, I’m writing three new music zines. In doing research for one of them, I came across this great quote from a Ronnie James Dio interview in a 1987 issue of Kerrang magazine:

The interviewer was Steffan Chirazi. Often music journalists have described Dio’s lyrics as being about magic, rainbows, knights, dungeons and dragons (with lowercase d’s). I never thought Ronnie played D&D, but this is the first time I have seen an interviewer directly ask. I always get a kick out of how “mainstream” publications described the game in the 80s. You can always usually count on references to how complicated the game is, how long the rules are, and how obsessed the players can be. Chirazi hits on all three in his description.

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In a previous newsletter about the music of Dr. Demento, I mentioned that there had been an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure called The Dungeon of Dr. Demento that was created for the 1984 Massconfusion gaming convention held in Worcester, Massachusetts:

In the comments for that newsletter, Yochai Gal told me that a reprint of the adventure was available on Lulu. I was excited when my copy arrived so I could at last uncover the secrets held within The Dungeon of Dr. Demento.

Although I found no direct connections to the “mad music and crazy comedy” of The Dr. Demento Show in the adventure, there is an appearance by Lenny and the Squigtones playing in the Bouncing Balrog Inn.

Characters will also run into The Three Stooges. I know I heard their “The Alphabet Song” at least once on The Dr. Demento Show.

That track is a favorite of mine, as you can see from this journal entry:

My favorite parts of the dungeon are the last two rooms. In the penultimate room, a hoard of dragons all simultaneously shoot their breath weapons on the players, who must make 72 saving throws. In the last room, orcs fire 5 Bolo Mark XXIIIs for a total of 35,000 hit points of damage. The guaranteed TPK is justified in the dungeon intro, which sets the adventure up as a Dungeon Master (DM) revenge fantasy:

Perhaps Steffan Chirazi was right. Perhaps the reason the The Dungeon of Dr. Demento author has encountered so many who misunderstand the game is due to Dungeons & Dragons being “a hellishly long item that explores the limits of magic, dragons, castles etc. via a complex set of rules.” No wonder Ronnie never played.

Robert E. Howard scholar Mark Finn wrote about Karl Edward Wagner in Finn’s always excellent The North Texas Apocalypse Bunker Weekly Report:

The Dark Crusade novel by Karl Edward Wagner has another musical connection in that the paperback cover of the book featured the Frank Frazetta painting called Dark Kingdom. The same painting was later used as the album cover for Molly Hatchet’s 1979 record Flirtin’ with Disaster.

Getting back to the band Eternal Champion, vocalist Jason Tarpey explained how he was inspired by fantasy and horror literature in a Decibel magazine interview:

The band’s Eternal Champion name comes from Michael Moorcock’s multiverse character. Tarpey explained the appeal of Moorcock’s writing in the same interview:

Preview the full Friend of War EP and purchase a digital copy from the Eternal Champion Bandcamp page.

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Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Speaking of Michael Moorcock, his involvement in bands like Hawkwind and Blue Öyster Cult is well documented. But lesser known, perhaps, is the way he influenced Pink Floyd. As explained in this Grunge article entitled “5 Rock Songs From 1968 That Sound Even Cooler Today,” Moorcock’s The Fireclown inspired Floyd’s psychedelic classic “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” Author Andrew Amelinckx explains some of the lyric origins:

The Fireclown also appears in Blue Öyster Cult’s “The Great Sun Jester.” Listen to “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” here:

Shatner heard the siren song of heavy metal when he recorded a voice-over for the upcoming album Black Flame album by Nuclear Messiah. This project is led by guitarist Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth) and features a who’s who of rock and metal royalty. Guests include former members of Critical Hit Parader favorites Black Sabbath (Vinny Appice), Blue Öyster Cult (Joe Bouchard), Yes (Rick Wakeman), Uriah Heep (Mick Box), and Hawkwind (Alan Davey).

It even has an appearance by The God of Hellfire himself, Arthur Brown!

Of the songs from the album already released, my favorite is “Ride the Sky,” which features Poland, Brown, Appice, and Davey:

I also appreciate that Chris Poland took up the challenge of writing a theme song for all us music-loving tabletop gamers with “Dice and Thunder”:

Getting back to the Willam Shatner’s heavy metal album, Shatner explains more of his motivation in the following quote:

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William Shatner’s signature acting role was playing Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek television series. Clues indicating Shatner’s interest in rock music were there from the beginning, as you can see from the following Captain Kirk quotes:

“How we deal with death metal is at least as important as how we deal with life.”
-Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

“Without freedom of choice there is no creativity. No Devo album either.”
-Star Trek, Season One: “The Return of the Archons"

“It’s a mystery. And I don’t like mysteries. Except for the Dio song.”
-Star Trek, Season One: “The Man Trap”

“You suspect some Danger Danger?”
- Star Trek, Season One: “Space Seed”

“Perhaps man wasn’t meant for Paradise City. Maybe he was meant to claw, to scratch all the way.”
-Star Trek, Season One: “This Side Of Paradise”

I wanted to learn more about the music inspirations behind the game, so I reached out to co-designer Yamil who kindly agreed to the following email interview:

Matt: What is your origin story for listening to music and playing TTRPGs? Have you always seen a connection between the two?

Yamil: Mixing music and TTRPGs seemed like a natural connection. There is something ritualistic about each that blends well. Music can serve as the inspiration or the backdrop to the stories we well in TTRPGs. There’s also bands that have made albums about their campaigns. Tales from the Tape Deck feels like the right blend where you are interacting with the music as part of the collaborative storytelling.

Matt: The boxes and inserts of cassette tapes play a significant role in Tales from the Tape Deck. Were cassettes part of your listening experience and in what way did the format influence the game?

Yamil: I am originally from Puerto Rico, my first cassettes were reggaeton, dancehall reggae, hip hop and salsa. I still have a couple from those days. I was inspired to make Tales from the Tape Deck after I went to The Scrap Exchange, a local art/thrift store and saw a barrel of empty cassette cases. I bought a couple, thinking they would make great storage for an RPG. Then I mentioned it to Ahmed and he encouraged me to pursue it. We ended up play-testing it at around 15 conventions last year.

Matt: Has music influenced any of your other games or gaming experiences?

Yamil: Absolutely, I’d like to think my approach to writing is tied to hip hop. I “sample” from movies, books and other games. Most of my other releases like When The Sky Comes Looking For You, Repentless and Maiden, Mother & Crone are all songs that inspired me.

Matt: Can you talk about how you matched particular genres of music with the different volumes of Tales from the Tape Deck and how you approached curating the playlists?

Yamil: Volume 1 is called Righteous Ride of the Radicals. It is inspired by Mad Max, Godzilla and Super Sentai so the music had to be fast and loud. The playlist for that one is mostly 80s metal or synth heavy music. Volume 2 is Dawn without a Coffin which is inspired by Anne Rice, Sinners and Pirate Borg. The playlist for that is New Orleans jazz. After that we have Volume 3: DeDroid City, inspired by Detroit house, electronica and hip hop. You play as sentient robots in a reverse-heist, trying to break into the servers and give sentience to the rest of the robots in the city. Lastly, Volume 4 Madness Motel is our spin on the Shining and is influenced by the classic horror movie soundtracks like John Carpenter. We wanted to show the diversity of music and the flexibility of Tales from the Tape Deck.

Matt: With Critical Hit Parader, we have the concept of an Appendix LP, i.e., a list of inspirational music that has influenced tabletop role-playing. What bands/artists would be on your own personal Appendix LP list?

Yamil: Love the name: Appendix LP. My favorite band is Gogol Bordello. They mix so many genres together, sing in multiple languages and speak about being refugees and unity. To me, role-playing is about shared experiences and coming together. Motorhead’s “We are the Road Crew” is my convention anthem so they are definitely in my list. I have a battle vest that I wear to conventions with RPG and music patches. I have A Tribe Called Quest, MF Doom, Wu Tang Clan, the band Dungeon Crawl, so many others. Appendix N is pretty long so I don’t feel too bad with my list.

I backed at the level that offers a limited edition cassette with original music by Yamil and other musicians, including Critical Hit Parader favorite Loot the Body. You can pledge your support and pre-order Tales from the Tape Deck here.

To hear how another game designer’s work is tied to hip-hop, listen to my Appendix LP Podcast interview with Brendan LaSalle:

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Kool & The Gang - “Misled”

This may be blasphemous for someone who has spent most of his life living in Massachusetts and North Carolina, but the only musician named James Taylor who I’m a fan of is JT from Kool & the Gang. I happened to catch the band’s video for “Misled” while I had MTV Classic on in the background the other day. The song is one of my favorites from Kool & the Gang, but I had only seen the video once or twice. It was not uncommon for artists in the 80s to put out ambitious music videos that had nothing to do with the lyrics of the song. “Misled” is one of the best of this type with a dancing apparition, an Indiana Jones style archeological dig, and masked cultists.

Get inspired for your next Pulp Cthulhu gaming session and watch the full video for “Misled” here:

You can listen to our full conversation here:

This provides an excuse to discuss some connections that Hüsker Dü has to games. The first is that the band’s name comes from the Hūsker Dū? memory board game (“husker du” is Norwegian for “do you remember”). Hüsker Dü guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould explained the band’s name origin in his See a Little Light autobiography:

After reading Mould’s book, I sing “Hüsker Dü” whenever I hear “Psycho Killer” on the car radio. I also think “[insert adjective]” is a pretty good band name.

You can watch one of those TV commercials for the game below. This one is from 1975:

The band had a “memorable” encounter with the game’s inventor as Bob Mould described in his book:

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Hüsker Dü has a song called “Games” from their album Flip Your Wig. Although the song is about relationships rather than a tabletop play experience, I enjoy pretending that the part of the song that mentions “memories” is about the Hūsker Dū? board game:

Listen to “Games” here:

The same album has a song named after another children’s toy: “Flexible Flyer.” This a melodic track written by Grant Hart, the band’s drummer/vocalist. The song perfectly matches my views on childhood, growing up, and my personal philosophy for living:

Enjoy “Flexible Flyer” here:

Music and games keep me growing instead of growing old. I hope they have the same effect on you.

The song was written by Mountain band member Felix Pappalardi and his wife Gail Collins. Listen to the track here:

Gail Collins also did the artwork for several Mountain albums, including Nantucket Sleighride:

I haven’t been able to track down more details about the literary influences of Pappalardi or Collins as the stories about the pair are mostly focused on the tragic events that ended Felix’s life. In the spring of 1983, Gail Collins shot her husband in their New York apartment. A lurid trial followed in which she was found not guilty of murder (despite compelling evidence against her) and convicted of a much lesser criminally negligent homicide charge. She served a couple of years in prison before being released on parole. Gail Collins died in Mexico in 2013.

The couple’s complete tale is full of sex, drugs, guns, and scandal. You can read more in this Classic Rock article that includes interviews with other members of Mountain.

“Tired Angels (to J.M.H.)” is not the only Tolkien reference in the Mountain catalog. The band’s Live: The Road Goes Ever On album is named from Tolkien’s “The Road Goes Ever On,” a walking song that appears in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

In the soundtrack for the the Rankin/Bass animated The Hobbit includes a song called “Roads” by Glenn Yarbrough that uses much of the same lyrics from “The Road Goes Ever On”:

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Jeff Jones recently interviewed Nick Baran from Breaker Press Games on his RPG Ramblings podcast. Nick has a crowdfunding campaign for the third volume of his Rabid Dogs zine, which includes new classes and special rules for the Dungeon Crawl Classics tabletop roleplaying game.

This was a fun conversation with lots of music discussion, including how Nick named his zine from the song “Rabid Dogs” by hardcore/metal band Corrosion of Conformity:

You can get all three volumes of Rabid Dogs and a collector’s box from the Rabid Dogs Vol. 3 campaign page.

If I were to have played by the rules and listed the ten BÖC songs that I love the most, my choices would have been these (in chronological order):

• Then Came the Last Days of May

• Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)

• Subhuman

• Flaming Telepaths

• Astronomy

• Death Valley Nights

• Black Blade

• Monsters

• Deadline

• Harvest Moon

I know many Critical Hit Parader readers are Blue Öyster Cult fans. What are some of your favorite tunes from the band?

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In the above video, I cited author Michael Moorcock & vocalist Eric Bloom as my 4th favorite songwriting pair within the cabal of Blue Öyster Cult co-conspirators. The twain were responsible for the classic tunes “The Great Sun Jester,” “Black Blade,” and “Veteran of the Psychic Wars.”1 A 4th collaboration, “Sleep of a Thousand Tears,” almost came into existence, which you can read more about here:

Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix was the author’s own music project, and he released an album called The New Worlds Fair in 1975. Fifty years later, an anniversary edition of the album has just come out. Here is a description from the Think Like A Key Music record label:

This Uncut review of the album discussed possible parallels between Moorcock and David Bowie:

You can preview excerpts from The New Worlds Fair and order a CD version of the album from the Think Like A Key Music website.

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Whistlepig Breakdown

Tricksy Grue Games is crowdfunding a music-themed adventure written by Jeff Regner. The module is called Whistlepig Breakdown, and it is set in the Appalachian-inspired Shudder Mountains.

Here is a description, which highlights some of the adventure’s music themes:

By the way, Jeff Regner and I were both guests on the same Goodman Games show when we were each launching new zines, and he seemed like a great guy:

The Shudder Mountains were originally created by brilliant game designer Michael Curtis, who was inspired by the “Silver John” (or “John the Balladeer”) stories written by Manly Wade Wellman. I am a big fan of Wellman and LOVE those tales. Whistlepig Breakdown looks to be a worthy addition to the Shudder Mountains milieu, so consider giving your support before the crowdfunding campaign ends on February 17th.

First, as evidence to the meaningful impact J.R.R. Tolkien has had on rock music, let me present this recent Eric Alper article that includes Tolkien on a list of “10 non-musicians who quietly shaped music history.” The full list includes many Critical Hit Parader favorites:

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Middle Earth Songs

Next, this BBC Music Magazine article lists “the 17 greatest songs about Middle-earth.” It includes some usual favorites, such as “Rivendell” by Rush, “The Wizard” by Black Sabbath, “Ramble On” and “Battle of Evermore” by Led Zeppelin, and “Nightfall” by Blind Guardian. Read with some skepticism, however, as it also includes some cool tracks whose Tolkien-inspiration is questionable at best (e.g., “Stagnation” by Genesis).

The song from the list that I would like to highlight is “Mithrandir - This Fading Age” from the amazing prog band Glass Hammer:

It comes from Glass Hammer’s The Middle Earth Album, which had a cool in-world concept as described by the band:

The album artwork was done by David Wyatt, who is an accomplished children’s book artist having worked with Philip Pullman, Diana Wynne Jones, Terry Pratchett, Geraldine McCaughrean, and Philip Reeve. Preview and purchase a download version of the whole The Middle Earth Album from the Glass Hammer Bandcamp page.

In addition to J.R.R. Tolkien, Glass Hammer co-founder Stephen R. Babb was influenced by C. S. Lewis, H. P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, and Clark Ashton Smith. I covered more about the band’s Appendix N influences in a previous newsletter:

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“Ramble On”

Our next tour stop is a deeper dive on Tolkien’s influence on the Led Zeppelin song “Ramble On” from this Collider article:

“Song of Gondor”

A recent Counting Stars article discussed a musical version of the poem “Song of Gondor” by the Danish group The Tolkien Ensemble. The poem was written by J.R.R. Tolkien and appears in the book The Two Towers. You can listen to the song below, which first appeared on the album At Dawn in Rivendell.

The album was a collaboration between The Tolkien Ensemble and actor Christopher Lee who played Saruman in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. Lee performed as narrator and singer of songs by Treebeard. I covered some of the other musical escapades of Christopher Lee in a previous Critical Hit Parader newsletter:

Gatekeeper: “Shadow and Stone”

We have reached our final tour stop. An article by Arianna McKee in The Express turned me onto a J.R.R. Tolkien-inspired song that was new to me: “Shadow and Stone” by Canadian epic heavy metal band Gatekeeper. This excerpt from the article describes some of the song’s unique charms:

Listen to the whole song here:

The track comes from the Gatekeeper album From Western Shores, and the cool cover artwork was done by Duncan Storr.

As explained in this Prog magazine interview, Storr has also done artwork for Hawkwind, Skyclad, Jade Warrior, and Scale The Summit.

If Gatekeeper’s brand of epic metal is your tankard of mead, then you might also enjoy their wintry sword & sorcery themed video for the From Western Shores title track. The band had a harrowing filming:

Here’s the video: