Dungeons & Dragons (album)

Dungeons & Dragons is a studio album by Midnight Syndicate, released 12 August, 2003 by Entity Productions. The album is designed as a soundtrack to the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and was produced by Midnight Syndicate at the request of Wizards of the Coast, the company which owns the rights to the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. Midnight Syndicate were approached by game designers at a gaming convention where they had set up stall, and they agreed to produce the album.

After an initial meeting with Wizards of the Coast, Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka, the two members of Midnight Syndicate, were left to write and produce the album themselves. They went their separate ways, and produced tracks independently of one another, but came back together to arrange the album and master the tracks. The album was a change in style for Midnight Syndicate in that it was mostly based around a fantasy feel, whereas their earlier works had been almost entirely horror-based. Artwork within the album booklet came from Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks, including works from prominent game designers such as Skip Williams. The album was well received by Wizards of the Coast, with positive reviews from music critics and the gaming community, and is reputedly the only official Dungeons & Dragons soundtrack.

Conception and production
According to Bob Ignizio, of Utter Trash, an ezine featuring "music, movies and more," Midnight Syndicate's older albums had already been used as background music to role-playing sessions for many years. Wizards of the Coast, owners of Dungeons & Dragons, even described the band's music as "the perfect accompaniment to role-playing game sessions". Support for Midnight Syndicate's music as a role-playing aid grew so much that the band decided to set up stalls at gaming conventions, and it was at the first one that Midnight Syndicate was approached by Wizards of the Coast and asked if they would be interested in recording an official soundtrack, which they said they would be.

Before the band started writing or recording music they sat down with the Dungeons & Dragons designers, who told them of several elements that were essential on the album. According to Ed Stark, special project manager of Wizards of the Coast, this consisted of "a chase scene and a fight scene and things like that". This was new to the band, who had never written music to fit around someone else's ideas before. Stark said, however, that "they really got that. We were very impressed, because we're in sort of a niche industry, and we're not always used to people getting exactly what we need right away". After this, the band was mostly left to deal with the music themselves. The designers were already familiar with Midnight Syndicate's music and knew what to expect from the album. As inspiration for earlier albums had sometimes come from Dungeons & Dragons gaming sessions, Douglas said that writing the album came very naturally.

After the initial meeting with game designers, the album was written in the same way Midnight Syndicate conventionally write. First, Douglas and Goszka 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. Once writing was complete, they worked together on arranging, mastering and mixing the tracks.

Douglas said that, for him, instrument choice came naturally and that "sounds and sometimes even melodies fall in line themselves". The band has a great number of instruments at their disposal, as all the music is produced on synthesizers. To ensure Douglas stayed true to creating the musical landscape he intended to, his studio was covered with Dungeons & Dragons artwork and module covers throughout recording.

Joseph Vargo, executive producer on Midnight Syndicate's albums Born of the Night and Realm of Shadows, as well as the author of LegionoftheNight.com, says that he was the one who initiated the first contact between Wizards of the Coast and the band. Vargo claims that, in 1999, he sent a copy of Born of the Night to Dungeons & Dragons game designer Jason Carl, at the time employed by TSR, who described the album as "terrific gaming music." Vargo also says that he sent a copy of Realm of Shadows to Carl a year later, and this communication helped to forge the link between the band and Dungeons & Dragons game designers.

First soundtrack
Wizards of the Coast claimed that the album was the first official Dungeons & Dragons soundtrack, one that was mirrored by other groups, including Metropolis Mail Order, GamingReport.com and Skirmisher Game Store. It was not, however, the first official Dungeons & Dragons music. Years earlier, another album, First Quest: The Music was released by Filmtrax and licensed by TSR, the then owners of Dungeons and Dragons, for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The album was released both as a cassette and a record and came with a pre-printed module. Both formats proved unpopular and are difficult to find today. The music on First Quest was keyed specifically to the module that came with it, rather than as a soundtrack to the game in general.

Musical style
Midnight Syndicate typically create, according to Mario Mesquita Borges of All Music Guide, "darkly blended compositions", described both as "gloomy" and "brooding". Leonard Pickel, of Haunted Attraction Magazine, stated that "each year, the band's music becomes more a part of America's Halloween culture", and said that the band had "literally formed their own musical genre". For Douglas, however, Dungeons & Dragons was a different style of music from other albums and soundtracks that the band had produced. Originally, he had described Midnight Syndicate's music as "Gothic Nightmare Soundtracks", but he claimed that Dungeons & Dragons had a more fantasy feel than previous releases, which focused more on horror, meaning that he now describes the band's music as "Gothic Fantasy Nightmare Soundtracks". Chris Harvey, of Movement Magazine, a magazine supporting "underground" music and arts, described the album as being symphonic, which he claimed added to the feel of the album. Sounds were also sampled, including the sounds of battle on "Final Confrontation" and spoken words in "Craft of the Wizard".

Dungeons & Dragons was described by Peter-Jan Van Damme, owner of the alternative music ezine Darker than the Bat, as going more in the direction of contemporary classical composers such as Trevor Jones, while still retaining the horror sound typical of Midnight Syndicate. The album has been categorized into many genres by various reviewers, including neoclassical, gothic ambient, ethereal and gothic rock.

Reception
Wizards of the Coast were happy with the resulting album, with Anthony Valterra, RPG category manager, saying that Midnight Syndicate "have succeeded at capturing the magic of D&D through music." Numerous critics picked up on the idea that new subject matter had resulted in a new feel for the music, with reviewers claiming that the fantasy influence had given the album a different sound to Midnight Syndicate's classic gothic horror soundtracks. The now defunct Living Dead Girls ezine said that music within the album was more diverse than music on Midnight Syndicate's earlier albums, allowing Dungeons & Dragons to display for the first time the musical diversity Midnight Syndicate were capable of. GamingReport.com claimed that the album "furthered the band’s establishment as the leading producer/supplier of music to the hobby game industry". The band became the best selling role-playing game soundtrack ever in its first month of release, and Leonard Pickel, of Haunted Attraction Magazine, claimed that the album helped spread the band's popularity to Europe, where "Halloween and Haunted Attractions are just beginning to take hold".

The album was criticized by Marc Shayed, of hobby gaming news site GamingReport.com, for focusing too much on combat and ambiance. He explained that there was only one track that felt triumphant, and no tracks suitable for traveling or character 'down time', which are standards in fantasy gaming. This, Shayed said, meant that there were gaps in the album, meaning it could not be considered a complete soundtrack for the game. He claimed, however, that the album still met and exceeded the target of being the "ultimate gaming soundtrack". The album was further criticized by Gene Vogal of the National Gamers Guild. He said that it lacked a lot of the "oomph" that Vampyre had, and speculated that this may have been because of the influence that Wizards of the Coast had on the direction of the music. He did claim, however, that the fact that the music was made specifically for gaming was a good thing, meaning it was more appropriate than film soundtracks to use as backing music to gaming sessions. He also compared it to the The Lord of the Rings' soundtracks, stating that, compared to Vampyre, the album lacked originality.

Personnel
The album was written and produced by Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka, the only two members of Midnight Syndicate. The album's graphical design was executed by Mark Rakocy and Jeff Visgaitis and 'additional design' is credited to "Stan!". The album heralded a change in production in that it was the first album in which the band hired a professional writer to write the descriptions in the album booklet and the blurb. Before this point, the descriptions had been written by Douglas, or by Joseph Vargo, who had been responsible for artwork in some earlier albums. Artwork for the album was taken from Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying sourcebooks. Douglas said that he was "a huge fan of Dungeons & Dragons artwork, so having free reign on that material was fun." This artwork was praised by Gene Vogal, who described it as "one plus to the possible Wizards of the Coast interference" and said that the "CD jacket was done very nicely and has some cool artwork throughout". The album contains artwork by game designers Todd Lockwood and Skip Williams, as well as from artists Scott Fischer, Brian Snoddy, Lars Grant-West, Wayne Reynolds, Mark Tedin, and Sam Wood.

Track listing
There is a final, thirty-six second bonus track, which sometimes receives no title, and sometimes named "BOTCH!". The Midnight Syndicate website does not mention the track at all. The track features the sound of dice being rolled, which Chris Harvey, of Movement Magazine, described as "hilarious".