Pod Cast - Dead King’s Dream

Pod Cast
Dead King’s Dream
2018, Brave Mys­ter­ies

Wel­come to Pod Cast!

Whoo boy, this is some next level stuff. But what can we expect from someone such as Troy Schafer, who’s cut his teeth as a ver­sat­ile com­poser and musi­cian in Even­ing of Light favour­ites such as Kinit Her, Rain Drink­ers and Nacht­laub.

Dead King’s Dream is superb nar­rat­ive dun­geon synth, the way it should be done. The basis is of course inspired by old game soundtracks, as all music in the genre tends to be, but this is a D&D ses­sion through a sur­real psy­che­delic lens: play­ful, a good bal­ance of light and dark, ser­i­ous­ness and humour. Think arcane dice, even more so than usual—d32 any­one?, dream­like attrib­ute inver­sions, gambling halflings, and creepy crypts.

Schafer’s DM voice is strange yet sooth­ing, the instru­ments are on point (harps, brass, wood­winds, chants, etc.), and there are plenty of battle sounds, rat­tling coins and chains, and mon­ster voices. Not con­tent with being a back­drop for a gam­ing ses­sion, this album wants to be its own adven­ture, and it suc­ceeds admir­ably at that quest.

I sin­cerely hope that this ses­sion is just the first, and the there’s a whole cam­paign com­ing. Onwards!

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