Entry 1449 - Barak Tor - March of the Triumphator

Style: epic dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Grand sweeping epics that come with moments of venerability, a complete journey from beginning to end

Thoughts: There is a lot of dungeon synth that has been coming out in the past few years. Unfortunately I missed almost all of it because I was exploring video game music, synthwave, ambient and other genres. While those genres all are fantastic in their own rights, there is something about dungeon synth that resonates with me on a fundamental level. March of the Triumphator is a prime example of why that is.

One of the primary appeals of dungeon synth is how it skirts the atmospheres of so many other genres while still remaining solidly within its own boundaries. For instance, ambient music will often pull back on melody and focus exclusively on the atmosphere in the given moment. Barak Tor does this on numerous occasions, where the music will fade and only a few singular notes will play or a sorrowful note will hold over near silence. It's very similar in scope, and the two genres compliment each other well.

Video game music - specifically the older kind - is a genre where simple melodies are played on synthesizers and then converted to the in game music by the music chip of the system. Dungeon synth is similar in that it uses synths, but it does not go through the compression of the in game execution. VGM is also limited to a few tracks at a time, this is not the same with dungeon synth. Again, the two genres are similar, yet dungeon synth is its own beast.

What makes March of the Triumphator so compelling is how it manages to do so much in just forty minutes. In this time frame we have sweeping epic compositions, war marches, quiet moments of reflection, moments of extreme urgency, slow brooding moments of ill tidings. Each song has its own identity and yet the whole album combines together to create a sum greater than its parts. It's a journey rather than an album, a recollection of past events. It's phenomenal.

Entry 1448 - The Oracle / Nightmare Spirit

Style: Dungeon synth, dark ambient, noise

Primary Emotions/Themes: Kind of a disjointed mess of a split

Thoughts: I've been on a bit of a dungeon synth spree lately. I've been adding a lot of albums to my collection in the style and most of them have been fantastic... not all though.

The Oracle and Nightmare Spirit split is one of the not so great ones.  There are two distinct styles on this record and neither are very good, or enjoyable... at least to my ears. I don't even remember who plays what style, but one is more of a dark ambient soundscape take on dungeon synth and the other is more of a old school dungeon synth style.

On the surface these sound fine, but the way that they are made here makes this a grating listen. The music is sloppy, and not in a good way. It's produced harshly, and again not in a good way. I have plenty of records that are both harsh and sloppily played, yet I still enjoy them. This isn't even that... this is just bad. 

A few times I've bought a record and thought better of it afterwards, unfortunately this split is going to have to go into that pile. I don't see myself owning this much longer. 

Entry 1447 - Eternal Tyrant - Born of the Imperial Dragon

Style: raw dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: the chronicles of those who were born to rule over lesser mortals 

Thoughts: I wake, not knowing where I have been spirited to. As my eyes slowly come into focus, I immediately am appealed by a rancid smell... the smell of decaying and seared flesh. Fire, brimstone, and all other sorts of horrors of mangled flesh are strewn about my dilapidated form. 

Pain shoots through me as I try to move, it is only then that I realize how distorted my body is. My bones broken. My mortal shell twisted into a form that is not natural... and then I feel it. 

Thump. Thump. Thump. Something approaches. Thump. Thump. Something larger than life is coming towards me, yet I cannot move myself in a way that I can see this doom. Only at the very last moment do I realize what my fate is. I am to be fed to a dragon... but not just any dragon the Imperial Dragon. The most fierce creature of them all. My life is now forfeit, there is no escaping this doom. This is the end.

-------

So goes the tale of those who would dare oppose the dragons born of the imperial line. The Imperial Dragon is a creature that none can withstand or deny, and the music that Eternal Tyrant has created makes this an undisputed fact.

Fear, hopelessness, desperation... they all carry weight in the forty minutes of this album.  The synths are distorted and raw, capturing the primal essence of fear and paranoia in them. The production is harsh and oppressing, leading the listener into a realm of hopelessness that cannot be escaped as long as the music continues to play. And then there is desperation...

The music preys off of the inner fear of humans. The fear of the unknown, the fear of loss of life. The resulting desperation that comes trying to escape this fate is all that is left by the end of the runtime of Born of the Imperial Dragon. 

Dungeon synth is such a fascinating genre, it can evoke nearly every emotion known to man... yet it is so similar throughout. Simply a keyboard and a means of recording the resultant notes is all that is needed. It can result in the most grand spectacles extolling the night sky, or it can draw you into the very bowls of despair... exactly as Eternal Tyrant does here. 

Entry 1446 - アバドン - Perfect Fake

Style: vaporwave, experimental pop, glitch

Primary Emotions/Themes: a wonderful mess of genres forced together in ways that are unconventional to say the least

Thoughts: There are many things I do not like about vaporwave. It's derivative by definition, often it's lazy, and for the longest time I did not find myself enjoying the genre. Recently though... something has started to shift in me.

I've started listening to stranger entries into the genre... one's where the music isn't just slowed down and a beat put on it. Music where the plundering is done a bit more selectively, and the reconstruction is done with a bit more tact... I've been listening to more albums like Perfect Fake.

 アバドン is an artist that I know nothing about, and I want to keep in that way. One of the constant allures of the vaporwave genre is the anonymity of the music. By the artist hiding behind some sort of online moniker it allows the music to speak for itself without the influence of the artist tainting it (for better or worse).

That's a very wordy introduction for music that is fundamentally hard to describe. At it's heart Perfect Fake is vaporwave. This is music that has been stitched together from different sources. I don't know if this is from original works or from other artists - honestly though this doesn't matter. This music has been transformed into something completely different from the source material. 

On the twelve songs that are present in Perfect Fake, my ears have explored themes of depression, distorted and fragmented thoughts, unhinged mania, and a myriad of other emotions. The music itself is glitchy, distorted, disjointed, deranged, and desperate. It claws out for my attention at every turn, like some touch starved animal desperately trying to find anything that will give it some contact... some validation. 

The thing is though... it all succeeds. The glitches make the music disjointed, but they also bring me into the distorted mindset that the album is portraying. Switching from genre to genre every few seconds can be jarring, but it also lets me feel the desperation present in the creators mind as they write this music. 

Feeling lost and alone is nothing new, however the way that アバドン has managed to put this feeling into musical form in Perfect Fake is unlike anything I have heard before. Sure I've heard glitchy music, sure I've heard desperate music, and sure I've heard vaporwave before... but not like this. This is the musical equivalent of someone who is screaming for help, but has no voice. They are desperately seeking someone, anyone who will give them attention... any kind, and losing themselves in doing so.  

Entry 1445 - Wuodan's Wunde - Es Elimmt Empor Aus Ewger Nacht

Style: black metal, dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: The times of yore, the majesty of night

Thoughts: Classic dungeon synth and raw black metal - name a more iconic pairing. 

The music contained within  Es Elimmt Empor Aus Ewger Nacht has one of three major motifs going on at all times:

- dungeon synth in the style of the old days

- raw black metal

- a combination of the two

Most of the time it's the third option, with raw repetitive riffs being played and dungeon synth-esque synths play on top. As with much raw black metal Wuodan's Wunde's production makes it difficult to determine many of the specifics of what is happening at any given time. The drums in particular are produced in such a way that they are distant and nearly impossible to discern without careful listening.

Keyboards and guitars dominate, and even then they are so muddy that it's hard to tell any specifics. Normally this is some of my most enjoyed music, however here it just seems like everything is thrown together - I truly don't know if I enjoy this or not. I can't tell if it's a gigantic mess or if it hasn't clicked yet. 

As with so much music that I don't know if I like or not, I find myself coming back to Wuodan's Wunde more often than with music that instantly clicks with me. After half a dozen listens I still don't know if I enjoy or dislike this album. I'll probably spin it a few more times before moving on... only time will tell if I can truly form a definitive opinion on this album or not by then. 

Entry 1444 - Blood Stronghold - The Triumph of Wolfish Destiny

Style: melodic black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Wolves, night, nature

Thoughts: Blood Stronghold is a band I got into because I really liked Runespell. The same raw energy and ferocity that I found in Runespell came across here as well, just in a slightly rawer form. 

Melodic black metal is a genre I have a mixed relationship with. I tend to prefer the music to be more visceral and violent, and melody tends to be in direct conflict with that. However, there are bands that sometimes harness that same ferocity while keeping melody at the forefront. This is the draw of Blood Stronghold.

The music is as dark and as violent as almost any of the more typical black metal I have, yet they intertwine these hooks that give the music memorable moments in ways that typical black metal does not. It gives the music character and allows Blood Stronghold to stand out in a way that is rather rare in a saturated genre.

The Triumph of Wolfish Destiny is a fun listen. Is it unique? No, but it does offer just a bit extra compared to most of the black metal field. It's enough to keep my interest and for me to return to the album just a tad more frequently than I normally would.

Entry 1443 - Ghoest - In Eternal Sleep

Style: Slow marching dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: In the depths of the darkness there is nothing but hopelessness and solitude

Thoughts: Dark Dungeon Doom.

Dark - the absence of light

Dungeon - a place of suffering and torture, a place without joy buried deep in the bowels of the earth

Doom - an unavoidable fate, a miserable end

I don't think that a more accurate self described musical genre exists. Ghoest describes themselves as dark dungeon doom, and after listening to thirty seconds of In Eternal Sleep this is the most accurate description of this music that I can ever fathom.

These synths are so dreary, dank, and miserable that they feel like my soul is being weighed down simply by absorbing the audio waves. The marching of the bass and snare drum ad nausium brings the music ever closer to its doom. This is the absolute nadir of the dungeon synth genre in the best way possible. This is the deepest dungeon, the darkest crevice, and the unavoidable doom. Essential.

Entry 1442 - Tiamat - A Deeper Kind of Slumber

Style: atmospheric goth rock/metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Daily life, romance, loss, introspection

Thoughts: There was something in the water in the late 90's for metal bands. So many bands that started out extreme either mellowed out or started experimenting in strange ways... or both. 

On one side of things you had many of the second wave black metal bands experimenting with electronics, odd ambient passages, clean vocals and sometimes just pure nonsense. On the death metal side you had a more mellow progression, slowly dropping the extreme vocals and eventually even the heavy riffs for a more rock oriented sound. This is the place that Tiamat found themselves in with A Deeper Kind of Slumber.

Most of the time when a band changes their style so completely it can go one of two ways. The first being an abject failure and the band abandons the path quickly. The second though is the more interesting case... this is where the band actually starts hitting their stride and creates music that is truly their own. The Gathering's progression to How To Measure a Planet? is a fine example of this... so is A Deeper Kind of Slumber.

Gone is any trace of extreme music. There are only clean vocals, the guitars are hardly distorted (when they are even there), the drums alternate between rock drums and what sounds like an electronic kit, there are numerous passages where it's only keyboards and Johan's soft voice (see The Desolate One). Tiamat now has much to do with metal as David Bowie does on this album. 

Now, in the hands of a lesser band this would all be a disaster, however this is not a lesser band. Tiamat has finally hit their stride. Wildhoney showed hints of this, but still clung to the extreme vocals and death metal at points in the album... this album finally breaks the chains that had been holding the band back. They are truly doing their own thing here with no regard for the bands past or expectations. 

The thirteen songs on A Deeper Kind of Slumber are like a fine wine. The further you get into the album the more it reveals all of its nuance to you. Popping the cork with Cold Seed, the band shows their new goth rock side right away. This is also by far the most active song on the album, after this things mellow out quite a bit.

The album goes through tons of melodies, instruments, and moods in the remainder of the playtime. By the time we get to Mount Marilyn and the title track the band has explored so many different ideas that the tasting notes list will be quite extensive.  

There are points where the band utilizes strings to compliment the guitars nicely (Atlantis as a Lover). A point where the music goes haywire and messes with the listeners brain (A Trillion Zillion Centipedes).  Many moments on the album are tranquil and quite morose (Mount Marilyn and the title track in particular). There are even a few moments where the band brings back the full distortion (Alteration X 10). It's a highly diverse album, yet it remains consistently good throughout.

I'll be honest here, outside of a few moments on Wildhoney Tiamat never interested me prior to this album. Clouds was nearly comical to me the way that clean vocals were introduced and I was never able to get into Sumerian City. A Deeper Kind of Slumber feels like the band finally figured out what they wanted to do, and that something was obviously not metal. In my estimation this is a very good thing, as this album is the first truly memorable one from the band.

Entry 1441 - Jim Kirkwood - Uruk-Hai

Style: old school dungeonsynth

Primary Emotions/Themes: The one, the only, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Thoughts: There is something magical about early dungeon synth. In the times before there was even a genre associated with the sound. In the times when everyone stumbled into the sound on their own. There were no rules, no constraints... just pure artistic freedom to create music the way the artist saw fit.

To say that Jim Kirkwood's music is unique in the genre is a statement that still holds up today. I have yet to hear another artist that manages to interpret dark dungeon music such as Jim does on his early 90's Tolkien albums. 

These albums have a life to them, a spark, that simply is not in the modern version of the genre. Sure we get celestial music sometimes which is grand and epic in scope, but that is not what I'm talking about here. This is still very rooted in the earth and the dark places of fantasy, yet it has this sheen and sparkliness to the instruments that I have yet to hear in the genre elsewhere. It's more akin to Japanese city pop than it is anything else within the dungeons. 

There is also an urgency to this album that I don't hear many other places. These songs, they have a way of making me feel like I am prey and someone (likely an Uruk-Hai) is stalking me to move in for the kill. It creates a very tense atmosphere and again, makes for a very unique listen.

Jim would go on to create a lot more music after this, and unfortunately I haven't had the pleasure of listening to much of it. That is absolutely something that I am going to explore more in the future, but at current I simply have too much other stuff to listen to. I am contented to have this and his other Tolkien albums in my collection for the time being.  

Entry 1440 - Behemoth - Demigod

Style: Death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: power, shunning the heavens, subservience to none

Thoughts: There are those who are destined to rule. There are slaves destined to serve. This album is the chronicle of a band that has chosen to rule, and Demigod is the record of their ascension to the throne.

I have a mixed history with Behemoth.  Some of their albums are simply not to my liking. I can objectively tell that they are well composed and executed... I just can't get into them. Demigod is not one of those albums.

Every single complaint I had about the few albums preceding this one sounding stale or samey are completely and utterly destroyed on Demigod. What once was boring riffs are now full of life and vigor. What was once a singular song spread across ten tracks now is a dynamic buffet of riffs, concepts, and individual compositions. Everything has improved... no perfected. This is the pinnacle of Behemoth's death metal sound.

Not only are the songs fast and brutal, but the riffs are memorable. Listen to that opening of Conquer All. Not only does this song have a p o w e r f u l opening, it's catchy as all hell. That riff makes me want to headbang every single time it comes on. 

The thing is that not only does Conquer All start strong, the band takes the basis of the opening riff and evolves it over the course of three minutes to create a song that perfectly balances brutality and catchiness... something that hardly any band has accomplished. 

It's not just Conquer All though, it's every song. The title track opens up with an ominous keyboard intro like we are going to war. The riffs that come in with it only signify this further.  Mysterium Coniunctionis again balances speed, power, and memorable riffs to create an absolutely massive song. Xul and Slaves Shall Serve tear my speakers up with riff after riff of insanity. The album simply keeps giving.

Demigod is not only the highlight of the death metal era for the band, it could very well be the best album the band put out regardless of era.  The riffs, the vocals, the production, the pacing... it's all incredible. Essential listening.

Entry 1439 - Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth

Style: modern classical, vocal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Loss, venerability, reverence for that which came before. 

Thoughts: Darkness comes in many shades. It is most commonly associated with black, however the more insidious kind can be found in the gray and slightly off black colors... lingering in the shadows, just slightly askew from the light.

To say that Dead Can Dance influenced my taste in music would be an understatement. When I first got into the band the scope of what I listened to was much narrower than what it is today. I knew that I enjoyed music on the darker side of the spectrum, but it was largely contained to guitar oriented music. Every now and then I would branch out into another genre, but almost always I would come back to the guitar. It was familiar... it felt like home... and then I heard Dead Can Dance.

While there is guitar in Dead Can Dance's music (particularly the early albums), as the band progressed they branched out in ways that my young mind had never once experienced before. It made such an impression on me that I endeavored to find all the relevant albums for my collection as an adult now as well. During this quest the album that would always elude me was Into the Labyrinth. 

Sure I could get a recently pressed version with the new cover, but I was being picky. I wanted a copy with the mother and child's hands. That cover was so striking when I first saw it that I wanted it reflected in my collection.

Needless to say I was at a local record store a bit ago and I asked if they had any Dead Can Dance. They did indeed, a first press of the one album that I was looking for. Not only did it have the cover I was looking for, it also had two songs recorded in these sessions that I never heard before. I paid more money than I'm normally comfortable with, but I finally had one of my white wales.  I had Into the Labyrinth... and here it is, sitting on my turntable.

Now that my overly sentimental history with the album is over, what of the music? Into the Labyrinth represents everything that the band had been building up in the 80's. All of the traditional instrumentation, all of the dark atmospheres, all of the folk influences from all over the world, it all comes together in a wonderful climax on this album.

Lisa's voice is perhaps the best that it has ever been here - a singular listen to The Wind That Shook the Barley should put any doubts of that to rest. The track features only her voice and silence. To carry a traditional tune such as that with the power that she does here is truly rare and exceptional.

Brendan's voice is also in top form. One of my favorite tracks from any Dead Can Dance album is The Carnival Is Over, and this is due in large part to the delivery that Brendan gives. The keyboards on the track hearken back to the bands earlier works and his unhurried and calm voice lay across the notes to tie the song together. I still get goosebumps listening to it, some thirty odd years after I first heard it.

Into the Labyrinth is perhaps the bands most diverse offering as well. The amount of styles incorporated during the nearly hour long run time are truly impressive. There's Irish, what sounds like Native American, middle eastern, music resembling Gregorian Chants, and a ton of cultures I can't even begin to place throughout the album. So many directions, yet the essence of Dead Can Dance is maintained throughout. 

There are so few albums like this in my collection. Albums that improve the whole by being part of it. Albums that were critical in my musical development. Dead Can Dance are one of those bands, Into the Labyrinth is one of those albums. It gives and teaches things in ways that few ever could of have since. It thrives in the grey, yet still shuns the light with it's mournful tones.  

Entry 1438 - Canibus - One Step Closer to Infinity

Style: hip hop

Primary Emotions/Themes: Nostalgia, chill beats, self empowerment, subdued aggression

Thoughts: I don't have much hip hop in my collection. That which I do have I truly enjoy - I just forget that I have it most of the time. If I'm honest, I wish that I would dabble in this genre more. 

My latest reminder comes in the form of Canibus. I got this album on a clearance sale, and holy shit am I glad I got it.  The music on this release is pure groovy bliss. Every time the music plays I find myself bobbing my head. 

My cardinal sin when it comes to hip hop is that the lyrics don't stick with me. I've seen so many in depth analysis of song after song in this genre, and I'm sure that the lyrics here deserve a deep dive as well. The thing is that I've spent so much time in the metal realm where the lyrics aren't the primary focus. Unfortunately that carries over to other genres as well, including hip hop.

While One Step Closer to Infinity isn't as good as some of the other hip hop records I have, it still warrants a listen from start to finish whenever it hits the turntable - and at a run time close to 90 minutes that is a telling statement (especially from someone who typically enjoys single LP releases). 

I'm a huge sucker for music that channels feelings of nostalgia, and Canibus excels at that. Some songs channel 70's string driven disco type music in hip hop format. Other songs feel like they could have been taken directly out of old ninja movies. Yet others are based completely off of the amen beat and all it's permutations. It's a trip down memory lane.

Even listening now I find myself closing my eyes more than once and letting the music watch over me. It's got a powerful grip on me whenever I put it on. I've had to stop writing several times during the course of this summary and simply let the music wash over me. It may not be the best hip hop in my collection, but god damn - this stuff is still excellent. 

Entry 1437 - House of Fata Morgana - Volume 2

Style: Video game music, vocal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The powerful music of Fata Morgana continues with this second volume

Thoughts: The first volume of the House of Fata Morgana soundtrack was one of the best soundtrack records I heard in quite some time. It was powerful, made even more so by the inclusion of soul wrenching vocals and piano arrangements. 

I had not listened to the second installment of the soundtrack when I purchased this record, I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise.  When I finally put the record on my player, I was greeted with more of the same wonderful music that the first installment had.

Haunting. If there was ever a piece of music where this music fit, it would be these songs. The vocals in particular are so soft that they feel like they are almost whispered - like a ghost taking it's last breath. 

The accompanying music is the perfect backing. Simple, yet not so much so that it's basic. Ethereal,  yet grounded enough to keep the listener engaged. 

This is the kind of music that gives me pause. I take a moment, stop what I'm doing, and reflect on the choices that led me to this place... this moment. Is this always a good feeling? No, obviously not. Is it one that is required from time to time? Absolutely. This is the power of the House of Fata Morgana. 

Entry 1436 - Soukaigi

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Classic rpg soundtrack

Thoughts: Sometimes you miss one. Soukaigi is a PS1 RPG that I had no idea existed. Luckily for me someone decided that this soundtrack needed a vinyl release and in doing so introduced me to a soundtrack from one of the eras of gaming I adore the most.

To this day I have never played this game. Regardless that has no bearing as to if the music is enjoyable or not. As with so many RPG soundtracks in this era, this sounds and feels like video game music. It doesn't try to be anything else, it simply is content to be a soundtrack to an RPG. 

Need an epic orchestral score, Ancient Power is that. Need a nice acoustic town song, Angel's Fear Again is exactly that.  Need a traversal theme for a dungeon? Fire Wire is right up your alley. 

The music is whatever the game needs it to be, and it delivers exactly that. This soundtrack is going to go onto the short list of records that I want to listen to when I want a classic RPG soundtrack. There aren't many that I truly enjoy, but I'm glad to count this one among them.

Entry 1435 - Jim Kirkwood - Where Shadows Lie

Style: Dungeon synth, dark dungeon music

Primary Emotions/Themes: High fantasy, enchantment, urgency, discovering the unknown, mystery

Thoughts: I feel like I've missed a core part of my musical taste. I listened to Mortiis when I was a teenager but then never really thought more of it. I always enjoyed the enigmatic side of keyboard driven music, but alas I let that part of my musical exploration lapse. Fortunately that has changed in the last few years, and honestly there is no better time to be a fan of the music known as dungeon synth.

Classics are getting released, unknown gems are being discovered and brought to light. I don't think I ever would have known of Jim Kirkwood and his excellent music were it not for these labels that go out of their way to find the classic albums and press them again.

Where Shadows Lie was originally released in 1990, making it one of the earliest albums that can be called dungeon synth. Being so early naturally makes this artists sound a bit unique in the world of keyboard driven dungeon music. 

Jim's music has a life to it that most of the later music in the genre would not have. These melodies are active, they have a spark to them that simply is missing from most of the genre. The keyboards also have a bright and almost sparkling tone to them. They cut through the air like a light shining through the darkness. 

This life, this energy is what draws me to his Lord of the Rings inspired music. It is really unlike anything else in the dungeon genre, and I love it. Is it raw? Yes. Is it sometimes a bit tough to listen to? Absolutely. Is it majestic? You bet your ass. This is exactly the kind of music that I need in my life right now. 

Entry 1434 - Jim Kirkwood - King of the Golden Hall

Style: Electronic, classic dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Tolkien, dragons, dwarfs, high fantasy

Thoughts: Dungeon synth has only been a genre by name for about 15 years give or take. Prior to that it was known as ambient, darkwave, dark dungeon music, or any number of other genre names. The entries into t he genre have been sort of retconned into the genre retrospectively. Jim Kirkwood's early works absolutely fit into this category.

King of the Golden Hall was released before nearly any of the Norwegian scene entered into the dungeons. Mortiis was still in Emperor, Satyr had just joined Satyricon, Varg was still doing black metal... no one had put out a full release of dark dungeon music yet. Jim Kirkwood was before all of them.

As he came before, the sound on here is quite a bit different than that found within the Norwegian dungeons. The music is more active, the synths livelier, the melodies move about like dancing flames. Whereas the early Scandinavian music is more drawn out and slow, this is full of life, full of vigor. It draws from the Berlin School styles of music and it shows. 

The synths are bright, there are beats here that are uncommon to see in other dungeon artists. The music is engaging and active in ways that are just not seen in the other early works. Does this mean that it doesn't belong within the confines of the genre? Absolutely not, even listening now, some thirty five years later - this is clearly a dungeon synth album.

The music has that home made feel to it. It's nearly all made with keyboards. It has a tension to it that is critical to the genre. The source material is Tolkien himself... you can't get more rooted in dungeon synth... dark dungeon music, than this. Of the early dungeon music, this album is among some of the finest to have been recorded. 

Entry 1433 - Host - IX

Style: Goth rock, electronic 

Primary Emotions/Themes: melancholy, angst, longing, yearning for something better

Thoughts: Once upon a time there was a band named Paradise Lost. They strayed from their doom/death metal roots and slowly over the course of seven albums created a pop electronic album called Host. In retrospect, this would be the furthest away from metal the band would ever go. But that longing lingered, and Host the band was born.

To say that this is an exact replica of the Paradise Lost album would be misleading. To say that this album is completely divorced from that sound would also be misleading. XI rather is perhaps what the next album in the Host style would have been, but through the lens that comes with twenty years of maturity and hindsight. 

Host (the album) relied heavily on strings to build atmosphere and compliment melodies. While that is still the case here, it's to a far lesser degree. The closest that the album ever gets to replicating the Paradise Lost album. In their place, the electronic elements and guitars are brought more to the forefront. 

So Host (the band) is the logical continuation of Host (the album). The songs still have immense hooks in them, the atmosphere is as thick as the original and at points is even more dense. There are layers upon layers of melodies, effects, vocals, guitars, and samples. The music is deceptively simple, yet upon a real active listen the layers start to reveal themselves. It's a phenomenal listening experience. 

Despite the loss of the strings, Nick and Greg have created a suitable follow up to the wayward son of a Paradise Lost album. I'm glad that we got to see these guys explore this sound a bit more, as nothing they did after really emulated this again under the Paradise Lost banner. This is a welcome return for those of us that were longing for more.

Entry 1432 - Viridescent Funeral - Demo I/Demo II

Style: black metal, dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Obscure mysteries, searching, moments of clarity 

Thoughts: Obscure melodies and production cloud the delivery of the black metal contained within the grooves of this record. How many times have I thought something like that? More times than I can count, especially in the context of black metal. 

On the surface Viridescent Funeral's demo's offer absolutely nothing new. They are simple, the riffs repeat for the nearly 20 minutes on each side. There are brief moments where the music gives way to classic dungeon synth, and the production binds it all together in a hazy fog that simply does the listener no favors in terms of clarity.

It's all been done before, and as with all things there is nothing new under the sun. That said, there is something compelling about these two albums. The riffs, while they do repeat, have a hypnotic quality to them. The obscurity of the production lends to the albums atmosphere in a way that almost no other genre outside of black metal can produce. The synths add to this atmosphere to create a depth in the obscurity that compels me to keep digging, keep searching through the depths of the music to find more.

There are moments in both of the demo songs that stand out purely from their own merit as well. Demo one builds over the course of its twenty minutes and ends up with some riffs that get stuck in my head for hours on end they are so well written. All of the buildup and wonder created throughout the first moments of the song are paid out to the listener ten fold with that ending riff, my god it kicks ass.

The second demo is not as strong as the first, but still has some killer moments in it. Instead of building up over most of the song, Demo II starts off with its best riff and a blast beat. It's almost the inverse of Demo I. As with the first demo, it has an excellent atmosphere and strong songwriting that is amplified by the production. 

Neither demo offers anything new to those searching for it, but those looking for some solid raw black metal could do far worse than these two demos. I for one find myself coming back to these songs multiple spins each time this album hits the turntable. The status of the band is unknown as of this writing, and as such I don't know if we'll get anything more from them. As it stands though, these two demos are some of the better music I've heard in the raw black metal realm in the past few years.

Entry 1431 - Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park

 

Style: Electronic body music, industrial

Primary Emotions/Themes: The deprived nature of human kind and the god that has forsaken us, darkness in peoples hearts

Thoughts: Humanity is a disgusting, rancid, piece of flesh that has long overstayed its welcome on this planet. 

The longer that I'm exposed to the world in its current state the more this statement rings true. It's a view that I've slowly come around to as the true state of the planet has revealed itself to me over the years. Every chance that we have been given - every single one - has been squandered and we double down on things that simply do. not. work.

After listening to Too Dark Park, I can confidently say that I am not alone in my views here. Ogre and company have delivered an album that is keenly in tune with these sentiments.  The music - if you can call it that - is harsh, unpleasant, and honestly a challenge to listen to. 

The instruments are made with little to no regard for how they land on the human ear. They screech, repeat, and grate across my ears - much like nails on a chalkboard... at least at first. As the mind gets acclimated to the instrumentation and its... quirkiness - the music begins to unfold in ways that were not previously observed.  

The clashing of the synths, atmospheres, samples, drums, and Nivek's angry whispered vocals slowly create layers of rhythms that somehow move from noisy soundscapes to groovy beats and conceptual layers. The metallic clanking slowly blends together with the deep beats and the crazy disharmonious soundscapes to go from completely unlistenable to something that I seek out. 

It's like a switch flipped in me, one moment I hated this album - the next I loved it.  This is one of the premiere examples of me "getting" a record and band - breaking through the intentionally obtuse sound to find enjoyment in the music where the previously was none. 

In many ways Skinny Puppy's Too Dark Park is harsher than most metal that I have in my collection. The acclimation period for this album took me much longer than almost any metal album I've listened to since perhaps Gorgut's Obscura.  It's become a definitive album for me for the early 90's, not just in EBM but also in music in general. It's way ahead of it's time in terms of the way the music was produced, sampled and stitched together - and it remains my favorite work from the band. 

Entry 1430 - Pontifferasmus - Husk of the Mountains

Style: Dungeon synth, astral synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: A look into the empty sky reveals small points of light, this album explores the joy and wonder that can be found in the darkness between those points of light

Thoughts: The past couple of years I have been doing a deep dive into the genre known as dungeon synth. Within this deep dive I have found several albums that I can find very little information about. Husk of the Mountains is one such album.

I don't know who created this, I don't know when it was created, I don't know anything about the project other than this one release. I don't know if there are other albums that Pontifferasmus ever released, and I'm not sure if I need to know. This state of not knowing, this mystery is part of the allure of the album for me.

The music contained within these grooves is borderline magical. The synths slowly cradle me and beg me take my gaze up to the heavens where the melodies slowly guide me from constellation to constellation. In the grand spaces in between these points of light the darkness envelops me and begs me to bask in it's endless glory. This - the night sky - is the very essence of the music that the Husk of the Mountains portrays. 

These songs have very little in terms of frantic activity... in fact one could call them lethargic if anything. The melodies slowly draw themselves from note to note without a care in the world. They linger and develop before vanishing into a singular speck of sound. They grow together to form small musical constellations of their own as they shimmer in their musical canvas.

Husk of the Mountains is exactly the kind of album that I'm after when I do a deep dive in to a genre. Dungeon synth... celestial synth... whatever this is called resonated with me on a cosmic level. It's the kind of music I can put on for hours at a time. It's the type of album that rewards those who take the time to dig... for those who are willing to truly seek out the gems that rest in obscurity. 

Entry 1429 - Saor - Amidst the Ruins

Style: Atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: the beauty of nature, fusing the violence of the storm with the peace of the calm that comes after

Thoughts: I can't express how disappointed I was in Origin. Almost all of the magic of the first four albums was gone. In it's place was a stripped down and tamed version of the unrestrained spirit known only as Saor. 

When Amidst the Ruins was announced I was skeptical at best. I didn't think that Andy had another good album in him after the dismal songs on display from the previous album. This skepticism stayed with me until I got to hear the first single - the twelve minute title track.

Two things immediately stuck out. The track was twelve minutes long, four minutes longer than anything in the previous album.  Saor's best music is in the long form songs, and part of what made Origin so bad is that the songs were never allowed to fully develop... they felt hamstrung as a result. Secondly there were a lot of guest musicians listed - violin, tin whistle, cello... none of these were really present to great extent in the previous album. Their inclusion peaked my interest.

When the track finally debuted I sat back and took it in, much like I am with the whole record right now. I let the music wash over me, take me on its musical journey - wherever that may lead. I mystical foray into the unknown, to lands never once touched by human hands. This was the Saor I missed, this was the Saor of old.

Return to form is a phrase used to frequently that it's hard to write it seriously... but in the case of Saor I can't stress how much Amidst the Ruins is a true return to form. There are so few bands out there that can make music this atmospheric, this potent, this powerful... I thought that we had forever lost one of the great modern bands in atmospheric/folk metal. I am so very pleased to say that I was wrong.

Amidst the Ruins picks up right where Forgotten Paths left off. The music is large and grandiose. It's open and inviting. The melodies are powerful, they sweep into me and give my spirit life. Be it a guitar, a violin, bagpipes, a whistle... really anything that is carrying the melody it doesn't matter - they are all equally potent. 

The power of the music is only amplified by the way that the songs are structured and delivered. They know exactly when to be loud, they know when to be quiet. They know when to blast the hell out of me and they know when to lay me in a soft cloud of musical bliss. It knows what to do and when to do it... a quality most bands never learn much less master.

Amidst the Ruins doesn't completely forsake the sound found on Origins either. It takes some of the tribal drumming found on that album and incorporates it into the deeper Saor sound. In essence this is the fulfillment of the sound found on Origins as well as the continuation of the core Saor sound. Not only has Andy Marshall brought my faith back into band, but god damn I'm looking forward to what they have next again.

Entry 1428 - Swans - Love of Life

Style: gothic rock, ambient, experimental

Primary Emotions/Themes: Happy, joyful music that extols the virtues of living and restores my faith in humanity... certainly this is what the album is about... most certainly

Thoughts: Whenever I have a Swans album to write about I cringe a little inside. Not because of anything wrong with the music... rather the opposite. There is so much going on in these albums that I feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start, where to finish, or even what direction I'm going. Love of Life offers little respite from this.

Trying to summarize a Swans album is trying to describe the texture of water without calling it wet. Trying to define the warmth of the sun to someone who has only ever felt cold. Explaining to someone what death is like when all we have ever experienced is living. It's nearly an impossible task. Yet here I am, once again trying to take up this task for the sake of completion.

Love of Life sounds like the most uplifting and joyful album that Swans ever have written. Those who are familiar with the band though know that this is as far from the truth as you can get. There is a sarcasm... no a bitterness to these lyrics that speaks to the deep loathing that Mr. Gira has of humanity and our perpetual need to commit atrocities. 

The music does have a much milder tone musically than most of the albums that came before and after it. There is a subtle uplifting touch that is present in most of the songs that is completely absent from Swans other albums (except for maybe Leaving Meaning). That's not to say that the music is outright happy, this still is a deeply mournful album... but there are small but fleeting glimpses of hope from time to time.

Gira's voice in particular has cast aside most of the harshness from earlier works. He now wields a soft croon that drive the music forward. That combined with the extended use of acoustic guitars and keyboards make this album a surprisingly pleasant listen - at least by Swans standards.  

I feel like I've written a lot of words and I haven't even started to touch the essence of what makes Love of Life itself. I could probably write another 10k words and not be able to adequately describe the music contained on this record accurately. 

If I had to sum it up into a concise statement Love of Life is an album of contradictions. It celebrates the decay in life, it tears down the happiness that can be found in small moments. It emphasizes the joy that small victories bring, and shines a tiny light in the darkest of places. It has a bitterness about it that comes from the knowledge of what humanity is. It has a smirking sarcasm that comes from a life lived fully.  It has all of these things at once. It never tries to justify its existence, it simply is content to be. 

Entry 1427 - Gloria de Oliveira & Dean Hurley - Oceans of Time

Style: Ambient, pop, orchestral

Primary Emotions/Themes: Lost endlessly at sea, calming soundscapes with female voices guiding me onwards, peace, serenity with a hint of darkness, random interludes of pop rock

Thoughts: This album came out of nowhere. I stumbled upon it at a clearance event and listened to the first few tracks and was interested enough to pick it up. 

Gloria and Dean have created quite the interesting album with Oceans of Time. A vast majority of the play time is spent on slow melodic ambience with female vocals floating across the music's surface. I would say a good 70 to 80 percent of the album falls within this description... and then there is the remaining parts.

In stark contrast to the slow ambience, the remaining tracks on Oceans of Time are beat driven pop-rock songs. They don't even seem to be fully fleshed out as they most often will just be a drum beat over some keyboards with Gloria singing a bit more forcefully than the ambient tracks. The melodies are sparse and don't offer enough of a hook to really draw me into them, despite the haunting nature of Olivia's excellent vocals.

This is really where the album loses me. The two styles are seemingly at odds with each other. They are in stark contrast and do not allow the album to get into any type of flow. It can't decide if it wants to be more ambient or more of a pop album and this dissociated identity ends up being the downfall of the album. 

It's not that one is inherently better than the other, its that we got two separate albums or EP's here. If one side focused exclusively on ambient and the other on the pop sounds I think we would have the start of something really cool... but alas the track order can't get out of it's own way here. Just when I start getting into a groove with the pop, or into a relaxed state with the ambient the album switches gears again and I have to recalibrate myself. There's a good album in here somewhere, but the way that this is arranged currently that opportunity is lost.

Entry 1426 - My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River

Style: gothic/doom metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: deep... tragic loss, an uncontrollable grief, lack of a stabilizing force, longing, needing... yearning

Thoughts: My Dying Bride. I don't think I can think of a more consistent discography than these guys for their first eight albums. The first four in particular are nearly all flawless masterpieces. Each providing a different side of the band. Each providing a unique perspective into the sorrow that only these Brits could do.

Their third offering - The Angel and the Dark River - sees the band venturing further from the death metal roots. Abandoning the aggressive riffing and harsh vocals all together (save for one bonus track), opting instead for a more drawn out and emotionally explorative opus.

We've traded rage for remorse. Hatred for loss. Death for longing. Death metal for ambience. Aggression for reflection. 

There are only six songs on this record, and yet it still is near an hour in length. These songs are long, and they use that length to explore things that the band had not to this point. The ambient sections that were teased in the longer songs on Turn Loose the Swans are now major components of the entire album. Over half of the opener's epic 12 minutes are the band experimenting with different sounds and effects. 

When I first heard this album I didn't care for it nearly as much as the first two. It seemed like the band had lost their way, got too far into the experimental portion of their sound. It reminded me too much of their 5th album (34.788% Complete), and at the time I thought that album was a complete garbled mess. Years of reflection and listening have changed my mind though. 

The ambience on this album (and later albums) allow the band to explore more abstract emotions than metal had been able to at this point. A sense of wandering and loneliness can be exemplified to a much greater extent in six minutes of meandering ambience than nearly an hour of metal. Metal can portray the soul crushing effects of these emotions well, however the complete lack of direction and confusion that come with them are best left to other genres.

The Angel and the Dark River is a complex work that walks the line between genius and disaster nearly flawlessly. The experimentation that the band show here is a clear sign of the band evolving beyond their brutal roots. It took me a while, but I can definitively say as of this writing that this evolution was for the betterment of the band and where they were at this time in their career. 

Entry 1425 - Amesoeurs

Style: Black metal, post-punk, atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: a study in how two vastly different styles can exist in the same medium and still produce a cohesive album, post-punk songs interspersed with post-black metal songs steeped in atmosphere

Thoughts: Slow ambience breaks the silence only still to yield to a bass line. The ominous atmosphere continues to build as the guitar strums in its accompaniment. Like dark clouds forming on the horizon the music builds and swells until it all gives way but to a single guitar melody. Lonely. Forsaken. Forgotten.

In the midst of this the music abruptly explodes. All remnants of the previous abandonment left in the dust as the music overwhelms the senses with full chords, blast beats, and a flurry of activity. The foreboding darkness that was showing signs of the incoming storm has now unleashed the full extent of its downpour onto the listener. Gas In Veins, the opener has set quite the high expectations for the black metal album that is to come. 

I brace myself for the next moments, getting ready to have my ears blown out by whatever the band has planned... except I am greeted with clean guitars, female vocals, and a pop drum beat. What is this? Did I somehow put the wrong record on? Did the wrong songs get pressed on here? 

I've heard quite a few abrupt transitions in my time on this earth, and going from Gas In Veins to Les ruches malades is probably within the top ten. Not only does the album immediately set high expectations, it absolutely obliterates them with the very next song. Within the span of ten minutes the band has established two things: 

1) this is going to be one hell of a ride

2) you'll never know where you end up next

It's not until we get to Heurt that we see the band fuse the black metal with the post punk to any degree. The riffs and drumming match the intensity of the opening instrumental, but the vocals are the same even keel female ones from the second track. It's quite the contrast and I don't think I've ever heard anything like it before or since. 

In many ways Heurt is very much a statement of the album as a whole. It has moments of black metal, it has moments of post punk. It has post punk riffing with black metal distortion, it has black metal riffs with post-punk clean guitars. It's the closet thing the album gets to a cohesive marriage of the two extremes that so much of the album delves into. 

Amesoeurs is a one off album, nothing further would be released from the band... at least not as of this writing. It remains as an artifact, frozen in time. A testament to the experimentation that was happening around the late 2000's with mixing black metal with shoegaze and other genres. Not only does it succeed in the individual genres of black metal and post-punk, it manages to tie them together in such a manner that the album does not sound like the audio equivalent of oil and water. Rather it sounds like the emulsifier that ties them together. It's a damn fine record, and one I'm very happy to have in my collection.