“Sentries in the Ambush” offers a look into what In League with Dragons was before the finished product emerged.

Track: “Sentries in the Ambush”
Album: Sentries in the Ambush EP (2019)

On the Bandcamp page for the Sentries in the Ambush EP John Darnielle describes exactly what “Sentries in the Ambush” is. This was one of the songs for the original version of In League with Dragons when it was a fantasy story about a town called Riversend and actual, literal dragons and wizards and such. The final album is very different, though it has some elements of that original story, and thus “Sentries in the Ambush” is on an EP and not on the main album.

The song is about people who fight and die in an ambush. It’s literal. You can pick it out from the lyrics, but none of that is as interesting as the “how” of the song. John Darnielle doubles his vocals even on the demo which became the final version. He calls it “a pretty crazy little thing” and whew, he’s right. The doubling here pairs it well with the waltz “Divided Sky Lane” that accompanies it on the EP, but it works better here. The pace is frenetic and it makes sense, given these characters are in chaos. “Slaughter them if you can // kill them all where they stand” is delivered the only way it could be, and then it all peters out with John Darnielle saying “and so on” with a laugh. I’m often a fan of the proof-of-concept demo songs and this is no exception, even with the end being a joke. In League with Dragons ended up being a better album than the story of Riversend would have been, probably, but do take the time to appreciate what might have been.