American rock band The Mountain Goats have announced a new full-length concept album partially inspired by tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons.
In League with Dragons was originally devised as a rock opera set in a coastal town called Riversend ruled over by a wizard before it began to shift into a darker vision of the fantasy world with nods to mystery novels and noir storytelling.
“This album began life as a rock opera about a besieged seaside community called Riversend ruled by a benevolent wizard, for which some five to seven songs were written. When I’m focusing on a project, I always distract myself from the through-line with multiple byways, which are kind of like mini-games within the broader architecture of a long video game. As I worked on the Riversend stuff, weird noir visions started creeping in, probably under the influence of Leonardo Sciascia (a Sicilian author, he wrote mysteries) and Ross MacDonald’s The Zebra-Striped Hearse, which a friend from Port Washington gave me while I was in the thick of the writing. I thought these moods helped complicate the wizards and dragons a little, and, as I thought about my wizard, his health failing, the invasion by sea almost certain to wipe out half his people, I thought about what such a person might look like in the real world: watching a country show at a midwestern casino, or tryout pitching for an American League team years after having lit up the marquees. Finally, I wrote the title track, which felt like a drawing-together of the themes in play: rebellion against irresistible tides, the lush vistas of decay, necessary alliances. I am earnestly hoping that a new genre called “dragon noir” will spring from the forehead of nearly two years’ work on these songs, but, if not, I am content for this to be the sole example of the style.” Songwriter John Darnielle
In League with Dragons was announced via the official Dungeons & Dragons Twitter
In League with Dragons Tracklist:
01. Done Bleeding
02. Younger
03. Passaic 1975
04. Clemency for the Wizard King
05. Possum by Night
06. In League with Dragons
07. Doc Gooden
08. Going Invisible 2
09. Waylon Jennings Live!
10. Cadaver Sniffing Dog
11. An Antidote for Strychnine
12. Sicilian Crest
In League with Dragons and is set to arrive April 26th through Merge Records.
Pre-order ‘In League With Dragons’ here
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