Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro are pulling out all the stops to celebrate the 50th anniversary of DnD – including, it seems, commissioning a full musical record of funky fantasy tracks – with a physical vinyl release (funk not guaranteed).
Announced in a press statement by Wizards on Wednesday, the 12-track album is snappily titled DUNGEONS & DRAGONS – Bardic Inspiration: A Musical Journey through the Forgotten Realms, and it’s reportedly coming out in “Fall 2024”.
Wizards says the album’s songs are “created to evoke iconic locations within D&D’s most famous setting, the Forgotten Realms” – with a specific focus on (where else) the iconic Sword Coast region, most famous of all DnD settings, and the backdrop for Larian’s blockbusting Baldur’s Gate 3, a.k.a. the best D&D game ever made.
Headed up by movie and TV composer Michael Gatt (Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, Blood Drive); art-directed by A.J. Hanneld (The Legend of Drizzt novels) and co-produced by DnD and MTG artist Jeremy Jarvis, the album promises “unexpected instruments, otherworldly textures, and a spellbinding 40-person choir”.
And it’s not just coming out on digital streaming platforms to bang out in a browser tab alongside your next DnD campaign, either – Bardic Inspiration is being released as “epic double vinyl (180g, gatefold)” record, for the princely sum of $50 (£37.28). So if you’re the sort of tabletop RPG fan that has a turntable, sound system, and a love of music from the age of pressed plastic, this might be your ideal collectible.
We at Wargamer have run out of record player needles (and record players) so we’ll likely listen online, as we did with Spelljams – Wizards’ last official musical tie-in, released to promote its new Spelljammer DnD book in 2022.
As you’ll read in our Spelljammer review, we thought that book was a bit of a let-down – but the album has some absolute bops in – so we’ve high hopes for the follow-up later this year!
In the meantime, you can refresh your in-game knowledge with our guides to all the DnD classes and DnD races; or get daily dungeoneering updates by bookmarking our DnD news page.
Source: Wargamer
