Dungeon Crawl Album & Art from James Bousema
Plus Rufus Wainwright + The Lord of the Rings & Michael Moorcock + the Doors
Thrash metal band Dungeon Crawl has announced that their new album Maze Controller will be released on September 20. The band has proudly shown their RPG roots, both with the band’s name and on previous albums Roll for Your Life and The Side Quest (split album with Throne of Iron). It appears the new album will continue in that vein, with song titles like “Roll for Initiative,” “+1 Mace,” “Lords of Pen and Paper,” and “Saving Throw.”
The cover art is by James Bousema, who also did the album cover for the amazing Garden of Heathens record by Heavy Temple that came out earlier this year. He has done poster art for Metallica and Disturbed as well. This Heaviest of Art interview with James and Dungeon Crawl band member Codie Jones goes deep into how they collaborated on creating artwork that supported the vision the band had for the album. It includes the following quote from James that references RPG inspirations for the art:
“Codie gave me a ton to work with! Whether it was old RPG artwork that he wanted me to be inspired by or his actual D&D group sessions/characters, he gave me plenty of material to pull from to make sure his goal with the artwork was clear from the get-go. The trick is to make it all feel like a cohesive package. Combining the speedy thrash vibe with the look of an old RPG fantasy game can be tricky if not tackled carefully. It could have easily come off as a goofy gimmick, but I think when you approach the subject matter with great reverence as Codie wanted to, you end up with a result that feels true to its inspirations and that will, hopefully, resonate with others.”
You can preview the track “Red Shadows” and pre-order the Maze Controller album from the Dungeon Crawl Bandcamp page:
You can check out more of James Bousema’s artwork at his website.
Rufus Wainwright and The Lord of the Rings
As mentioned in a recent Critical Hit Parader newsletter, Rufus Wainwright is one of the featured singers on the soundtrack to the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. A recent Rolling Stones article provided additional details, and includes the following about Wainwright’s taste in fantasy:
Wainwright read and liked the LOTR books as a teenager, though he admits he’s more of a Narnia person. “I enjoy all great sagas,” he says. “I’m a big opera fan, and my husband and I listen to Wagner a lot. I love to read Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. I like anything that’s long and involved and complicated and keeps your attention away from this frightening planet.”
I also got a kick out of this quote from the same article that references Led Zeppelin:
Reminded of the long tradition of folk and rock music inspired by Lord of the Rings, including at least three Led Zeppelin songs, Wainwright gives a nod to his friend Robert Plant: “He came to a Folkocracy show not too long ago, and he’s a big fan of my dad’s.”
Michael Moorcock and the Doors
Lastly, I was tickled by this Michael Moorcock reference in a post from A Journal of Musical Things asking “What was the first REAL punk rock song?”:
Sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock called The Doors “punk” in a 1968 interview, but he meant it as an insult.
There's no way only three Led Zeppelin songs mention LotR. Ya gotta look at the subtext.
Love this! Thank you for sharing.
If you're into dungeon synth music and background ambient music to use while playing tabletop games, check out, Out of Season Record Label. I have purchased a few albums from them. One of which is, Quest Master; the best way I can describe it is an old 80s-90s Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game or a JRPG game like Final Fantasy or Illusion of Gaia.