Mörktober & The History of Metal and Horror

Plus Loot the Body and Tune Tag from ABBA to Zappa

According to your local classic rock radio station, October is Rocktober. Despite its use in mainstream media marketing, Rocktober is something I always celebrate. The time of year for Halloween, Samhain, and Frankenstein Friday puts me in the mood for my favorite horror-themed music.

My Samhain t-shirt with some seasonally appropriate RPG books

Many gamers also dedicate time in this month to watching horror movies. Previous Appendix LP podcast guest Travis Miller recently wrote a review of the documentary The History of Metal and Horror on his Grumpy Wizard blog. I highly recommend subscribing to Travis’s blog for consistently thoughtful content on tabletop role-playing games, sword-and-sorcery fiction, storytelling, and heavy metal. 

For more October listening, heavy metal is well represented in this list of horror movies with rock theme songs, including Lääz Rockit, Motörhead, and Ghost.

Mörktober

MÖRK BORG is a tabletop RPG described as “A doom metal album of a game. A spiked flail to the face. Light on rules, heavy everything else.” Exeunt Press is encouraging everyone to celebrate Mörktober this month:

Each day in October, make something for MÖRK BORG inspired by the prompt list and share it. An item, scroll, weapon, class, or anything else.

Tag it #MÖRKTOBER.

Mörk Borg is acclaimed for its signature graphic design, which is the brainchild of Johan Nohr. Johan is in the final days of a Kickstarter campaign for his Art by Nohr coffee table art book. The book looks amazing, and the campaign video features the song “Warcries” by Danish doom metal band Katla.

For more music appropriate for Mörk Borg and other “metal” flavored RPGs, check out this Mörk Borg playlist created by Johan:

Note, many of the bands on the playlist are on Bandcamp. If you discover you like any of these tunes, I suggest you check out each band’s respective Bandcamp page and purchase their music if you want to support the bands. Bandcamp is much friendlier to musicians than Spotify.

Razor Blades in Apples

In keeping with the season, Critical Hit Parader favorite Loot the Body just released an appropriately creepy video for a new song called Razor Blades in Apples:

I love the lyrical combination of spooky and satirical, and the song earns extra points with the use of “whom” as an object relative pronoun. If you haven’t already, check out my interview with Levi Nunez from Loot the Body on the Appendix LP podcast and follow the Loot the Body Bandcamp page.

Tune Tag - From ABBA to Zappa

I had the honor of playing “Tune Tag” with Brad Kyle. Brad writes the fantastic Front Row & Backstage newsletter. Brad has spent years in the radio and music business and his entertaining and informative articles combine detailed research with his own personal anecdotes.

Brad and I took turns sending each other a song. As Brad explains, “each track we send the other will have some tie-in with the one we were previously sent! Whether thematically or musically, the challenge is to pick a common element for a song to send to the other player.”

I had so much fun playing, and I hope I represented the Critical Hit Parader community well in playing an activity that combines our twin passions of music and games. You can judge for yourself here:

Tune Tag #10 with Matt Thompson of "Critical Hit Parader": Rush, ABBA, Zappa, Bowie, Genesis, NIN, Pain of Salvation