Mortiis – Crypt Of The Wizard (1997)

December 28, 2022

Ah, Crypt Of The Wizard. It is of course probably typical for something as nerdy as “Dark Dungeon Music” or dungeon synth to have such a complicated history. Folk will often mistake this for an album, but Crypt Of The Wizard is a compilation of a series of 12″s released by Mortiis over 1996 and 1997. Despite the LP format, these 12″s contained much more short-form style tracks than what Mortiis was known for at the time. Later in 1997, these 12″s were pulled together onto Crypt Of The Wizard, under several labels (including Mortiis’ own). Later in 1999, when Mortiis signed to Earache, they also re-released this, with the hammiest artwork known to man. (You can see the original art at the bottom of this post).

Musically, Crypt Of The Wizard is not as epic and grandiose as the man’s earlier works. The short-form, active instrumentation cheapens the experience somewhat (due to the quality of the synths used). However, there is something endearing about this – and despite all of these tracks coming from different sessions, there is an overarching theme or feel as if they came from the same recording sessions. My favourite songs are too numerous to mention but I want to give honourable shout outs to “En Sirkel Av Kosmisk Kaos” and the sublime “Stjernefødt”.