For those of you who haven’t yet heard of Battle Bards, here’s a brief description — from their homepage at Libsyn (a podcast-hosting service) — of what that particular podcast is all about:

A musical journey through MMO soundscapes, Battle Bards reviews and discusses the soundtrack of MMORPGs with a trio of engaging hosts. Tune in to our bi-weekly show as we share our favorite tunes and argue about whose picks were the best. Occasionally, we will get composers to join us for some exclusive behind the scenes information!

In their most recent episode — Episode 56: Main Themes II — the Bards discuss…well, they discuss several different tracks from a variety of MMORPGs. But included on the list is Kariela’s Song, the David Watson-composed track that serves as Shroud of the Avatar’s main theme.

You can listen to the podcast online here, and if you skip ahead to about the 20:37 mark you can find where the discussion of Kariela’s Song begins. The Bards are really positive in their assessment of the tune, praising it for its fidelity to the musical tradition of Ultima Online, and for its mellow nature (since not every main theme, they assert, needs to be epic and bombastic). They also discuss the way in which much of Shroud of the Avatar’s soundtrack has been crowdsourced, and how this had led to a very fitting — and surprisingly consistent — array of tunes to give the game its musical backdrop.

Obligatory praise for Watson’s Stones is also given.

The section on Kariela’s Song runs for about six and a half minutes, so if you’re pressed for time, just skip ahead to the timestamp above and listen for a few. When you hear the “Legacy” main theme from Lord of the Rings Online, you’ll know you’ve reached the end.