Your Top 5 D&D Albums.

[grodog]

Allan, I've been waiting for you to visit this thread. I have my own private bet as to what albums you'd choose, and I'm curious to see how close I am.

What're the stakes in the bet?

[Wheggi]

Allan, I've been waiting for you to visit this thread. I have my own private bet as to what albums you'd choose, and I'm curious to see how close I am.

What're the stakes in the bet?

Considering I'm trying to get in shape for the wedding this winter, a slice of cheesecake is on the line. I need to get 3 out of five.

- Wheggi

[ThirstyStirge]

Like many I hearken back to the Golden Age of my youth. Mostly Sabbath, but lately I've been relistening to Mob Rules. On the radio BitD I remember hearing Thin Lizzy, Rush's "Tom Sawyer", Rick James' "Superfreak" (don't judge me ), Boston's "More Than A Feeling" and the others on their freshman album, and tons of artists getting rotation on early MTV (again, the Good Old Days before 'Reality TV'). I guess, given that my gaming was in overdrive in the late 70s/early 80s, I remember more radio and MTV, because at that time my family was on the road a lot, and we didn't have a hifi system nor any vinyl.

Over the past 5-8 years I listen to sound tracks like the one for the CONAN: Dark Axe video game (haven't played it -- just listened to the OST), the CtB OST by Basil (RIP), angstly-gothy music by Joe Vargo (artist of the Gothic Tarot), Steely Dan (don't judge me!).

My musical tastes these days don't lend themselves to fantasy gaming: Lounge, Jazz, Ambient.

[Philotomy Jurament]

I don't care for music during the game, but I like to put on stuff when I'm working on D&D material. It goes in phases. Right now the top five would be something like:

1. The Eldritch Dark (Blood Ceremony)
2. Hisingen Blues (Graveyard)
3. The Chosen Few (Judas Priest)
4. The Alchemist (Witchcraft)
5. Blood Lust (Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats)

All time (and hearkening back to my personal D&D glory days), it would be more like:

1. Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden)
2. Sin After Sin (Judas Priest)
3. Led Zeppelin IV
4. Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath)
5. The Last in Line (Dio)

Honorable mentions are probably too numerous to attempt, but include many usual suspects like Jethro Tull, Yes, Ozzy, Rush, Scorpions, Rainbow, BoC, et cetera.

[grodog]

What are your five favorite albums that you listen to while playing D&D (or even working on D&D stuff away from the gaming table)?

Like Terrex, I'm going to give you two answers, Tony, but slightly different in focus than his.

I haven't used music much during my games since the 1990s---some Aliens soundtrack background music at cons a couple of years ago being the major exception. But, BITD, we did absolutely soundtrack our games, at various times: sometimes general background, sometimes specific scenes, etc.

So, in this first list are the top 5 tunes (no particular order) I've used in games:

Tangerine Dream - Zeit: general evil/distrubing background music for The Astral Plane or the Abyss; many other TD albums and soundtracks have been used as well over the years
Pink Floyd - "Echoes": spooky ghostly music for a haunted graveyard
Yes - "The Ancient": the Leaves of Green segment, used as a nightmare sequence inflicted upon a PC; I've also excerpted various other madrigal/acoustic pieces like Soon, Madrigal, I Get Up I Get Down, etc., often as elfin pieces
U2 - "Race Against Time": an oddball B-side from "Where the Streets Have No Name", used as backdrop to a time stop spell
Fields of the Nephilim - a melange of "Sumerland", "Psychonaut", and "Last Exit for the Lost": used in a CoC scenario in which the PCs unwittingly strayed from the bounds of Earth and wound up in R'lyeh

I would often use music moreso for dream sequences, prophecies, visions, and similar non-standard interactions vs. just general background music---although I did that too, sometimes using "authentic" music with choirs, period instruments like lutes (Jakob Lindberg), classical pieces (whether orchestral like Scheherezade, or modern like Eroica Trio, Kronos Quartet, ELP, etc.), soundtracks like Conan, LOTR, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc.; of course stuff like Medieval Baebes snuck in there as well from time to time

When writing and drawing and dreaming up D&D stuff, I usually trend toward several key bands, riffing through their works that catch my mind at the time. These are the albums I'm most likely to throw on if I'm jamming out in hardcore D&D creationism:

Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways
Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time
Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
Marillion - "Grendel"

#5 will just vary based on my mood and D&D subject matter/theme too much to be any single band's single album---whatever is jamming in my brain at the time is what'll play. That said, if I'm cranking it in the vein of the first four listed above, #5 is much more likely to be Yes, Rush or other albums from the above bands than not.

edit - pretentious name dropping laundry list deleted

[grodog]

Considering I'm trying to get in shape for the wedding this winter, a slice of cheesecake is on the line. I need to get 3 out of five.

So, did you win?

[Wheggi]

Damn, I was so close. My prediction grodog's albums was as follows:

Hawkwind: Warrior on the Edge of Time
Yes: Close to the Edge
Porqupine Tree: Fear of a Blank Planet
BOC: Cultosaurus Erectus
Rush: A Farewell to Kings

No cheesecake, but I'll allow myself a cookie!

- Wheggi

[AxeMental]

Since someone mentioned CoC, I'd mention Imaginos (the album) -Blue Oyster Cult circa 88', has to be one of the all time best CoC themed albums ever created. If your not familiar with it, its worth tracking down and listening to (great background gaming music).

I've always wanted to work up a CoC module based on it...the "Four Winds Bar" would be a classic meeting point. Check out Astronomy (Imaginos version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7h4VEd_Wk

Cool album cover too.

[Ghul]

Manowar -- Battle Hymns
Iron Maiden -- Powerslave
Fates Warning -- Awaken the Guardian
Queensryche -- Warning
Rush -- Caress of Steel

That T. Foster kid is OK, yes sir, picking Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. That's a touch of class.

[jgbrowning]

The top 5 albums I use for OSR creativity...

1. Attacker - Battle at Helms Deep
2. Queensryche - The Warning
3. Basil Poledouris- Conan Soundtrack
4. Blue Oyster Cult - Spectres
5. Fates Warning - The Spectre Within

joe b.

[EOTB]

Rush - Moving Pictures
Ozzy - Tribute
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Pink Floyd - Animals

[Wheggi]

After seeing your music choices I have come to the conclusion that I could game with most of you.

- Wheggi

[francisca]

Can't do it.

How can I choose between say, Thick as a Brick and Stormwatch by Tull?
Or, Fragile or The Yes Album by Yes?

so here, in no particular order:
Thick as a Brick and Stormwatch by Tull
Fragile and The Yes Album by Yes
Rush collection 1974-1981
Black Rose and Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy
Warp Riders by The Sword
Gretchen Goes to Nebraska by King's X
II, IV, Presence, and Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin

and a fetric muckton of others: Hendrix, The Who, Metalica, Robin Trower, etc... it depends on my mood.

[Fridgeghiz]

So this may be a little off topic but I gotta mention my group in Raleigh..lots of metallica and Alice cooper..I think next time I DM, a little pink floyd May be in order..imagine the players fright from behind a door they hear, " One of these days..I'm going to cut you into little pieces" or "Careful with that Axe Eugene" or the wail of a Banshee that sounds like "The great gig in the sky".

On an aside note, I saw Brit Floyd over the weekend, with my daughters, aged 12 and 10....Not the real pink Floyd..which I've seen 5 times in their various combinations, but not a bad substitute...My youngest was very impressed with The great gig in the sky(as she wants to be a singer) and wish you were here and the inflatable pig. Mommy got the night off, and I got to open their minds a bit to daddy's kind of music..We talked about themes and meaning and in the end their horizons have been broadened... Not a bad weekend at all.