I like to think I'm above the influence of nostalgia. Did I spend hundreds—maybe thousands—of my preteen hours playing Old School Runescape back when it was just Current School Runescape, painstakingly fishing lobsters so I might one day piece together enough gold for my own set of rune armor? Yes. But that doesn't mean I'm an easy mark. Surely, age has sharpened by tastes.
Last week, Jagex revealed RuneScape: Battleaxes and Ballads, an officially-licensed metal cover album of Old School RuneScape music. I'm pleased to report, as a journalist and critic, that it's sick. The RuneScape theme, or"Scape Main" as it's officially titled, already went unreasonably hard in, considering it was something that I'd only hear while waiting for my chunky Windows XP desktop to let me login in 2005.
Produced in partnership with Laced Records, a game soundtrack record label that's worked on special edition album releases with Bandai Namco, From Software, Capcom, and more, Runescape: Battleaxes and Ballads is also available for preorder as. Once it ships in October, you'll be able to listen to Old School RuneScape remixes on an intentionally old school format, because money lets you do all kinds of things.