Dungeons and Dragons (album)
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| Soundtrack album by Midnight Syndicate | ||||
| Released | August 12, 2003 | |||
| Genre | Dark ambient | |||
| Length | 64:56 (approximate) | |||
| Label | Entity Productions Darkcell |
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| Producer | Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka | |||
| Midnight Syndicate chronology | ||||
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Dungeons & Dragons is a studio album by Midnight Syndicate, released August 12, 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, the two members of Midnight Syndicate—Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka—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, because most of it had 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. It is reputedly the only official Dungeons & Dragons soundtrack.
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 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. At their first convention, Midnight Syndicate was approached by Wizards of the Coast, which subsequently asked if they would be interested in recording an official soundtrack, to which they agreed.
Before the band started writing or recording music they sat down with the Dungeons & Dragons designers who informed 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 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.
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