Medhelan’s Debut Is a Finely Filigreed Piece of Earthy Synth Music that Is Steeped in Celtic Culture

Although not exactly a rarity in worldwide folklore, the idea of a ‘horned serpent’ is especially rich in the Celtic mythology from which Matteo Brusa of Medhelan draws his inspiration. Perhaps this is pertaining to the god ‘Cernunnos’—certainly horned and often known in serpent form, and whose connotations transcend (although without necessarily predating) those which […]

Mist of Misery – Absence

There is a beauty in melancholy which, when expressed through music that mirrors its attributes, can be truly mesmerizing. Mist of Misery is all about this dark beauty; they are not trying to create black metal that is frightening, demonic, or anything of the sort. This is romantic; it is black capes and candles and […]

Riding Dawn Revolt’s “Baldr Enligthement and Purification” Is a Staggeringly Amateur Dungeon Synth Debut

Where to start with this piece of work? The cassette release of Riding Dawn Revolt‘s Baldr Enligthement and Purification (sic) is so plagued by presentation flaws that it defies any attempt to write about it. To look past the poorly designed j-card, to ignore the egregious misspelling of the cassette’s title, to pretend not to […]

Winterblood’s Pure Ambient Winter Music Comes to Life on “La via di neve”

When we last heard from Winterblood, we were attempting to ascend the cold wintry landscape of the Italian Alps. With La via di neve, we have now reached the top of the mountain, looking down to see the world below while knowing this forced isolation shall conjure up more than just the freezing cold. A monotonous […]

Moloch Invokes the Brutal Barren Winters of Carpathia through “Die Isolation”

Moloch makes it clear where their allegiances lie: firmly within the world of Burzum-style lo-fi black metal. A number of things make this clear, from the use of runes as song titles and the album cover’s dark forest illustration to a monstrous discography that stretches back over a decade and is absurdly prolific. In fact, […]

Ethereal Mist – Wandering through the Void

This is an album that does exactly what it says on the label.  ‘Wandering’: aimlessly moving from place to place, without purpose or destination; ‘void’: a lack of anything concrete, without distinguishing features or substance. Apparently, this is not an album proper but a collection of tracks taken from three other releases, two of them […]

Grimrik – Die Mauern der Nacht

In Tolkien lore, to which this title makes reference, the ‘walls of the night’ are the boundaries between the known world and the unknown. It stands as an apt metaphor for Grimrik‘s adventurous blend of future-fantasy synthwork, as mixing the known and the unknown is the key to his sophomore effort on Deivlforst Records—one I […]

Forgotten Pathways – A Long Way Home

Forgotten Pathways is a recently resurrected project from Germany which deals in medieval ambient music—also often referred to as dungeon synth. The man behind Forgotten Pathways is Cedric Hommel, who, having released the Shrouded in Mystery demo in 1997, promptly put the project to rest. A Long Way Home sees his return with a debut […]

Murgrind – Inheritor of the Forest Throne

Lurking amidst the dark forests of Deutschland, there dwells a mysterious character in Murgrind. He is the protagonist in an opera of his own making. Wielding a mighty blowing horn, this noble savage transmits the soundtrack of a mystical realm to the rest of us in our places of comfort and modernity. Why does he […]