Dungeon Synth Soundtrack, Mirrorshield, & Jethro Tull

Plus King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Thief Fighter

Thorin Thompson from Owl Knight Publishing has an active crowdfunding campaign for a dungeon synth soundtrack for his Blights ov the Eastern Forest TTRPG campaign adventure. The music is produced by Heimat Der Katastrophe and Dunjon Magik.

Here is a description of the soundtrack:

Produced with Heimat Der Katastrophe (HDK) and the dungeon synth troubadours known as DUNJON MAGIK, the Blights ov the Eastern Forest album brings you 13 EXCITING and EERIE TRACKS as you delve deeper and deeper into the blighted Eastern Forest.

Inspired by Thorin Thompson's 1st level campaign adventure Blights ov the Eastern Forest for Dungeon Crawl Classics, this album features 1 track for each of the main locations your adventuring party will explore and is certain to add an extra layer of ambiance to the roleplaying experience.

The following video provides a preview of the song “Village of Reed”:

The soundtrack will be available in both digital and cassette formats, and you can also order the TTRPG books Blights ov the Eastern Forest and Sky ov Crimson Flame as part of this campaign. I received both of those when I supported a previous Owl Knight Publishing campaign, and they are both very cool.

You can pledge your support for the Blights ov the Eastern Forest dungeon synth soundtrack here.

Mirrorshield

At the end of last year, the Australian folk/power metal band Mirrorshield released an album called Visions From A Crystal Light, which highlights the band’s fantasy inspiration bonafides. Their name is a Legend of Zelda reference, and I’ve seen a couple of reviews mention Dungeons & Dragons when describing the album. My favorite of these comes from a Forte review of Visions From A Crystal Light:

“Kind of like if Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick and Children of Bodom’s Follow The Reaper had a baby, and that baby caught up with Judas Priest’s Painkiller for a game of Dungeons and Dragons.”

They created a promotional video for the song “Petalfig's Path” that was “shot as a parody of B and C grade bargain bin movies from the 80s”:

You can preview and purchase the full album from the Mirrorshield Bandcamp page.

Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant

Since the Mirrorshield review above referenced Jethro Tull, it gives me an excuse to mention that I have been enjoying the first two singles from the upcoming Tull album Curious Ruminant.

You can watch videos for the songs “Curious Ruminant” and “The Tipu House” below:

The Curious Ruminant album is scheduled to be released on the 7th of March 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Thief Fighter

Reglar Wiglar Magazine recently published an interview with TTRPG game designer Luka Rejec. Luka is the writer and artist behind Ultraviolet Grasslands and other projects released under his Wizard Thief Fighter studio. Of note for Critical Hit Parader readers, he provided his music influences/inspirations:

“For music, I was very into doom metal some years ago, but I’m curious about more experimental things these days. If I had to name a single band right now … mmm … I’d suggest trying out King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.”

I couldn’t agree more about the King Gizz recommendation! I covered their album PetroDragonic Apocalypse in a list of favorite albums of 2023 and profiled their song “Dragon” in an article on songs for fantasy RPG inspiration: