The Crimson (October 2003)

Fantasy Soundscape Takes Roleplaying Games to New Level

Fellow barbarians, bards, beastlords, clerics, druids, dwarves, elves, enchanters, halflings, magi, monks, necromancers, paladins, rangers, rogues, shamans, warriors, and wizards: At last, the air of your epic adventures shall be filled with a mystical and powerful soundscape appropriate for your heroic deeds and valiant travels! Such masterful music could only be delivered by Midnight Syndicate, who recently has been officially licensed by Hasbro Properties Group to produce an official soundtrack for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.

Chances are you've already heard Midnight Syndicate's music before without even realizing it. Most famous for their horror soundscapes, including Born of the Night and Realm of Shadows, Midnight Syndicate is most commonly used in the haunted attraction industry. In 2002, their music was used in hundreds of such attractions, including EVERY major theme park company in America (e.g., Anheuser-Busch, Sea World, Six Flags, Universal Studios, Paramount, etc.); Disneyland's Haunted Mansion also offered sales of the CDs outside their own gate. Midnight Syndicate's music has been used in the pre-show for King Diamond, at Hugh Heffner's Playboy Mansion Halloween parties, in an Alice Cooper short film, a number of theater and film productions, and even The Today Show and Monday Night Football. MS took home the Best Gothic Act two consecutive years from the Cleveland Free Times, and won the Best Music award at the 2001 Spotlight on Theater Awards in New York. And of course, Halloween is MS's prime time; Halloween 2001 saw MS's six singles in the Top 20 positions for most downloads on MP3.com, including the #1 and #2 spots.

"But horror music, isn't that basically Goth?" you wonder. Nay, I say, not black lipstick & jet-black hair scare-your-roommate kinda Goth. The orchestration and style of Midnight Syndicate's music qualify its two members, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka, as masterfully skilled composers whose works simply are generally written in minor keys. Many of the great composers of ages past wrote similar works in the same similarly eerie minor keys. One of the most famous: Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Last time I checked, Bach wasn't Goth.

Those familiar with MS may have discovered how well the music fits in the background of any popular role-playing game. An admitted Diablo 2 addict (I've recently gone cold turkey and have successfully fought off the addiction...for now), I discovered this almost immediately. The dark, haunting, ethereal music made the perfect soundtrack during my quest for dominion of good over evil. The sound of my sword (beware the quadruple-socketed Stimpy's Savage Rune Sword of Gore!) unleashed upon the minions of hell could not be accompanied by any more ideal background music...until now.

Midnight Syndicate has expanded their genre music to now not only include horror, but fantasy as well. Songs of troubles, destiny, good, evil, cunning, valor, conflict, magic, secrets, and enchanted mystery fill the Dungeons & Dragons Official Roleplaying Soundtrack. "The D&D soundtrack is just amazing," claims Design Manager Ed Stark, "Every track really touches on something core to the Dungeons & Dragons experience. You can cue up single tracks and run them to repeat for particular scenes, or you can just let the music play in the background."

Upon trying out the D&D Soundtrack while feeding my Diablo 2 addiction, I found myself becoming more wrapped up in the game than usual (as if that were possible). The dark in each dungeon became more ominous, each evil beast more menacing, each treasure more valuable, each liberated soul more virtuous.

Although I've never played an official version of Dungeons & Dragons, I believe this music would have a similar effect for those who play. The same applies to any D&D-esque roleplaying game, like Diablo, Everquest, Balder's Gate, Morowind, and Magic: The Gathering. Whether it's on paper, on a computer, on cards, or just played with your imagination and verbal storytelling, this soundtrack not only fits, it BELONGS.

Of course, the CD need not accompany gameplay. It is perfectly fine for a simple relaxing break to let your imagination write the story to which the music corresponds. After all, this is Ed and Gavin's goal, to "create music that stimulates listeners' imaginations, transporting them to worlds and movies of their own creation."

Midnight Syndicate has four previous albums solely dedicated to the goal of creating "gothic/horror soundscapes for the imagination." The first of these was Born of the Night, released in 1998. The setting of the album is a Dark Tower on a rocky mountain, which few have explored and none have returned. The music takes you on a journey deep into its dungeons... The next album, Realm of Shadows, guides the listener down from the Dark Tower, past Raven's Hollow, and through the ruins of a village known for strange shadows and a curse. The third album finds the listener en route to the Gates of Delirium at Haverghast Asylum, where the new tenant may find out if the terrible legends of Haverghast are true... The fourth, released August 2002, is Vampyre: Symphonies from the Crypt. Its ethereal tunes take the listener through a cemetery and into the catacombs, where mystery and horror await...

Andy Sokol - The Crimson