Here’s a lovely joke: you buy the Mines of Moria expansion, and you get a nice little bonus CD. If you’re buying the game’s expansion, you probably already own the original game, so you already have that Shadows of Angmar soundtrack CD. But you think “oh goodie, now I’ll have the full soundtrack for Moria as well!” Well…no, no you won’t. What you’ll have is the full Shadows of Angmar OST again, and a couple bonus tracks, only one of which is from Moria. Cute, right?
Granted, the Shadows of Angmar soundtrack is fantastic, and if you didn’t get it with the first package (i.e., you bought some cheap standard edition with just the game disc), you now have it, and then some, with the Mines of Moria package. And the additional 7 tracks are definitely worthwhile, particularly because some of them don’t appear on the larger, Moria-specific album that comes in the “Music & Art Collection.”
So, if you’re new to the LOTRO music scene and you want a full collection of music, you can skip the Shadows of Angmar official release, and just try to hunt down this album and the Mines of Moria Music & Art Collection. And, in my opinion, it is definitely worth looking for both of these albums. Chance Thomas is a fantastic composer, and game music enthusiasts should take every opportunity to hear his music.
