I’m planning a Mörk Borg game with my friends. For the uninitiated, it’s a table top RPG game that describes itself as

A DOOM METAL album of a game. A spiked FLAIL to the Face. Light on RULES, Heavy Every-thing Else.

The art and setting are very German/Euro metal inspired.

I myself enjoy listening to metal periodically, but I’m a casual fan. I want to build a background playlist to help ground the players in it’s art and style.

I’m thinking light/low vocal Black / Doom / Death / Prog metal. Looking for music that drives the listeners to action while avoiding taking over center stage.

So far I have grabbed some Igorr, some DOOM 2016 Soundtrack, some Rigor Mortis, Inferi, Cannibal Corpse, and a bunch of random stuff from Spotify suggestions, though I’m struggling to really make it a cohesive vibe.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: Thank you all so much for the help! This is awesome! What a great community.

  • nyctre@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    8 days ago

    Since they describe it as a doom metal album of a game I’d suggest you go with doom and adjacent stuff such as sludge/post metal and such. These genres are also lower on vocals and better as background music than some others, imo.

    Post metal-ish stuff: the ocean, isis, neurosis, cult of luna, russian circles, intronaut, pelican, dvne

    Clear vocals doom either classic/epic stuff like black Sabbath (duh), candlemass, saint Vitus, reverend bizzare Or more “serious” stuff like isole, while heaven wept, warning - watching from a distance, thy listless heart, pallbearer, solitude aeturnus

    And then there’s funeral doom which is heavier and fewer vocals but there’s growls. You’ve got Ahab, Bell witch, shape of despair, evoken, thergothon, doom:vs, funeral

    There’s also the more “stoner” side of doom like sleep, electric wizard, yob (amazing stuff), bongripper (amazing instrumental stuff despite the silly name), acid king, monolord

    And other stuff that’s good but just didn’t fit there cause there’s too many different styles: my dying bride, swallow the sun

    Some of them have big enough catalogues that if you like their vibe, you can just stick to that and be fine. Like a playlist that’s just Ahab or just bongripper and you’re done. Ez pz.

  • tatann@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    8 days ago

    With vocals:

    • Castle Rat would make sense
    • Blood Incantation (ambiant stuff or death metal)
    • Fantômas (Director’s Cut or Delirium Cordia)

    Without vocals:

    • The Bakerton Group (basically Clutch without the vocals)
    • “Slow” tracks on the latest Cattle Decapitation albums (they always have 1 or 2 of these, usually right before the last track)
    • John Petrucci - Terminal Velocity
    • Estradasphere
    • Ophidius (Skyrim-inspired death metal)
    • Nova Collective
  • duane_d_bathtub@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    For low vocal Black Metal, I’d look at Celeste.

    Stoner/Doom look at Sleep, Candlemass.

    For a more Gothic/Doom feel try Unto Others.

  • Myr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    Inferi is good, but I feel that might be a little too attention-grabbing, maybe?

    Gojira (progressive death/groove metal) has a ton of non invasive and introspective tracks, like The Silver Cord for a nice short bass instrumental, Born in Winter for a quiet build up and a nice payoff, Shooting Star for a sludgy, groovy drone.

    Obituary (old school death metal) has Redneck Stomp, which is a nice simple instrumental that still kicks ass and definitely sets a vibe.

    Witchery (black/death/thrash metal) and Metal Church (heavy/power/thrash) have very driving instrumentals that sound very similar to one another, for when you want to stress the group out, e.g. time is of the essence lol. Track names are Merciless Onslaught - Metal Church and Bone Mill - Witchery.

    Hope that helps, rock on and game on friendo.

  • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    2·
    9 days ago

    Sodom and Vader are very German metal bands with a solid sound that’s predictable enough not to take over your attention. For Prog metal I’d probably choose some later era Death like the album Symbolic

  • Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.orgEnglish
    31·
    9 days ago
    • Frank Klepacki (of Command&Conquer fame) might have some stuff that fits the vibe.
    • dance with the dead, they are more synthi though.
    • doom 1 and 2 ost is basically all metal covers, andrew hulshults version is great if you don’t want the original soundtrack and sigils soundtrack by buckethead has some bangers.
    • the ost of the game dusk
    • ost of the mod quake champions: doom edition.
    • the band bolt thrower
    • meshuggah

    i’d also suggest not planning to have music for the whole session, have some for slower paced scenes and some for special encounters that way you don’t have to have a super cohesive soundtrack.

      • Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.orgEnglish
        2·
        8 days ago

        in my memory they had cleaner vocals which would distract my adhd brain so i had to listen to them while writing the list, turns out they’d work for me ;)

  • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
    21·
    8 days ago
    • Meshuggah
    • Opeth
    • Gojira
    • Some of Haken’s instrumentals like “Nil by Mouth”
    • Some of Tesseract’s heavier songs from their earlier albums and theif latest one.
    • I’m also releasing a Doom-inspired EP next month. lol