"And lo, when the Imperium marches against Cul-Kothoth, then dark sorceries
shall enshroud the Citadel of the Obsidian Crown"
- song-title from BAL-SAGOTH's second album 'Starfire Burning Upon The
Ice-Veiled throne of Ultima Thule', 1996.
WARRIORS AND WENCHES! Which are not sex-dependent. I swore an oath that I'd post a note on 'Viking Metal'. Now, with the variety of thoughts people have posted on music in RPGs in general, I've asbolutely no idea of how this will be received. Metal isn't background music (unless you're a diehard metalhead), and offers different potentials/pitfalls. Perhaps it might form a rousing precursor to a fight; perhaps things are getting bogged down in a session and a bit of silliness wouldn't go amiss? Perhaps it's just atrocious crap and has no place whatsoever in your Glorantha.
All I can say is that in Stu's Glorantha, the God Learners took one look at a beer-swilling hairy metaller, one look at a beer-swilling hairy Orlanthi, and matched myths before you could get 1/57th of a way through a Bal-Sagoth song-title i.e. I like its use occasionally.
But, at the very least clicking some of the links should give you all a giggle. :o)
[long skippable intro placed at end*] Let's have a look at some B's that might [Er...] be fun to play in HeroQuest...
BATHORY
The progenitive masters of the genre would have to be Bathory. Led by
Quorthon (who I think is functioning solo these days, apart from his pals
Vvornth and Kothaar; bless), Bathory to an extent defined several trends in
Black Metal. Quorthon pioneered poor production values and awful guitar
sounds, and then, in a remarkable volte-face, put epic, atmospheric metal on
the map. Quorthon didn't need any Bontempi orchestra or lass picked up from
the local metal club to give his songs some Nordic pathos. Guitars,
multi-tracked vocals and bags of testosterone would do in a pinch.
They really started the ball rolling with an album called 'HAMMERHEART' in 1989/1990. This is still the ultimate Viking metal album. Cheesey? Yes. Can the guy sing cleanly well? Er... no. But his heart is well and truly in the right place and I challenge anyone to stop swinging that tankard when you're giving it a listen. The best place I found for free samples is
http://club.mp3search.ru/album.html?id=8893 (the stream icons are on the right)
'Baptised In Fire and Ice' etc., all superb. 'Song to Hall Up High' is also very Orlanthi... just pretend he's singing in key. Following this, Bathory released TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. Less of a shiver-me-longboat vibe here, and more of a seminal, mythic exposition of pure pretension. Damn fine nonsense too!
http://club.mp3search.ru/album.html?id=8894
'Under the Runes'? 'Through Blood by Thunder'? 'Scuse me, I'm off to pillage them Loonars!
BAL-SAGOTH
"The Dark Liege of Chaos is unleashed at the Ensorcelled Shrine of A'Zura
Kai (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords gleaming beneath the Blazon of the
Hyperborean Empire Part II)"
Gosh. Now, whatever you may think of Bal-Sagoth, their song titles are a great resource for magic keywords in a pinch. I've mocked British bands for aping Nordic counterparts, but occasionally they show originality, or are so out and out fun that criticism falls out of the window. Like Bal- Sagoth. Not that Bal-Sagoth have ever been defenestrated, but...
http://www.bal-sagoth.freeserve.co.uk/pictures/lband13.jpg
No, seriously.
Erm, I'm trying to keep a straight face here, as I find Bal-Sagoth 'bril', but not really in a musical way. They always brighten my day up immensely, and they're having a laugh themselves. You can find more of their albums from the link below... Just listen to 'A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria'.
http://club.mp3search.ru/album.html?id=8884
Mind you, any band that has an album called 'Battle Magic', or calls themsel ves the "Kings of True Britannic War-Metal" deserve respect and the chief of the hall's salt, meat and ale. Bal-Sagoth are certainly heavier and more grunty than Bathory, and to many will simply come across as noise. Though they get more 'keyboardy' as they go on - occasionally it sounds like a metallised version of 'Treasure Hunt'!
Right, I'm off before I get thrown out...
Cheerio!
Stu.
*An introduction-come-epilogue...
I used to be a metaller/greb/longhair, but I kind of got out of metal ~1996.
A few years previously, bands had really started following the whole
"atmospheric-folk-let's try a female singer route", generally with dire
consequences. Now, the concept of rock/metal mixing it up in a pretentious
manner with the epic isn't a new one: 'concept' songs and albums from Rush's
2112* to Iron Maiden's version of the 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' are
prime examples. But the change the '90s saw was more extreme and sincere,
and not purely about entertainent. Bands that had affectatiously embraced
cod-Satanism now turned to Norse paganism, or mixed the two in a manner I'm
still rather confused about. The underground music scene was peppered with
'Black Metal'. Musically, some of it was quite good. Aesthetically it
involved corpse-paint, bigotry, rubber swords and too much brand-waving
seriousness.
[*Jeff, I take it all back... you Canadians gave us Rush! :o)]
I remember watching a band (supporting some mates), who tried to intimidate a crowd with a plastic mace. There's always one who can't get into it, or looks like he'd be rather at home watching telly. When you play an all-day gig and find that most bands consist of young lads with excellent elocution from the Home Counties singing about life on the streets, or fellas from Ormskirk singing about fjords, you know something's going wrong with British extreme music, and we bid our farewell. So, if trends continued, there may be a few newer bands that do this 'better', or with less hilarity. I've dealt here with a couple of classics and frankly, half of it's still laughable ('What, only half?')!
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