Fifteen years of Middle-earth and the music only got deeper. LOTRO's 15th Anniversary collection pulls from over a decade of expansions, and the compositional ambition here is staggering for an MMO that most people forgot was still running.
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"The Fall of Khazad-dûm" hits with this weight that makes you feel the mountain collapsing. "Shelob the Great" is pure crawling dread. But then "Sweet Dreams in Yondershire" and "Flow of the Brandywine" pull you back to hobbit country with gentle pastoral warmth.
That tonal range. "Life in Laketown" captures this specific lived-in quality, like a town that exists whether you visit or not. If you think MMO soundtracks peaked in the 2000s, this anniversary set is a strong counterargument.