Striding into the ruins of a stone church, a fur clad warrior approaches a leather clad villain, sword held confidently in hand. In the background, a guitar chugs along, pressed on by the steady beat of hammering drums. A brief battle ensues. The villain is slain and the warrior makes his way deeper into the old building.
No, this is not a scene for your D&D campaign. This is the beginning to Ronnie James Dio’s music video for the classic song Holy Diver, in which Dio himself played the sword-swinging hero. A beloved relic of the early 1980s, it’s a testament to the fact that heavy metal and fantasy have often walked hand in hand.
Over the past several years, however, a new niche has been slowly emerging and expanding. While fantasy is still a key ingredient, this growing strain of metal music is grounded in themes drawn directly from tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and more. According to guitarist and vocalist Tucker Thomasson, it’s a pairing that just feels natural.
The Oath by Throne of Iron.
“I got into tabletop gaming and heavy metal at the same time in my early teens, so those two things have always been linked for me,” said Thomasson. His group, Throne of Iron, recently released their second full-length album, Adventure Two, published by No Remorse Records. “I think that fusing them together is just a logical means to an end, especially considering how much influence the two things have had on one another.”
That notion shouldn’t be new to any dedicated metal fan. There’s no lack for heavy metal music inspired by the same fantasy sources that helped to originally inspire games like D&D. Tolkien-esque fantasy, the Cthulu-mythos and Elric of Melnibourne have been referenced by music groups ranging from Led Zeppelin, to Cirith Ungol, Metallica, and more. The B-movie sword and sorcery stylings on display in Dio’s Holy Diver takes clear inspiration from sword-and-sorcery flicks like Conan the Barbarian - another fictional figure who was deeply influential on early tabletop RPGs.
In some earlier cases, the influences of tabletop RPGs may have been more direct.
“Mark Shelton from Manila Road was a very prolific Dungeon Master in the underground midwest metal scene,” said Thomasson. “I wouldn't doubt for a second that some of Manila Road's material was based on the adventures that he helped weave.”
If these influences have always been there, however, what’s driving the increase in musicians writing and performing music inspired by tabletop RPGs themselves?
“[Dungeons & Dragons] and RPGs as a whole have never been more popular,” said Jeft Taft, the lead guitarist for Owlbear, another RPG-inspired band that also released their own second album, Feather and Claw, in 2025.
He’s not wrong. Originally released back in 2014, the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has grown into the biggest success story in the brand’s fifty year history. With millions of books solid, it has grown well beyond the niche hobby it was after its origins in 1970s and the Satanic Panic days of the 1980s. People who never would have played role-playing games in the past have, over the last decade, found their way into RPGs.
And even if they’re not playing, TV series like Stranger Things or popular “actual play” streaming shows like Critical Role have raised awareness to levels that past gamers could only have dreamed of. This new recognition, paired with heavy metal’s long-standing penchant for the fantastic, makes the two a match made in the hells.
“[Heavy metal music] has always had fantasy themes as a prominent component,” said Taft, echoing Thomasson's sentiment. “It seems almost inevitable that the two would be paired.”
It’s a compatibility that a whole slew of bands have embraced, often with fairly divergent musical styles, as well. While groups like Gygax, Throne of Iron, Owlbear and Dungeon Crawl might tap into similar wells of inspiration, the songs they write run the gamut from minimalist rock throwbacks to power metal, thrash metal, death metal, and more.
While the influence that D&D has had on these bands is undeniable, musicians like Owlbear’s Taft do hope that their songs don’t become tied to that one RPG alone.
“D&D can have a tendency to suck up all the oxygen in the room when it comes to... public perception of what RPGs are. I don't think that's overall super healthy for the hobby.” He said. “[My] hope is that it doesn't get seen as just 'D&D Metal.' There's so many more awesome Tabletop RPG games and settings out there by all sorts of publishers, particularly indie ones. ”
However that plays out, one thing is clear. Whether it’s in game shops, in video games, on televisions, or in music, the influence of tabletop RPGs is only continuing to grow with time.
