Best bands/music for getting in the mood for campaigning

[threedeesix]

I don't always use music but I have used...

Holst: The Planets
Star Wars when I ran my Star Wars campaign (it was a no brainer)
Conan (soundtrack)
Planet of the Apes (The theme for the forbidden zone is awesomely spooky)

Rod

[Skunkape]

Originally Posted by Aycorn

For Celtic, I'll use the Braveheart soundtrack and similar stuff.

Forgot about the Braveheart soundtrack!

[Dredj]

Originally Posted by CruelDespot

Dredj, I don't know Bal-Sagoth or Man of War. Is any of their stuff instrumental?

Mostly, their stuff has lyrics. Bal-Sagoth seems to be all lyrics because their music deals with a very long epic poem they came up with as a band that now runs for 6 full-length albums. Man-O-War is also primarily lyric-based metal.

Are you interested in Death Metal? Morbid Angel has tons of instrumentals between all their albums. It seems like they add more instrumentals per new album. Most of them seem like stuff the band were planning to add to a song or just trying out for a song but dropped. They term that stuff "Lavas". However, Morbid Angel isn't for everyone's taste.

[Dredj]

Originally Posted by Skunkape

.

Midnight Syndicate's Dungeons & Dragons cd or Loreena McKennitt's music.

Midnight Syndicate also has some good music for survival horror from what I understand, though I don't own any other cds except the DnD one.
)

How did I forget Midnight Syndicate? I have a few of their albums I listen to at least once a week.

[rust]

Of those that have not already be named, my favourite is Erdenstern. They
produce their music specifically for roleplaying games.

The website has an English text, too:
O* Erdenstern — Fantastische Musik

[PK Games]

Originally Posted by CruelDespot

Dredj, I don't know Man of War. Is any of their stuff instrumental?

Sting of the Bumblebee on Kings of Metal
Drums of War on Fighting the World
Today is a Good Day to Die on Louder Then Hell

I beleive they have a few instumental only on Gods of War, but that entire album rocks.

Achilles Agony and Ecstacy on Triumph of Steel has along musical interlude.

[Doctor Jest]

If you don't want lyrics, try some of Mortiis' early stuff. The guy looks pretty ridiculous but his music is awesome, especially for darker, Call of Cthulhu type stuff. Also Danzig's Black Aria is pretty good for this sort of thing.

If you don't mind lyrics, especially foreign lyrics, then Therion is absolutely the best for evoking a mystical, sword-wielding type of music. Especially the albums Theli, Lemuria and Sirius B. They are mixture of operatic, progressive, power, and sometimes death metal.

One typical power metal band I hadn't seen mentioned yet is Iron Fire. Very much influenced by Iron Maiden (the best band EVER!) but are much more obssessed with dragons, swords, and magic.

[nightlamp]

I use music in-game constantly. Not in the sense of "here's a battle scene, I'll put on track X," but just having continuous low-level ambience. I gravitate towards darker and/or more "organic" ambient music for this-- Rapoon, O Yuki Conjugate, Lustmord, Tuu, Robert Rich, and Oophoi are musicians whose work seems to work especially well for creating atmospheres of mystery, dread, foreboding, and phantasie.

I don't do a whole lot of prep, and when I do I generally don't make any efforts to listen to a certain kind of music.