dungeon synth

Super low effort, not very interesting, very one dimensional. Truly uninspired.

Vocals kill this one dead, fam. Expect similar excellent yet dirty keyboard from BSOD; the same that you would find in Grausamkeit or BB. Trouble is, man here be croaking over this thing like friggin’ Gnar Kill’s “Mustard Man”. Sounds like pure shit, I won’t lie.

Beautiful, mesmerizing, magical – these are some of the words that I would use to describe the music on Darken Wood’s II. I know that dungeon synth is hardly the Superbowl of underground music, but I would say that this is a very underrated project lurking in the shadows. For the quality of the compositions here, Darken Wood definitely deserves more exposure.

An interesting release from the excellent Old Tower. Lots of ambient noises, soundscapes and the like. Not to reduce it down to cheap descriptive tactics but it’s like a dungeon synth version of one of those spooky CDs you can get for Halloween, that is until the actual synthesizer work kicks in. Honestly, this invokes the spirit of the original “ds sound before it was a genre” in such a fantastic way. Truly brilliant playing.

Magical dungeon synth. Yes, there are parts of this where it feels like Mortiis should be seeking legal advice but those moments are confined to the first two tracks alone. As Dragon Citadel Elegies sprawls, as does the pool of sounds from which it draws from, creating a dark and forboding atmosphere. Despite this, track 2, “Inn at the Borderland” is an absolute bop.

Frankly, a pointless release in every sense of the word, despite the lovely new artwork. Pretty sure this was available as a bootleg for many years. Truly, it should have stayed as such. I feel like I’m at a house party and some dork has put Crypt Of The Wizard on the stereo and the only effect it’s had is causing all the twats in the room to shout at each other a little louder….

I discovered Hole Dweller around the same time as that RuneScape.wav dungeon synth project and to be honest I often conflate the two, even though I’m clearly an idiot because they both have entirely different vibes! Granter, more ambitious and more involving than the cult classic Flies The Coop (which has now been re-recorded or something?), Returns To Roost is an interesting set of songs that are led by synth melodies that toe the line…

More Thulean Mysteries grade ambient piano work from Burzum. If not entirely original, it is at least hypnotic and spellbinding in the true ways that Burzum can invoke, which is more than I can say for a lot of the recent single releases. One thing to note however is the dreadfully low sound quality on the instrumentation here. His earlier synth / keyboard work sounded glorious – including the “post prison” synth albums – but…

It perhaps says a lot about the state of Burzum in 2024 if a near 15-minute long atmospheric piano piece has you thinking “hey, this isn’t half bad!”. What would usually be filler or an ambient piece to round things out has actually cemented itself as the most interesting thing to come from the project in 2024. This is mainly because of the stark difference between the work here and the other lacklustre black metal…

Calderum’s Mystical Fortress Of Iberian Lands really took me by surprise. This thing goes hard! Combining melodies and hooks with ferocious blastbeats (the latter often becomes the focus of more “brutal” black metal) and balancing a “kvlt” sound with a clear and warm production, Calderum literally ticks all of my fucking boxes. Seriously, the drumming on this is absolutely fantastic; “Fortress Of Doom” will give you a good example as to why, with tons of…

Easily the best of the three releases so far. It also has no guitars or drums, so go figure. “The Nature Of The Gods” is more akin to what we’ve heard on Thulean Mysteries or The Ways Of Yore. It is also far more stable and consistent, actually managing to conjure up an atmosphere. Perhaps not all hope is lost then? We shall see.

Dark, moody, slushy, obtuse “vaporwave” from one of the more immediately aesthetically recognisable projects in the genre. Imagine the kind of thing you’d usually hear on a dungeon synth record but chopped, sliced and obfuscated from you in a hazy cloud of what is essentially a blob of hypnagogic sound.

Genuinely sounds more like something that you would hear at a renaissance fair than as the soundtrack to someone’s D&D campaign. The instrumentation is so beautiful and varied it would perhaps be too reductive to label this music solely as dungeon synth.

Excellent, classic dungeon synth release from a now legendary project. Mournful, evocative and beautifully composed. The right balance of active instrumentation and dreamy atmospherics.

Dark, brooding dungeon synth with enough variation and instrumentation to keep you interested despite its hypnotic, meandering pace and nature. Truly a decent collection of ambient synth tunage.

A thoroughly disappointing outing from the usually very excellent Goatmoon. I do not dislike Silver Serpent for its departure into dungeon synth, I dislike it because it is a poor effort. Even for the more atmospheric, dreamy end of the genre, where melody and I suppose songwriting are replaced by pure feeling and invocation of mood, Silver Serpent fails to provoke any sort of worthwhile conjuration. Instead, Silver Serpent can be relegated to “video game…

If you’ve seen any of Varg’s YouTube / BitChute / insert alternative video platform here / uploads then I do not doubt that you will be intimately familiar with this track. What first appears to be a guitar is I believe a well disguised VST instrument of some kind, but whatever it is, it leads “Forgotten Realms” memorable droning hook for 5 minutes or so. Also, isn’t “Forgotten Realms” a D&D campaign setting? You’re such…

Even for ambient Burzum, this is a very spaced out, ambient drone piece. Repetition is the name of the game, to put you into a trance-like state, no doubt. Do not confuse this tiny EP / single with the mammoth double album of the same name.

One of my favourite pieces of “dungeon synth”. It, of course, pre-dates the formation of such a genre by a considerable margin, and perhaps owes more to the worlds of Berlin School or film sountracks than it does Mortiis and other dark dungeon dwelling maniacs. There is a purity to Kirkwood’s releases that keeps it out of the mystery fjords and onto the rolling hills, the battlefields, the craggy cliffs etc. of far-off fantasy lands….

The “Space Ambient” tag is relevant here, especially on closing track “Space And Time” which sees the more typical dungeon synth structures fall away for something that is altogether more new age and Berlin School mixed together into one strange melting pot. The first three tracks are more in the vein of what you would expect from cavernous 90s synthesizer music in this vein, but with more active, orchestral elements at the forefront, rather than…

Chill as fuck compilation of really, really cool dungeon synth tunes. This has turned me on to so many fucking cool as fuck DS artists, such as Lunar Cult, Gelure, Elminster (lol) and Villein. Can’t say I’ve ever played this game but the soundtrack is boss. Random Bandcamp find of the week!

(It’s worth mentioning the OST originally came out with the game it featured in back in 1998, but wasn’t realised as a stand-alone OST until 2001) Easily one of the best game OSTs of all time, but there is always the risk that I am heavily biased, having played this game to death when I was 9 to 10 years old. I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved it. Hoenig’s soundtrack…

Where Shadows Lie simply has to be one of my absolute favourite Jim Kirkwood works. Magnificant, triumphant, uplifitng, magical, spellbinding. These are all words that can accurately convey the musical message avialable to you by pressing play on a copy of this record. Combining Berlin School longform electronics with the Tolkien fantasy vibes in a way that only he can do so well, Kirkwood is absolutely on fire here. A highlight of the entire discography…

Patches of Jim Kirkwood’s discography are almost entirely in the Berlin School style of music. Granted this kind of progressive, unfolding electronic tapestry-weaving is present in most of his work – let alone other more modern DS creators – but Nightshade is an example where the style truly and almost completely overtakes his wondrous medieval soundscapes.

Very atmospheric, bolstered by genuine tape degradation and hiss – two things that are avoided by the analogue medium community but worshipped by the black metal and dungeon synth scene (lol). Either way, this is a mysterious, spooky listen. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.

Much more low key and uninvolved than Ancient Woods. Kinda sounds like background music from a DOS game like Daggerfall during its best moments, and like pointless ambient effects in its worst. Considering the total run time is just over 15 minutes, it is a shame that the level of quality here is but a fraction of what I expected to find. This is not a gem that’s worth unearthing.

Gate Master knocks it out of the park once more with the follow up to In Pursuit Of Forbidden Knowledge. I love the black metal here, easily some of my favourite dissonant, barely audible stuff (haha). It sounds like I’m joking but this thing is absolutely dripping in atmopshere. The “dungeon synth” style pieces that punctuate the record also help serve to this function, before closer “My Journey To The Stars” goes off to oblivion….

The seemingly compilation-like nature of Varg’s “final” release as Burzum, Thulean Mysteries, coupled with the spaced out, almost relaxed tone of most of his ambient music, makes it very difficult to ascertain whether I’ve heard this before or not. It feels more familiar than it does new, and whilst that is rather welcoming in some ways, its also a bit underwhelming that this random “return” (whatever it means long term) is not something a bit…

Through a download code that was kindly shared by a friend I had the pleasure of being introduced to the world of Siege Golem, a project that walks the lines between dungeon synth and video game music. It reminds me a bit of the Kobold project, only updated and more varied in a set of a final boss themes. There’s all sorts of different vibes going on here, which is nice to see from a…

A timeless classic of the “Dungeon Synth” genreI’ve found that Fodt Til A Herske has always filled me with a profound sadness; a sadness that once again fills me as I sit here late at night writing this review whilst this record plays. When I first got the CD at 15 years old it felt as sad then as it does now, but with the music pressing on different weights from life. I guess between…

I loved the shit out of this when I was a nipper but having re-listened recently I realise that perhaps it wasn’t as good as I thought it was. I had the gold CD version of this, but without the book, because I ordered the “Mortiis pack” off Earache records (basically a copy of every studio album he has with them), in which they accidentally gave me two copies of The Grudge (the standard, and…

I recently listened to the remastered version of this, which was great fun as it’s been years since I’ve heard this, I used to play it all the time when wasting my life on WoW through the small hours of every night. Anyway, enough about me. Anden Som Gjorde Appror isn’t as good as Fodt Til A Herske or Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost, but it does introduce more bombast into the music. These…

An interesting mix of artists, performing a bunch of tunes that are not always so typical for the sounds of the often confined dungeon synth genre. What I mean to say is, that there is a wider range of sounds here than I expected going in, and I even came away with some artists that I really want to check out, so that’s good news too. Some of the entries here are quite obscure however,…

Now this is my kind of dungeon synth. Spooky, kooky, lo-fi and minimal composition using cheap retro synths and drenched in hiss and wow / flutter. Lots of short moods and performances, rather than the longer more meandering pieces you would expect from dungeon synth artists. Really refreshing, glad I stumbled onto this, I would recommend it for any fan of the genre.

You can always rely on Jim Kirkwood to provid consistency across his colourful musical career. The man has touched on a variety of different vibes and compositional styles, from higher fantasy and religious themes to more, how shall I say, typical dungeon synths forms, but whatever he puts his hands to is always incredibly well crafted. Knight Of A Dark Grail is no different, with this 1992 offering a few selected pieces which are an…

Not gonna lie, Fief is fucking class. I feel like I’m inside a never-ending medieval fete inside my head. There’s not much that compels me to start a diet primarily of wild game, stale bread and staler beer, but Fief hits the mark. Very lovely instrumentals are the order of the daye, mayhaps not sparkly enough to win over thon young fine maidens, but beautiful enough to rouse the young men to arms. The joust…

This is a project that involves Andrea Meyer who performed mainly as Nebelhexe and also appeared on the first Cradle Of Filth record. Unfortunately, as I was really looking forward to this one, this is pretty boring to me. It kinda goes nowhere, and whilst there are a few moments of pizazz in this evil atmospheric pieces, most of the record’s run time does nothing for me. It works as cool spooky background music, but…

Invoking otherworldly trance-like dreamstates that fans of prison-era Burzum will be chomping at the bit for, Hädanfärden does not disappoint when it comes to taking you away to another place. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Lustre, a more well known project by the same artist, but Eitr is perfect dreamy dungeon synth.

Torchlight is one of those projects that falls loosely under the dungeon synth banner, but is not trying to emulate a sound from a point in time or aesthetically clone the goodness of the early 90s. No, Torchlight is so much more, instead delivering full-blown compositions with excellent clarity and depth of musical scale and talent. This is more in line with the soundtrack to an RPG computer game, using traditional instruments (or virtual copies…

The forbidden knowledge has to be, that mixing dungeon synth and raw black metal in this way is a winning combination. Sometimes the brightest truths are the ones that are there in plain sight, waiting to be grasped. LOL Anyway – Gate Master is the project centralising around founding Cradle Of Filth member Paul Ryan (who’s been out of the band since the debut record). The black metal is raw, disgusting and frenetic, which is…

Burzum’s ambient stuff gets a lot of undeserved shit, in both the prison and post-prison eras. Sôl austan, Mâni vestan is of course, no different. Admittedly, there is little variance between this, The Ways Of Yore, and even Thulean Mysteries to be honest, but if hypnotic – cosmic even – synth work is your bag, then I genuinely feel you can do no wrong in checking this out. Varg (Louie?) does invoke a consistent atmosphere…

I’ve been down a rabbit hole recently in regards to the inner-workings of the great pyramid of Giza. Not in a wacky “WaS iT a NuClEaR PowErPlanT1?!?!” kinda way, just generally trying to understand one of the oldest wonders of our world. When it hit me – I wonder if there is any like, Egyptian-themed dungeon synth or ambient music. Remembering the interludes from Nile albums, I set to searching the internet, and was immediately…

Intense, dusty and archaic black metal from one of the guys involved in Morgue Tar (which is excellent by the way). I love how this thing juxtaposes between lengthy keyboard pieces (not in the Cradle Of Filth way, these compositions feel more in line with horror movies and are buried behind a million layers of dust) and intense, raw black metal. Things aren’t “raw” to the point of being unlistenable or becoming the dreaded wasps-in-a-jar…

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…

This is one of those cases where the record sounds like it was recorded in the early 90s, rather than in 2020, year of the ‘VID. Sunken Grove then, obviously have the classic DS vibe pinned down. In a similar vein, the compositions are not intricately involved, instead forming and morphing from simple yet pure satisfying melodic progressions, lapping over in a meditative state. There is a layer of darkness here too, but it is…

I was a huge fan of others works by this project but Vid Himinsenda fell to the side somewhat. I listened to them both for the first time in the summer of the 2020 lockdown, but whilst Fjällets Gyllene Slott stayed with me, this was lost on me a bit. Everything sounds great, but its a bit derivative and plodding in parts, playing into the safe area of dungeon synth that basically just rips off…

I was thinking recently on the mystery of Revenant Marquis and I went over to Spotify to see if any of the records were there and what do you know, turns out the project has a new(ish) release that I haven’t heard yet! Eagerly excited for more muffled kvlt metal that I can’t make head or tail of due to the extra rubbish production, I instead was met with a very invocative series of atmospheric…

A beautifully composed album from the mid-90s, led by Satyricon’s Satyr Wongraven (I guess this dude loves naming bands after himself, huh?). Discogs credits Norwegian percussionist Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen as having contributed to this record, as well as Ihsahn from Emperor, but for the most part, this is a solo outing. What we get is a solid 30 minutes or so of excellent ambient / dungeon synth music (before the term really existed, remember) that…

I downloaded a bunch of Nargaroth records 7 years ago when they were coming to my town so it’s probably a good idea if I actually listen to them. Spectral Visions… is as much introspective electronic music as it is dingy black metal. When the metal does flow, the songs are slow and atmospheric. Personally, I prefer the electronic passages here, which come across like a techno version of Tangerine Dream drowning in dusty dungeon…

Another excellent band/project I have had the pleasure of recently unearthing, Offermose offer the most (lol) stunning mixture of Tangerine Dream style Berlin School synth meandering, punctuated with vibes and call backs to the dungeon synth movement of the 90s, with shimmering, moving passages and spooky, almost black metal style vocals. Stilhedens Tårn presents a cold and morose atmosphere, but one that is peaceful and beautiful in its own way. One in which you can…

Gorgeously spooky, amazing, fantastically composed old school dungeon synth from 1997. Coming across like a mix between the instrumentals you’d get on early Cradle Of Filth records and something altogether more Age Of Empires II, Mordenheim is a stunning journey through synthesised orchestration. I find it wholly bizarre that this (and the following Grabesmond record) were never released on cassette. This stuff belongs on an analogue format. Brilliant.

I’ve started a bit randomly here, coming in at number 5 of (so far) 6 dungeon synth records by the beautiful Darken Wood. Honestly, the first thing that springs to mind several minutes after letting V unfold is memories of exploring both the Imperial lands of Cyrodiil in TES IV: Oblivion and traversing the wilderness in TES II: Daggerfall. That’s what I love about good dungeon synth, is the ability for it to take you…

Book Of Lore is a massive undertaking, so much so that I originally had this marked down to review on 2nd March 2020, not long before the pandemic changed everything. I have listened to it twice since then, and can confirm that it’s a hefty listen, but probably great if you are into role playing or D&D and want a good soundtrack for those activities. For those of an Elder Scrolls persuasion, one may notice…

I love it when you find something that you have never heard before. Yes, I’ve heard Lunar Womb before, but hear me out. The blend of styles on this record are incredibly perplexing. Think dungeon synth mixed with vaporwave. Both are fairly obscure electronic subgenres with little crossover (the runescape.wav (sp?) project the only outlier I can think of), but their unintentional mixture on this 25 year old demo is perplexing and thought provoking. Vaporwave…

This is some prime-rib old school dungeon synth from the mid 90s. I love uncovering gems like this. Lots of anxious synths and sparse yet martial drum programming keep things from becoming too dreamy, but La Lune Noire still has its own unique and misty atmosphere. Fantastic. A great find.

Dark, mysterious, atmospheric; three words you would likely associate with the dungeon synth genre. Pafund is no different, with The Grim Abbot leaning more on the atmospheric end of proceedings. The tracks are loose and dense with ambience and conjure distant misty worlds. Cracking.

An interesting take on the dungeon synth formula. Admittedly not one that I would usually be all over, but I appreciate the artistic integrity and boldness involved nonetheless. The guy, Jon, seems to do a bunch of stuff across a ton of genres, a lot within the vaporwave kinda style.

This kinda shits all over my own Welsh dungeon synth project. Haha! Mari Lwyd lays down some serious tunes, obviously composed with genuine musical skill and chops. There’s a lot of dungeon synth that isn’t as musical per se but atmospheric, Y Ddraig Goch (I wanna guess ‘the red dragon?) is absolutely on the musical end, with a record full of dense instrumentation and excellent songs. Highly recommended. Tape is, unfortunately, long sold out.

I think it would be wrong to say that Fief is head and shoulders above other modern dungeon synth projects, but the name does bring with it its own kinda unique sound, which gives weight to the name. There is a… musicality (for severe lack of a better word) to II that is absent from a lot of sparser, more ambient DS projects. Its lovely. Perfect RPG music.

Gnolls! Those dirty bastards! One has conspired here to make a dungeon synth record, it seems. Leaning towards the video game / RPG worlds of inspiration rather than lore / history etc., Gnoll ticks two boxes: one for awesome dungeon synth and one for invoking some sort of analogue nostalgia from a better time.

One of the most revered dungeon synth releases of recent times and with good reason. There is something magical about these lo-fi recordings; a wonderful sense of adventure as it were, along with heaps of character. This has recently been re-recorded, so I’m interested to see why, as this release isn’t that old, nor can I find any fault with it. I’ve been putting this off since Feb 2020 (lol) but the recent rerecording of…

Another absolute classic from Jim Kirkwood, this time from way back in 1992. Unsure if it’s just me but this one seems a bit darker and moodier than usual. Don’t get me wrong, Jim can always conjure infinite fantasy landscapes with all manner of vibes and feels, but there’s something oppressive about this offering. One of my favs so far.

I got sent a link to this and couldn’t decipher whether or not it’s a meme. But, either way, there is something in the undercurrent of Curse Of The Lock Master which is endearing. It appeals to that part of me that loves wobbly cassettes and shitty demos from the 90s, and so on. I’m unsure what to make of the project as a whole, but I’d be lying to you if I said I…

This is a massive release, with around 90 minutes of epic dungeon synth fantasy music to take you off to far away lands. Originally this was dropped as 2 separate albums (volume one and two), but has been released together on physical formats such as CD and cassette. I was sold the minute I saw the name Quest Master, and had to check it out. Really good compositions, it’s a high rating from me.

Uilos is an interesting project. It is dungeon synth to its core, but with the added element of guitar playing thrown into the mix too. Sounds simple no? It probably is, and I’m a cretin. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic full length and there are some truly haunting and mesmerising tracks on it. Hey, if it makes me wanna dig out TES III: Morrowind then that can only be a good thing.

I couldn’t think of a better name for this myself: these are Barbaric Visions indeed. Moody, dark, drab, damp, echoic – these are the words which come to mind when thinking back to this dismal and sombre split record. Both Shadow Dungeon and Forest Temple bring their own unique darkness to proceedings. A great split.

Got recommended this as an example of a dungeon synth subgenre that I hadn’t previously come across. Introducing the frankly ridiculous sounding ‘dinosynth’ (hey, its not as shit as comfy synth at least). Diplodocus however, plays very stimulating classic DS-like compositions, with obligatory dinosaur-related sampling. All in all, its a pretty solid synthesizer record.

Ah, such woe, such wistfulness! If you’re in the mood for slapping your headphones on and losing yourself in a journey, then I would recommend this record. Great stuff.

This bizarre project has been on my to-do list for a very long time. Today I finally listened, and was taken away on a wonderful musical experience. Chanelling aspects of both dungeon synth and vaporwave (my favourite niche electronic subgenres no less) and filtering them through the worship of an old RPG, we have some glorious low-key compositions that creep and crawl with the right amount of emotional leads over the top. Like, that sounds…

Light, sprightly (is that a word?) synthensizer music in the olde worlde / fantasy vein. I suppose you could call this dungeon synth, but this seems like more than that. I have Tolkien vibes, general high fantasy and massive worlds unfold as I lose myself in this lush music. Great stuff from Elixir!

Neptune Towers is super under-rated. Transmissions… is a stellar electronic composition, heralding styles all the way from dungeon synth to something in the peak-period of Tangerine Dream’s synthesizer output. Its a mesmerising listen, and one of great enjoyment.

Dusty, hiss-filled dungeon synth compositions of lost lands and endless dark imaginations. Like, this is so fucking good its not even funny. Some of the vocal performances on the latter track(s) leave a little to be desired, but this a golden gem of dark dungeon music.

Its hard to embody the spirit of the early Mortiis releases without completely ripping them off. This is done with varying degrees of success, but Elffor’s Dra Sad III, my first encounter with the project, manages to weave the vibes of those early 90s dungeon synth masterpieces into tapestries of their own. Dra Sad III, with the full title of Beneath The Uplands Of Doom, evoke longform, dense ambient soundscapes, with the right balance of…

Jim Kirkwood is something of a father to the dungeon synth world. His compositions bridge the gap between electronic soundtrack music and even – dare I say the buzz word – Berlin school kinda synth fuckery, but its the Tolkien inspired backdrop to these fantastical compositions that really is the icing on the cake. Middle Earth is a long album. I took it out with me and walked a few miles with my dog, burnt…

This is… different. I appreciate the sentiment and meaning behind it, but after two tracks I’m sick to death of it. Dungeon synth or any fantasy based electronic music is niche enough as it is, at this point it seems almost like a joke to narrow it down to “comfy” RPG interior music. I’m sure there’s an audience for this, but I’m not in that audience.

Mythic Dawn is a small single from Burzum that showcases the man’s skill at the synthesizer style of music. Honestly, outsiding of existing Burzum fans, there is nothing of value here, its super and short and to the point, kind of acting a sampler to what we would get in the very later extremes of the project’s life.

The Sleeping Green is a “lost” Lunar Womb release from back in the 90s. There’s not much to say except that this is a stunning collection of synthesiser compositions. Lunar Womb excels in the dungeon synth style, but the music is much more one with nature than it is with some made up dungeon full of goblins. I enjoyed.

Spooky, authentically exotic ambient music from this well constructed side project. I recently played the Daggerfall OST through and honestly some parts are eerily similar. All in all though, if you like your synthesizer soundscapes to have an ominous Eastern lean to them, I would heavily recommend you Call To The Deep.

Now this is what dungeon synth is all about, if you ask me. Maybe the warbling audio hiss of the tape rip has got me all nostalgic and teary eyed, but Eternal Fear’s 1995 offering is a beautiful journey through misty mountains and unknown chasms. Shit, any dungeon synth that makes me wanna break out Daggerfall is good in my books. Also, its an absolute pleasure to find OG 90s work that I haven’t heard…

There is often a thin line between black metal and dungeon synth, but None manages to blur that line even further. Imagine the dense atmospheres of the synth worlds, but driven by drums and harsh vocals. Life is definitely damp and chilly, especially for a Welshman such as myself, at this time of the year, but None step things up a notch even more so.

Those that know me in person surely no doubt know my undying love for the worlds of the Elder Scrolls, in particular parts 2 and 3, Daggerfall and Morrowind. The creative community around these game worlds is alive and kicking today, and Tamriel Rebuilt is a 18 year old mod (yes) that still continues to add swathes of new lands and adventures into TES III: Morrowind, arguably the best open world RPG in its vanilla…

This was an interesting listen. I’m just going to throw it out there now so its out of the way: I absolutely prefer the original versions. Now I can get to the music recorded for this album without constantly harking back. There are two new ingredients here – pomp and percussion. LOL. Some of these previously dreamy compositions are now bombastic stompers, with marching drums and fuller instrumentation. Honestly though, Spirit Of Rebellion sounds absolutely…

In the early 2010s I went through a phase of collecting all the old Mortiis dungeon synth records. Due to their insane resale value, I never ended up buying most of them, and Blood And Thunder was included on that list. Its recently been repressed, so I figured at the very least I should hunt this down and give it a listen. This is the perfect entry-level release for anyone who wants to try their…

Ah yes, the original Emperor Of Dimensions Unknown! The recent Spirit Of Rebellion sessions had me going back to these stunning early Mortiis long-form compositions (Ok, Ok, its just several songs glued together, I get it!) and I even shared a few with LIW contributor Burra, who will hopefully be joining me to see Mortiis along with Mayhem in Bristol, providing this COVID situation improves drastically. Anyways, about the record. If you are even remotely…

Thangorodrim is amongst the more well known dungeon synth artists of modern day, and rightly so; the project took Mortiis worship to a whole new level on the first debut album (not a bad thing in these circles) but on Prologue, Thangorodrim strikes out into territory I would comfortably call entirely it’s own. To my knowledge, Prologue combines a few of the older tape releases together onto one collection. Prologue is not a short record…

This ancient relic of 90s dungeon synth has quite a sad story, as its composer is no longer with us. This does add some morbid weight to the already sombre atmospheres, but let’s not define this artist’s life by his untimely death. Secret Stairways is, for me, an incredibly introspective record. It had a much more suspended, ambient vibe to its morose, glacial compositions than your average dungeon synth record; possessing instead of bombast or…

Fantastic, moody, old school style dungeon synthesizer music. My one complaint is that there is some sort of effect added that makes the recording sound like its come off an old cassette tape, which clashes badly with some of the busier compositions. This results in a few messy, confusing moments. For the most part however, Nameless King channels some great vibes and ideas, and I would recommend this record to other fans of the dungeon…

One of my favourite dungeon synth releases of the last few years. Granted, I’m not as deep into the genre as some, but unearthing gems like this is what makes this particular world of music so rewarding. What I love about this kind of thing is the unique worlds and visions that just listening alone is enough to conjure. Truly, it’s an art form and very evocative. Expect heavy winter based themes and vibes of…

A spooky, unhinged entry into the Cernunnos discography. The synth work is spot on as always; a bizarre, kooky whirl of tones that remind me more of German expressionist cinema (of all things) rather than deep dark woods and dungeons. My gripe with this release lies with the vocal performances, which are too loud and if anything, detract from the synth work below them.

Beautiful, gorgeous, stunning compositions in the dungeon synth style. Expect to get lost in deep woods, misty moors and dripping wet caves (oo er). Also, it has the ever fantastic bonus of soothing my baby to sleep so seems to be the perfect addition. This record is 21 years old at the time of writing, but really, stuff like this, when done so well, is absolutely timeless. Kauan koskematon by Jääportit

Uumenissa is an incredibly dense and atmospheric journey through richly woven worlds of ice and unknowing scale. The record is adorned with fairly abstract watercolour paintings which help you envisage the scapes being conjured by the music. I wouldn’t say it was strictly “dungeon synth” but shares a lot of similarities with the genre, if you are a fan of such things. Uumenissa by Jääportit

Turning point is the only real full length from Secret Stairways (unless you count his first release – I guess that could be an album too, for some reason though I just don’t see it that way) and marks a slight departure from the heavier fantasy themes from before. Sure, they are still there (just look at the cover art) but the introspective, pensive and droning synth work seems to be the order of the…

If you think dungeon synth is cheesy then walk away now, because this early side project from dungeon master Mortiis is just that. A far cry from the endless unfolding single-track monstrosities which birthed his synthesizer career, Fata Morgana is instead more wondrous, more celestial, and dipped in a healthy coating of a sticky, melted yellow substance that you would usually find on burgers and hotdogs. That said, this is a stunning record, and the…

If you wander the path of dungeon synth then you shall of course know the name Old Sorcery. I recently got through a bunch of records when up late playing Morrowind, unable to sleep alongside my girlfriend as I had been working nights. Old Sorcery, and in particular the Strange And Eternal record, helped massively in that regard. A fantastic record, sometimes the compositions hark back to more legendary synthesizer composers such as Jean-Michel Jarre…

After being drawn in by the lush album art and the slowly building intro, I am unfortunately having to report that I found this Forest Of Yore record to be incredibly disappointing. Why, you ask? The synths, if not a little slow (which is usually fine, if building such a dense and incredible atmosphere), are jarring horribly alongside sounds of nature. I can’t tell if its sampled or looped or genuine bird song, but Jesus…

This album is so good that I ripped it and imported it into my game files for TES III: Morrowind. Hliðskjálf builds on the gloomy MIDI-keyboard fantasy realms of Dauði Baldrs, sprawling into more moody and atmospheric keyboard work, which all at once conjure memories of very early Cradle Of Filth, fantasy table-top roleplaying, of course the misty mysteries of Morrowind, and even something altogether more Angelo Badalamenti. I consider the two Burzum prison albums…

I recently did a post where I said I was sad that Burzum hadn’t released anything for a while, and BOOM out of the murky waters comes this absolute gem of a double album! Dodgy Thule shit aside (make of that what you will) Burzum conjures the most unique and beautiful of dungeon synth atmospheres. He has his detractors, of course, but I am not in league with them. This could just be a tired…

This dropped a few months before the new Burzum record. I listened to them back to back, so I may be getting my head wrapped incorrectly around things, but the two records definitely share a number of tracks. It seems that this is a prototype for the album that eventually came, which was longer and with a different layout and track list. If Thulean Mysteries never came, then Thule would be an intriguing listen. Today…

Glorious, glorious, fucking glorious dungeon synth music. Immediately you will notice the classic video game bent to this, not only in the artwork but in the tone and style of the synth patches used. Kobold conjures memories of old school RPG’ing. If I close my eyes I am in the deepest, darkest dungeons. Absolutely fucking beautiful. HDK 02 † The cave of the lost talisman by KOBOLD

And here we have the scratchy beginnings of one of the most entertaining dungeon synth projects of all time. Local Portal is a local demo for local wizards, and yes, whilst the scale of production is much humbler here so it’s the overall tone and sense of daring adventure.