I might be on pretty bad terms with League in general, but the Pentakill original album Riot released a while ago is a whole different thing.

Two of the vocal tracks, Lightbringer and Deathfire Grasp had been released as promos before the entire album came out in early June. I was still playing back then, and the promise of League metal sounded more than compelling.

Lightbringer and Deathfire Grasp were a pretty great start too. The two served as my background music while staring at the lengthy loading screens (and the first minute or so) of the game. Both feature really catchy themes, Lightbringer on a slower note in comparison to Deathfire Grasp’s speedy shrills. The lyrics aren’t about any specific piece of the League lore, but the almost power metal-ish themes of epic battles and magical weapons fit in well with the world. Lightbringer is a scanner item for the “new” maps (eg all but Summoners’ Rift) while Deathfire Grasp is Ahri’s favorite staff.

Then came June and with June came the whole Smite and Ignite album, and it was impressive. There are two more vocal tracks, Thornmail and Last Whisper, both following in the footsteps of the promo songs. That makes four songs with League-inspired lyrics and various levels of instrumental metal greatness. I’m no drummer, but every time I listen to Thornmail and the chorus comes up, I feel that my heart will soon switch to that rhythm instead. In Last Whisper, the way riffs build up tension towards the chorus is just spot on.

Riot were smart to release two tracks with vocals as promo material, since that’s still more consumer-friendly than instrumental music. However, the full album features three instrumental tracks too, The Hex Core, Ohmwrecker and The Orb of Winter. I’ll go in reverse order, since the Orb of Winter is a little symphonic world of its own after the explosion of Thornmail, serving as the outro of the album. Ohmwrecker features another stupidly catchy main guitar riff, that exploded out of my speakers the very first moments of the track and then kept rolling for the rest without losing any power or getting boring – and let’s not forget about its beautiful bass ending. The Hex Core on the other hand is more electronic piece of music with focus on a synth phrase and heavy distortion. It’s not advised to use it as background music for the game, because you’ll keep looking for that Blitzcrank.

Even if League itself doesn’t feel all so inviting at the moment, I’m always happy to put Smite and Ignite on a loop in my music player.