Sword & Sorcery & Heavy Metal and New Dolmenwood Soundtrack

Plus "State of the Crit"

This week is the two-year anniversary of the Critical Hit Parader newsletter!

I started the newsletter without any planning or ambition because I was looking for an easy way to send email updates about the Critical Hit Parader zine I was getting ready to launch for ZineQuest ‘23. My approach to planning is still limited, but some folks have been asking me about future zines, podcast episodes, etc., so I thought this would be a good time to share a brief “State of the Crit”…

Critical Hit Parader Newsletter - No changes! I plan to continue sending a free weekly newsletter on the intersection of music and tabletop roleplaying games every Wednesday at 9:00 AM Eastern USA time. I appreciate everyone who reads this newsletter, and special thanks to those who have liked and/or commented on issues. It’s nice to know you are out there!

Appendix LP Podcast - I’m sad to report that I have to keep the podcast on hiatus. I had so much fun interviewing guests about music and TTRPGs. Last year, however, my wife suffered her 9th and 10th strokes. Her deficits are such that she needs 24-hour supervision. Even when she is sleeping, I monitor her on video and bed alarm, and I frequently need to tend to her needs at unpredictable times. Therefore, I cannot in good conscience schedule the 2-3 hours with a guest for an interview knowing that I may be pulled away by multiple interruptions. I’ve been exploring doing long form content as podcasts and/or videos that I could make on my own without needing to schedule blocks of time with others, but nothing is imminent. I expect I will continue to be an occasional panelist on the Contrarians YouTube channel this year. If you missed any of the original nine Appendix LP Podcast episodes, or want to revisit any, they are available here.

Critical Hit Parader Zine - Although Critical Hit Parader started as a zine, I do not have plans to release another zine issue this year. I made significant progress on two issues last year before pivoting to a much larger TTRPG project. Stay tuned! In the meantime, the original Critical Hit Parader zine is available from the Goodman Games online store.

Sword & Sorcery & Heavy Metal

Nathaniel Webb wrote an article entitled “Axes at the End of History: Sword & Sorcery & Heavy Metal” in issue 4 of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine.

Webb takes a scholarly approach to examining the similarities between sword & sorcery pulp literature and heavy metal music as outsider art forms. Focus is given to Robert E. Howard, Iron Maiden, and Manilla Road. You can see the cool artwork by Ursa Doom (Björn Magnusson) that accompanied the article in the following post from New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine:

The issue also contains other non-fiction articles along with eight short stories (including one by Critical Hit Parader patron saint Michael Moorcock). You can purchase it and other issues from the New Edge Sword & Sorcery website in digital, softcover, and hardcover formats. Crowdfunding for the next set of issues will be launching in February. You can sign up to be notified when the campaign launches here.

New Dolmenwood Soundtrack

Tales Under the Oak has released a second album with music for the Dolmenwood tabletop RPG from Necrotic Gnome. The original Kickstarter for Dolmenwood had an option for ordering a vinyl version of the first album, which I covered in a previous newsletter. Here is a description of the new album:

Journeys Through Wold and Bog is the second official soundtrack album for Dolmenwood, blending natural ambient sounds with ethereal synthesizers to accompany your journeys through mossy forests and eldritch realms.

The cover artwork is by Jana Heidersdorf:

You can download the soundtrack for free from DriveThruRPG or stream it from the Tales Under The Oak Bandcamp page: