“The Rider” by Paris Paloma from Upcoming Lord of The Rings Film

Plus Bronze - Sword & Sorcery Influenced Metal

“The Rider” by Paris Paloma is the official theme song to the new The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim anime film.

Here is a description of the film from the press materials:

New Line Cinema’s original anime feature “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” returns audiences to the epic world brought to life in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, based on the revered books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg—a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.

The song “The Rider” was written and produced by Phoebe Gittins and David Long, and you can check out the song for yourself in the following video:

Paris Paloma is no stranger to literature-inspired music. This Guardian article describes that her debut album, Cacophony, “takes its inspiration from Stephen Fry’s book of Greek myth retellings, Mythos, to create a narrative album that goes on a hero’s journey.” She is a lifelong Tolkien fan and it was “a dream come true” to record the song for the movie, as she describes in this TheOneRing video:

You can preorder the original soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrimon on CD or vinyl from Mutant.

Bronze - Sword & Sorcery Influenced Metal

Mina Walkure, lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Bronze, was recently interviewed for the Monsters, Madness and Magic podcast. Earlier this year, Bronze released their album In Chains and Shadows, which I think would appeal to fans of traditional metal, power metal, or NWOBHM.

Here are some highlights/takeaways from the interview for me:

• Sword and sorcery is a key influence, and Appendix N legends Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber are her two favorite authors.

• Mina is an artist as well as a musician, and she does the graphics for the band. She identifies Clyde Caldwell as a primary visual artist influence. Most Critical Hit Parader readers will be familiar with Clyde’s work as one of the signature artists for TSR.

• Iron Maiden is a huge musical influence and she shares my affection for their Brave New World album.

You can watch the whole interview here:

If you want to check out Bronze’s music, here is their official video for the song “Time Covers No Lies” from the In Chains and Shadows album:

H/T to Kevin Beckett’s Just The Axe, Ma’am newsletter for bringing my attention to the Mina Walkure interview.

Critical Role Holiday Album on Vinyl

In a previous newsletter, I mentioned the EP release of Critical Role’s Winter’s Crest holiday album. Now the full album is streaming, and it will be be released on vinyl in the Spring of 2025. You can preorder here.