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.
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