Oppressive orchestral doom that sounds like the air itself is toxic. The LOTRO Mordor expansion gave Chance Thomas room to write the darkest material in the game's decade-long run, and he went all in. Barad-Dur opens with this grinding low brass and industrial percussion that makes you feel the volcanic heat through your speakers.
Read more
Chant for Sauron layers choral voices into something genuinely menacing, not campy evil but real suffocating dread. Then Coronation of Aragorn flips everything, this soaring triumphant brass that hits ten times harder because of how bleak the rest of the album is.
Ever On though. Quiet and bittersweet in a way you don't expect after all that darkness. If you think MMO soundtracks can't compete with film scores, this one will change your mind.