Dungeons & Dragons (album)

• 1. Introduction

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  Dungeons and Dragons, the album by Midnight Syndicate, began not in a recording studio but at a gaming convention booth, where the band was selling their music to tabletop players. Released on the 12th of August 2003 by Entity Productions, it would become the first official Dungeons and Dragons soundtrack, produced by two self-described horror composers who had never written music to fit someone else's ideas before. How did a band known for Gothic nightmare soundtracks get handed the keys to one of gaming's most beloved franchises? And what happened when they had to swap haunted castles for dragon-filled dungeons? The answers lie in a convergence of unconventional distribution, a fateful convention meeting, and a creative handshake between musicians and game designers who were, as it turned out, already listening to the same thing.

• 2. A Convention Booth Connection

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  Midnight Syndicate's older albums had already been circulating at role-playing game tables for years before any formal arrangement existed. Bob Ignizio of the ezine Utter Trash, which billed itself as covering "music, movies and more", noted that the band's music had long served as background for role-playing sessions. Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, had even described the band's output as "the perfect accompaniment to role-playing game sessions". That informal reputation grew strong enough that the band began setting up stalls at gaming conventions to meet players directly.

  At their first convention appearance, the encounter that would change the band's direction happened: Wizards of the Coast approached Midnight Syndicate and asked whether they would be interested in recording an official soundtrack. The band said yes. Joseph Vargo, the executive producer on two earlier Midnight Syndicate albums, Born of the Night and Realm of Shadows, later claimed he had helped set up that connection years before. Vargo said he sent a copy of Born of the Night to Jason Carl, a Dungeons and Dragons game designer then employed by TSR, in 1999. Carl described the album as "terrific gaming music". Vargo also sent Carl a copy of Realm of Shadows the following year, and that ongoing contact helped build the bridge between the band and the game's designers.

• 3. Writing for Someone Else

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  Before a single note was written, the band sat down with the Dungeons and Dragons design team to hear what the album needed. Ed Stark, the special project manager at Wizards of the Coast, explained the requirements: the album needed "a chase scene and a fight scene and things like that". Stark acknowledged that this kind of directed brief was unusual, saying the band "really got that", and expressing surprise at how quickly a band outside the games industry understood the specific needs. After that meeting, Wizards of the Coast largely stepped aside and left the music to Douglas and his partner.

  Edward Douglas said that the material came naturally anyway, since earlier Midnight Syndicate albums had themselves drawn inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons gaming sessions. Douglas covered his studio walls with Dungeons and Dragons artwork and module covers during recording, using them as a constant visual anchor. He noted that for instrument choice, "sounds and sometimes even melodies fall in line themselves". All the music was produced on synthesizers, giving the two-person band access to a wide tonal range without outside session players.

• 4. Two Studios, One Album

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  Douglas and Gavin Goszka, the only two members of Midnight Syndicate, worked apart for most of the album's creation. After agreeing together on the setting and the details of the world they wanted to evoke, they separated into their own individual studios and wrote independently. They maintained contact throughout to keep the work aligned, then reunited to arrange, master, and mix the final tracks.

  The album's graphical design was handled by Mark Rakocy and Jeff Visgaitis, with additional design credited to someone listed only as "Stan!" This release also marked a production change for the band: it was the first Midnight Syndicate album for which a professional writer was hired to compose descriptions in the booklet and write the album blurb. Previously those texts had been written by Douglas himself or by Vargo, who had also contributed artwork to some earlier releases. Douglas said he was "a huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons artwork, so having free on that material was fun". The album drew artwork directly from Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks, featuring work by game designers Todd Lockwood and Skip Williams, and artists Scott Fischer, Brian Snoddy, Lars Grant-West, Wayne Reynolds, Mark Tedin, and Sam Wood.

• 5. Horror Roots, Fantasy Branches

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  Mario Mesquita Borges, writing for AllMusic, characterized Midnight Syndicate's typical sound as "darkly blended compositions" that were both "gloomy" and "brooding". Leonard Pickel of Haunted Attraction Magazine placed the band squarely inside Halloween culture, writing that "each year, the band's music becomes more a part of America's Halloween culture", and said they had "literally formed their own musical genre". Douglas had originally described the band's output as "Gothic Nightmare Soundtracks".

  Dungeons and Dragons required a shift. Where earlier releases were almost entirely horror-based, this album needed a fantasy feel, and Douglas updated his description of the band's music to "Gothic Fantasy Nightmare Soundtracks" to reflect the change. Peter-Jan Van Damme, owner of the alternative music ezine Darker than the Bat, noted that the album moved in the direction of contemporary classical composers such as Trevor Jones while still keeping the horror sound the band was known for. Chris Harvey of Movement Magazine, which covered "underground" music and arts, described the album as symphonic, and credited that quality with adding to its overall atmosphere. Sounds were sampled throughout, including battle noises on "Final Confrontation", clashing swords on "Skirmish", a mantra on "Eternal Mystery", and spoken words in "Craft of the Wizard".

• 6. First, But Not the Only First

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  Wizards of the Coast declared the album the first official Dungeons and Dragons soundtrack, and that claim was repeated by outlets including Metropolis Mail Order, GamingReport.com, and Skirmisher Game Store. The claim was accurate but required a distinction. An earlier album, First Quest: The Music, had been released by Filmtrax and licensed by TSR, the company that owned Dungeons and Dragons before Wizards of the Coast, for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. That release came out on both cassette and vinyl and was packaged with a pre-printed module. Neither format sold well, and both are difficult to locate today.

  The key difference was scope. First Quest was keyed specifically to the module it accompanied, rather than functioning as a general soundtrack for the game. The Midnight Syndicate album was the first designed to accompany the game at large. Dungeons and Dragons became the best-selling role-playing game soundtrack ever in its first month of release.

• 7. Critical Reception

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  Anthony Valterra, Wizards of the Coast's RPG category manager, said the band had "succeeded at capturing the magic of D&D through music". Reviewers broadly agreed that the fantasy subject matter had pulled new qualities out of the band. A writer for the now-defunct Living Dead Girls ezine wrote that the album "brings a wider range of songs than Midnight Syndicate produces for their Gothic horror soundtracks", and that it "displays for the first time the diversity and musical craft of which Midnight Syndicate is capable". GamingReport.com credited the album with furthering the band's position as the leading supplier of music to the hobby game industry.

  Not all reviewers were unconditional. Marc Shayed of GamingReport.com criticized the album for leaning too heavily on combat and ambiance. He argued that only one track, "City of Sails", felt triumphant, and that there was nothing suitable for traveling or character downtime, which he considered standards of fantasy gaming. Gene Vogal of the National Gamers Guild felt the album lacked the "oomph" of the earlier Midnight Syndicate release Vampyre, and thought the influence of Wizards of the Coast may have constrained the result. Vogal also found the album less original than Vampyre and noted that it sounded close to The Lord of the Rings soundtracks. Other critics drew comparisons to the work of Danny Elfman and the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack. Despite these reservations, Shayed still called it the "ultimate" gaming soundtrack. Leonard Pickel noted that the album helped extend the band's following into Europe, where, as he put it, "Halloween and Haunted Attractions are just beginning to take hold".

• 8. The Hidden Final Track

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  The album closes with a bonus track running 36 seconds. It has no consistent name: the Midnight Syndicate website does not mention it at all, but it has sometimes been listed as "BOTCH!" The track is a joke, depicting a hapless player who summons something from the game into the real world. Chris Harvey of Movement Magazine singled out the dice-rolling sound effects in the track as "hilarious", and the track stands as a glimpse of the humor the band was capable of beneath the gothic orchestration, marking a tonal coda that none of the band's earlier horror releases had attempted.