2024 Albums to Inspire Your TTRPG Playing
Happy New Year!
Throughout 2024, I highlighted new albums that I thought would appeal to Critical Hit Parader readers.
As a way to recap a very strong year for new music, I have organized fourteen of these 2024 full length releases below:
Albums Directly Inspired by Playing Tabletop Roleplaying Games:
Both of these bands lean into their love of fantasy roleplaying games but have different music approaches…
Maze Controller by Dungeon Crawl
This thrash metal album includes song titles like “Roll for Initiative,” “+1 Mace,” “Lords of Pen and Paper,” and “Saving Throw.”
Total Party Kill by Fight Dice
This album “merges heavy post-punk sounds with the epic narratives of your favorite role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.” It also has a song called “Roll for Initiative,” along with other D&D inspired titles like “Owlbear,” “I Cast Darkness,” and “Mimics Attack!”
Albums by Sword & Sorcery Inspired Artists
Into the Realm by Castle Rat
Watch any videos or live performances from this medieval fantasy doom metal band, and you will immediately see their love for sword and sorcery.
In Chains and Shadows by Bronze
Vocalist Mina Walkure is a Clyde Caldwell-influenced visual artist who cites Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber as her favorite authors. Nuff said!
Albums with Awe-Inspiring Fantasy/Sci-Fi Cover Art
Although I am choosing to highlight the artwork for the next three albums, the music on each record is equally amazing.
Kinship by IOTUNN
This modern prog metal masterpiece features fantastic album artwork by Saprophial:
Garden of Heathens by Heavy Temple
This album pairs the amazing vocals of High Priestess Nighthawk with an equally cool album cover by James Bousema:
Voice of Storms by Horseburner
Fans of Baroness and Mastodon should love this record along with the super-cool art by Brian Mercer and the band logo that adorn the album cover:
Albums with Fantasy-RPG Appropriate Song Titles
Beyond the Reach of the Sun by ANCIIENTS
The track listing for this progressive death/sludge metal record provides fantasy RPG inspiration with evocative song titles like “Forbidden Sanctuary,” “Cloak Of The Vast And Black,” and “Celestial Tyrant.”
Wytch Pycknyck by Wytch Pycknyck
The debut album by the “lo-fi stoner, psychedelic, garage rock” band Wytch Pycknyck features song titles like “Magikal Revenge,” “Frostbite,” and “Fire Breathin’ Dragon.” I also could have included them in the awe-inspiring album cover category. Check out the album cover artwork by the incredible artist Skinner:
An Album Inspired by the Same Literature That Influenced Popular RPGs:
What We Really Like in Stories by Bardic Depths
This smart, mature prog rock album is “a themed album about authors and the stories they told” and is based on the book Mythic Realms by Brad Birzer. Highlights include songs inspired by Robert E. Howard and Ray Bradbury.
A Concept Album That Tell a Sci-Fi Story
Phantoma by Unleash the Archers
This power metal concept album follows “Ph4/NT0-mA on her quest to find her place in a world ravaged by the climate apocalypse and completely dependent upon robot-kind to function.”
An Album Influenced by Appendix LP Legends
Absence of Time by RivetSkull
Where Gary Gygax's Appendix N listed the fantasy and sci-fi authors who most influenced him and the development of Dungeons and Dragons, the idea of Appendix LP is to explore the bands and songs that influence and enhance tabletop roleplaying. You can hear traces of Dio, Blue Öyster Cult, and Uriah Heep on this impressive album.
An Album Inspired by Folklore and Mythology
Katabasis into the Abaton by Grendel's Sÿster
Sarah Ann from Smoulder provides the perfect description of this folk metal album: “Primordial, bardic hymns for forest dwellers.”
An Album by Artists Who Cosplay on Stage in Bedazzled Robes
Battlesnake by Battlesnake
Battlesnake has self-described their music as King Gizzard meets Judas Priest and Mad Max meets the Lord of the Rings. “Alpha & Omega” might be my pick for song of the year:
When reviewing all the great music that came out in 2024, I realized there were another ten or so albums I enjoyed a ton that I had not covered at all in the newsletter. I will include these in next week’s issue.
In the meantime, I hope 2025 is a rockin’ year for each of you!
I can always count on you to provide a list of heavy bands to check out that I know I'll like the majority of. I fell off the metal bandwagon in 2024, so I look forward to listening to many of these in the coming months.
Awesome. Thank you. Lots of great stuff to check out. Of those I was only familiar with Unleash the Archers and Castle Rat.
Unleash the Archers is my third favorite band right now, behind Ghost and Gunship and ahead of Iron Maiden. I’ve had their latest three albums on repeat while writing and planning for the last three weeks. They do D&D actual plays on their YouTube channel.
Unfortunately I love metal but I don’t like anything with heavy scream vocals, so I’m sure several will be out of the running right away. I don’t mind a little scream vocal spiced in, though.