I am grateful for this release using the naming convention of Roman Numerals being including int he pantheon of underground metal adopting the very familiar naming sequence. Similar to conceptual and minimal art using “Untitled” there is something comforting about a promo being named after the year. Trüciciel is from Poland and the demo/promo for 2023 is actually the second release of their debut EP Syf, groby i demony in 2020. Promo MMXXIII feels like more of a proper introduction. While only two tracks each of the selections hits with accuracy and the album art is simple and effective. This is a perfect place to start with any black metal that has the sound of a clanking hammer buried somewhere in its music.
First up: amazing cover. Visually outside of everything this cover is perhaps the thing which got me to listen to the record out of a sea of terrible artwork. Secondly, the genre for Lazer Throne’s debut record is perfunctory. Yes this there are elements of dungeon synth and the visual and aural styles point towards synthwave. Beyond those two aspects, the sound for Citadel Of The Elder Star hosts many guests from Tangerine Dream influenced Berlin School and Neptune Towers worship drone. There are even parts where late era Pink Floyd guitar and synth warble their way across an infinite horizon. The fact remains, Lazer Throne is confusing and ever more intriguing since going into the record one would expect dark synthwave with a high BPM. This music is less a cyberpunk dance party and more sword and sorcery with neon lighting. Citadel Of The Elder Star is a pilgrimage across a dark landscape influenced by many thing and with the courage to adopt aesthetics and sounds but not be constrained by their rules.
I have a suspicion that most of the releases from Witchcult Records are from the same circle of artists and / or have album covers all done by one artist. There is a symmetry in each of the J-Card designs that dates back to 2019 and it is glorious. Built in Sanguine Eclipse is different though as one of the artists has a Metal Archives link and with releases on the DS based Ithildin Tape Productions. Built in Sanguine Eclipse is a split between the Extispex and Maeglin, two acts who mix synth and black metal. Both entities are wonderful and exist as a balance to each other. Where on the one side you have a somber ridden 132 minute soliloquy which breaks into black metal and on the other a black metal composition garnished with symphonic synth. Built in Sanguine Eclipse serves as an introduction to two acts who could have remained in the shadows but for this moment have decided to come out and haunt the dreams of its listeners.
It is my intention to start branching out from raw black and death reviews but we will see how this goes. I enjoy sludge despite the genre being saturated by tropes regarding sound and subject matter. I also say the same thing about other genres but I usually can listen to similar raw death for days. The Visceral Madness Condition is an Italian group who is continually complex the more one looks into their music. From odd looking band photos to the fact their song titles share the name with popular acid house songs from 10 years ago, The Visceral Madness Condition seems like it should be understood with a quick glance but weird things keep ones interest. Ambàscia is the band’s third release and continues their love for bands like Eyehategod, Sleep, and Acid Bath but this time around has them singing in Italian. If there is something I love it is native language used in popular forms of music. This combined with an odd woodblock print for the cover which looks like a black metal demo, Ambàscia holds enough interest to be fucking weird around you and gets one to think about it long after the record stops playing. The Visceral Madness Condition is the strange group your friends invite to the party but never leave and most likely drink all of your beer and ask for more.
This might not really be heavy metal. This might not really be anything. From a previous release last year, 8bitdkhd described the 2022 release, Psychward Burt Newton (Jan-July) as follows
Artist/drone discovers that is possible to record themselves. Proceeds to buy the cheapest audio to computer interface and record whatever nonsense occurred to them in 6-months. This is to be considered embryonic, masturbatory (but free) self-indulgence-core. Instrumentation is provided by some guitar, some synth but mostly feedback experimentation with the most obscure guitar pedals. Occasionally a beat occurs ala ‘shaking’, which thumps along to the gimp inside your head whispering sweet nothings, it encourages the fool to play.
These releases are released on the internet but with little expectation to be heard or even cared about. The artist seems to take an antithetical approach to craft in trying to produce the ugliest thing possible. this is beyond tortured beauty or misunderstood genius rather 8bitdkhd creates things no one should hear and releases are akin to nuclear waste that are buried in mines far below ground. Now, See Me is weird and very ugly yet despite the potential intentions of the artist it is also fascinating. A short fever dream of echoing guitar and reverb vocals which border on stream of thought and violent gibberish. An appreciation for this goes beyond outsider fetishism, though stumbling on something that is only linked to a small social media is exciting. The world of 8bitdkhd is psychedelic and resides int eh space where your trip starts to get a little weird and uncomfortable. You are not in a full blown panic just quite yet but things are not going well and you have to plan your exit in the most normal way possible. Now, See Me drinks from the font of the strange and maybe submerges their head beneath its waters. It is without form, or function, or description.
This is a great way to wake up in 2023. Celestial Rot is connected to The Ensemble of Black Magic, a label (?) which hosts projects by dark ambient and raw black acts with awesome names like Phantom Staircase, Bleak Exit, and Isolated Aster Wizard. Celestial Rot is perhaps one of the most harsh acts out of the shadowy troupe and falls in step with the other cool internet atmospheric black metal that sounds like it was run over on the highway a few times. We can all make jokes about production but nailing the raw black sound is sometimes an art and Celestial Rot does it so effortlessly that the songs titles like “Fucking The Black Fingers Mixed In Soot,” feel ominous rather than bizarre even though it still is sort of bizarre. A Chain Around Eternity’s Throat is a premiere example of the “mysterious black metal that could vanish without notice so you probably should talk about it before it goes away” aesthetic.
One of the few attested names to be recorded from the Black Speech, Lugbúrz was the name used by the servants of Sauron for his Dark Tower in Mordor, more commonly known by its Elvish name of Barad-dûr. The term was generally used by the Orcs in Sauron’s service not only for the Dark Tower itself, but also by association for their high command, or for Sauron himself.
— The Encyclopedia of Arda
By the time of the CD release of Behind the Black Gates of Abyss, The Lord of the Rings films were experiencing a high watermark for fantasy culture. Everyone was experiencing the films either as new experience, affirmation of the cherished novels, or bitter reaction to the adaption. I do not think Behind the Black Gates of Abyss was made because of the popular films though the track titles and timing seemed to be at least aware of the story beats. Lugburz, in 2022, is not an obscure entry in the history of dungeon synth though i t is not as enshrined as some of the other foundations artists of the 1990’s. Lugburz operated for one record in 2003 (with a followup 7 years later) and did so as a love letter to the Tolkien universe. This letter was penned with cinematic synths, orchestral violin, and the tolling chants of both male and female vocals. Behind the Black Gates of Abyss both forecasts the eventual lo-fi variety known as dungeon synth as well as existing in its own imaginary score universe. When one listens to songs like “The Ocean Call,” and hears the martial synth marches, one can make the connection that dungeon synth started as black metal intros and eventually just became extended atmosphere which became sentient and populated their own releases. In a way, dungeon synth just got really excited about the costumes and set design, it just became its own imaginary world.
Behind the Black Gates of Abyss is a fantastic artifact that as once stated before isnt well known but is far from obscure. In 2020, Dungeons Deep Records released the record on tape which is amusing since the attention Lugburz received in 2020 perhaps eclipsed the initial praise in 2003. Dungeon synth exists without time and seems to always be celebrating releases.
The history of Midnight Syndicate and the resulting official licensed soundtrack to the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons is long and dense and utterly fascinating. Midnight Syndicate is an act which was designed to provide cinematic background music for thematic activities such as haunted houses, games, and other festivities. Midnight Syndicate was production music operating entirely as an independent group of enthusiastic composers. they were also shockingly successful with their music being used at theme parks around the world and heavy metal bands like King Diamond using their music as introduction themes for their tours. In 2003 at role playing game convention, the group was approached by Dungeons and Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast to create a soundtrack to the game which was just releasing its updated third edition otherwise known as 3.5. the resulting record was Dungeons & Dragons, an official soundtrack to the popular role playing game.
I recount the history of Midnight Syndicate, and also point to the related act Nox Arcana, as an example of dungeon synth’s history before it was known as dungeon synth. Midnight Syndicate is tagged as neoclassical darkwave which is a related genre made famous by the act Dead Can Dance and Into The Nursery which combined ethereal, darkwave, and early classical music, into a style of gothic medieval music. Midnight Syndicate took this idea and made it more commercial and cinematic and while that sounds like an artistic slight, the music for Midnight syndicate became something else. Instead of intellectual pondering, the music for Midnight Syndicate became a theme park rides which urged the listener to climb inside and enjoy a ride through haunted and glowing rides. Dungeons and Dragons is over an hour of adventurous music which steps away from the grim and dark tones of past projects. Both song title and music offer the participant a magical world filled with danger, magic, and wonder.
Having a soundtrack to Dungeons and Dragons, within the realm of what we now call dungeon synth is not that novel. Fan tributes to games in 2022 feels like something many composers would gravitate towards. Midnight Syndicate’s history and paperwork as being an official soundtrack to a roleplaying game gives endless intrigue around this release which more interesting than if just a fan tribute. Not only does it show the caliber of professionalism pressed by the act but also the history of Wizards when it was still in its infancy after acquiring the licenses from TSR former publishers of Dungeons and Dragons. Midnight Syndicate is not obscure in the field of dungeon synth, yet I feel their connection to musical escapism and as a strong foundation between the music of the 90s dungeon synth scene and what would eventually become the revival can never be more underlined.
Oh yes, this is where the cool people live. At the moment, The Dungeons and Dragon module The Curse of Strahd is one of the most famous campaigns made possible by the collaboration between a famous adventure setting originally published in 1983, multiple campaigns and associated novels, and perhaps most importantly, robust community support in making the story more coherent. Ravenloft and the lands of Barovia have stoked the imagination of people for decades. Nowhere is this more evident than dungeon synth records inspired by the campaign setting in a time when it the world was still inaccessible to most except for the most learned of the fandom.
Corvus Neblus has released two EPs. Strahd’s Possession Chapter I in 1999 with a followup Chapter II in 2001. Both releases provide a soundtrack to the world of Ravenloft made at a time when the gothic setting was used in multiple related media. Chapter I was packaged with not only an introduction about the main character, the half elf fighter/mage Nebulus, but also came with a character sheet with ability scores. These facts might lead to the creator of Corvus Neblus using an actual game of Dungeons and Dragons as inspiration for a dungeon synth album or just an adventure setting as a ready made world for a story. Whatever the case, Strahd’s Possession is an early example of escapism made into a world of sound with the entirety of the two releases made into backdrops for a gothic pageant.
Corvus Neblus is better known as Alexandros Antoniou also the participant in black metal projects such as Macabre Omen and Lvcifyre. Alexandros Antoniou’s work in these bands has created a separate reputation with his dark ambient and dungeon synth projects intended as hidden gems for those traveling deep within the mines of records. Strahd’s Possession is a monument for those looking at the origins and tracing the history of dungeon synth from the 1990’s to 2010s. Here is a set of releases which would be on Bandcamp in 2022 but instead is an obscure artifact from a well known black metal musician. The care and calculation heard in the first chapter mixed with the shoehorned dialogue in the second chapter is both fascinating as well as amusing.
DS1e / DS2e — An adventure into dungeon synth of the 1990’s and 2000’s as it grew out of ambient, neoclassical, darkwave, medieval, and underground metal. Presented as retrospective album reviews and given edition numbers like RPG rulebooks.
At the moment, the entire work of German dark ambient / dungeon synth project Vinterriket is cataloged on his website. In this catalog are links to webpage discographies and also ever social media and music cataloging site that many have forgotten. This meticulous attention to detail is the hallmark of a creator who has been operating for 20 years creating various tributes to fantastical landscapes. Throughout the 2000s, Vinterriket’s creator, Christoph Ziegler, would lend his talents to various dark ambient, neofolk, martial industrial, and atmospheric black metal acts. If one would go back to the genesis of a long and sprawling career, it would be a chilly inaugural demo and the start of the record label Neodawn Productions.
…Gjennom Tеkete Skogen is dark ambient music that sounds at home in a dungeon. This music typifies the type of sound before it even had a name but perhaps appealed to fantasy inclined listeners who were interested in playing necromancers in Dungeons and Dragons. The ominous synth are pipe organs which rise out of castle spires as they pound through whipping rain. the demos opener “På Tåkete Enger Og Myrer” (On Misty Meadows And Marshes) acts as an overture to the dammed with the addition of wind samples which muddy its soundscape. The atmosphere created by Vinterriket is an inhospitable world which could be called winter synth if that winter was wet and still freezing cold.
