Top Songs of '23 for Fantasy RPG Inspiration

Cirth Ungol, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and Smoulder

For the last Critical Hit Parader newsletter of the year, I thought I would share my three favorite songs of 2023 that I found inspirational for my playing of fantasy tabletop roleplaying games.

“Sailor on the Seas of Fate” by Cirith Ungol

Cirith Ungol’s excellent Dark Parade album has more lyrical variety than you might guess from the Michael Whelan album cover artwork depicting Michael Moorcock’s Elric character. Standout tracks “Velocity (S.E.P.)” and “Down Below” describe hellish suffering that reflect the state of conflict in the world today. But the band delivers the sword & sorcery goods on their song “Sailor on the Seas of Fate.” With a title taken from Moorcock’s second Elric novel, the song is an emotional epic from the point of view of the doomed albino wielder of the agent-of-Chaos sword, Stormbringer.

Turning, gazing one last time, a future unforeseen
Pushing from the shore, pushing on toward destiny
Wipe the tears of sorrow, of the choices that we've made
All we have is chaos, and our rune encrusted blade

On and on and on
On into forever
On and on and on
Sailor on the seas of fate

“Dragon” by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

The album Petrodragonic Apocalypse by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard provides a unique relentless assault of metal with themes of the earth, environmentalism, witches, and dragons. Any song on the record is likely to proivde TTRPG inspiration, but I will single out “Dragon” as being particularly on the snout:

Flapping wings weaving through crocodile obsolete
Flattened raze, spraying flames
Blood curdle screech

….

Winged demon on the stratosphere is swooping beneath to kill with fear
Stop the dragon, dragon, dragon, dragon

“Victims of Fate” by Smoulder

The highlight of Smoulder’s outstanding Violent Creed of Vengeance album is “Victims of Fate,” which, like the aforementioned Cirith Ungol song, is a Michael Moorcock-inspired epic metal classic. Smoulder levels up the Appendix N love by having Moorcock himself provide the spoken word intro to the song:

The balance swings back and forth
Determing the fate of worlds
Back and forth as all inchoate matter swirls
And thus we come to the time of tears
The great conjunction of the million spheres
The monstrous massing of the million spheres.

Vocalist Sarah Ann then delivers a powerful performance depicting the incarnations and tribulations of the eternal champion. The song ends with a haunting yearning for the peace of the eternal city Tanelorn:

Tanelorn
Have I not earned the peace of
Tanelorn
Where are you?
Tanelorn
I wish for release
Tanelorn
Will I find you in
Tanelorn
I wait for the end in
Tanelorn
For some it’s near, for some it’s far
Tanelorn
I’ve paid the price for this burden