Fight Dice - New D&D Themed Band

Plus Favorite Blue Öyster Cult Related Albums & Dance 'Til Dawn Storytelling Game

Fight Dice is a new Milwaukee-based band who “merges heavy post-punk sounds with the epic narratives of your favorite role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.” Their debut album is called Total Party Kill and is coming out the 20th of September on Forge Again Records. Song titles on the album include “Roll for Initiative,” “Owlbear,” “I Cast Darkness,” and “Mimics Attack!”

The following are the lyrics for “Magic Pact,” the first single from the album:

Dark energy forced from a druid’s creed
A chance to dodge defeat
(so roll your favorite 20-sided die)
Save the maiden, destroy the aberration with a spell attack
(so roll your favorite 20-sided die)
It’s not the first time won’t be the last
And there’s countless dangers we can make it past
This may all end up for nothing
But I’m holding on to something
That is why we signed the magic pact
To my magic makers with spells of every nature
A fire bolt (a surefire attack)
Try an acid spell it might work as well as a poison cloud
(from your hand or from a magic staff)

Check out the video for “Magic Pact” here:

Bassist Todd Bell shared the band’s origin story in this Stereogum article:

“During the pandemic, we were immersed in playing D&D together online to ward off boredom and stay socially connected. When we could see each other more regularly and safely, as friends, we began practicing as a makeshift “band” — another outlet to stay sane while all other remnants of being in our other bands were still on hold. We set about working on some musical parts we all had lying around, and the next thing you know we were all in a drop D tuning sludging along, having fun with our new project. Satisfied with what we were doing and with loads of D&D-inspired content for band direction and lyrics, we booked a show when it was okay to do so, settled on a name, and Fight Dice was officially born.”

You can pre-order the Total Party Kill album from the Fight Dice Bandcamp page.

Favorite Blue Öyster Cult Related Albums

On a recent episode of the Contrarians, Bill Schuster and I discussed our favorite side projects that involved members of Blue Öyster Cult and the band’s cabal of collaborators:

My role on the show was more to provide history and context, so I didn’t actually list my favorites in the video. For the record, the following five would be at the top of my list:

• Trepanation - Brain Surgeons (prolific band led by Albert Bouchard and Deborah Frost)

• Flat Out - Buck Dharma

• The Red and The Black - The Red and the Black (Buck Dharma led trio with Jon Rogers and Ron Riddle)

• St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings - Stalk-Forrest Group (pre-BÖC band)

• ReImaginos - Albert Bouchard

I would also give an honorable mention to Bambo by The David Roter Method, which Albert Bouchard produced and played drums on under the name of S. W. Underbelly. On the show, I forgot to talk about some of the other cool bands that Albert produced demos for like Kablamachunk and Maria Ex Communikata. If you are a BÖC archeologist, I encourage you to check these out as they showcase Albert’s diverse interests and taste.

And speaking of Buck Dharma, in a recent Critical Hit Parader newsletter, I discussed how Buck sang on the song “The End of Every Song” from the The End of All Songs - Part 1 album by Spirits Burning & Michael Moorcock. Well, two weeks ago he released a solo version of the song along with a touching video:

Here is Buck describing the interesting story of the song, including its relevance to Michael Moorcock’s writings:

The song lyric was adapted from a poem "Dregs" by 19th century English poet Ernest Christopher Dowson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Dowson

I came by it when I was commissioned to write a song to it by the Spirits Burning Project, who have set many of author Michael Moorcock's books to music.  

Moorcock quoted “Dregs” as the forward to his book “The End of All Songs.” Other authors have quoted Dowson’s work also, famously the phrases “Days of Wine and Roses,” and “Gone with the “Wind.”

I created the song for “Spirits Burning” and informed them I intended to record my own version for release.

Albert Bouchard, BOC’s founding member and former drummer got me involved with Spirits Burning, and I had previously contributed vocals and guitars on earlier releases. He provided the drums on “End of Every Song.” I engaged Danny Miranda for bass guitar, and Bear McCreary for orchestration, which added a rich element to the production. I worked with Bob Clearmountain for the mix, and Ted Jensen mastered the song.

Dance 'Til Dawn

I wanted to call attention to another music-themed tabletop game: Dance 'Til Dawn by Barak Blackburn. Here is the game’s description:

In Dance 'Til Dawn, we are going to listen to music together with friends. The music will fill the air, and we will collaboratively tell a story. The story, like all good stories, has a beginning, and an end.
The music not only inspires and moves our story, but serves as an integral game mechanic.
Dance 'Til Dawn is designed for those who enjoy music, are intrigued by the idea of listening to music with friends, and want to tell a story together, one where none of us know how it will
conclude.
Let's listen to music together.
Let's listen to each other.
Let's tell a story. Let's find out where the music takes us.

Apparently, Barak is a legit FCC licensed DJ and has excellent taste in music judging from the example scenarios included in the Dance ‘Til Dawn PDF:

The game is very affordable and can be purchased from both DrivethruRPG and itch.io.