Dungeons & Dragons (album)

Dungeons & Dragons is a studio album by the American musical group Midnight Syndicate, released August 12, 2003. The album is designed as a soundtrack to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Artwork within the album booklet came from Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks, including works from prominent game designers such as Skip Williams. It is the only official Dungeons & dragons soundtrack.

About Dungeons & Dragons (album) in brief

Summary Dungeons & Dragons (album)Dungeons & Dragons is a studio album by the American musical group Midnight Syndicate, released August 12, 2003. The album is designed as a soundtrack to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It was produced by Midnight Syndicate at the request of Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns the rights to the franchise. The band was approached by game designers at a gaming convention where they had set up stall, and they agreed to produce the album. Artwork within the album booklet came from Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks, including works from prominent game designers such as Skip Williams. It is the only official Dungeons & dragons soundtrack. It has received positive reviews from music critics and the gaming community, and was repeated by other groups, including Metropolis and Skirmisher Game Report. It came with a pre-printed cassette and a cassette and record, which are difficult to find today and are unpopular and difficult to pre-print today. Other versions of the album have been released by Filmtrax and First Quest: The Music, First Quest, which was released by TSR, then-owners of Dungeons & Dragon, and then-licensed to TSR by FilmTrax and Second Quest:  The Music , which is released by First Quest Music, and by Entity Productions, which released the album on its own in 2005.

The music is produced on synthesizers and most of it has a fantasy feel, whereas the band’s earlier works had been almost entirely horror-based. The group’s older albums had already been used as background music to role-play sessions for many years, and the album was written in the same way Midnight Syndicate conventionally write. They agreed on the setting they were trying to create with the album and then filled in details about the setting. Once this was done, they worked on music separately, in their own different studios. They remained in contact throughout the writing process to ensure that their work was cohesive and appropriate for the album, and worked together on arranging, mastering and mixing the tracks. To ensure Douglas stayed true to creating the musical landscape he intended, his studio was covered with Dungeons & dragon artwork and module covers throughout recording.