#old school dungeon synth

[damage-cloud]

Damage Cloud logo (by me)

[no-gender-only-noise]

Festung - Der Turm

2022/Atmospheric Black Metal, Raw Black Metal, Old School Dungeon Synth/Germany

Released independently (digital/tape) and on DLP via Amor Fati Productions. Tape long sold out, LP still available trough AF's webshop

[gargarismo-blog1]

BACK TO BASIC

DEPRESSIVE SILENCE - Mourning (remastered)

Third demo, released in 1996. This digital release features the extensive remastered version (2019 @ Iguana Studios).

[sadeyes-dream]

[monumental-darkness]

[autolysia]

https://www.instagram.com/autolysia/

[broken1angel1hospital]

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

Listen/purchase: True Gnomewegian Dungeon Synth by Garden Gnome

🍄👁️🧝🧝‍♀️🧝‍♂️True Gnomewegian Dungeon Synth~by Garden Gnome 

[shardsofzatira]

[girl-debord]

River's 13 Punk & Metal Albums of 2024

13. Paprika - Let's Kill Punk

As one of the more conventional hardcore albums on this list, Paprika's debut LP stands out by doubling down on everything I love about the genre. The bass is rough, rough, rough, and the vocals sound like they were recorded in a storm drain, giving the album an almost-live quality. The only thing it loses points for is being so short, but even that's in the spirit of hardcore.

Favorite track: Greasy Pig Disease

12. drive your plow over the bones of the dead - tragedy as catharsis

I know, I know. Yes, Gen X followers, it's an emoviolence album. If the high-pitched vocals & aversion to capitalization don't scare you off, I think you'll enjoy how this sound is pushing the powerviolence formula forward. It is possible to be sad & kick ass at the same time.

Favorite track: arrangement

11. Traumatizer - Traumatizer

This is a 12-minute/7-song hardcore debut that won me over almost instantly. The vocals remind me a bit of early Nausea, and the bass-forward breakdowns are scratching that NJ hardcore itch that I've had since Sick Shit broke up.

Favorite track: Outnumbered

10. Paysage D'Hiver - Die Berge

Paysage D'Hiver embodies that horseshoe theory approach to atmospheric black metal--when you make something noisy & lo-fi enough, it starts to sound ambient. To put it a different way, this album has more in common with a lot of my favorite dungeon synth releases than most conventional metal. It uses repetition to its advantage & really gets that bleak, wintry vibe across. That being said, how often do I have nearly two hours to dedicate to a single album? Maybe a girl with a longer commute would rank this one a little higher.

Favorite track: Transzendenz II

9. Thou - Umbilical

It's been way too long since we had a proper Thou album. Needless to say, I was stoked about this one. Umbilical is overall less sludgy, often speeding things up for more hardcore- and grunge-adjacent tracks, but it keeps the vocal style and metal guitar sounds that Thou is so known for. It doesn't feel as thematic or directional as most of their earlier releases, but it gets at the stuff I like without being similar enough to feel stagnant.

Favorite track: I Feel Nothing When You Cry

8. Poison Ruïn - Confrere

Poison Ruïn left themselves big shoes to fill with last year's Härvest, but that's one of my favorite albums of all time, so I'm trying to cut them some slack. The new sound they bring with Confrere is a little less focused on stenchore-nostalgic riffs and has more in common with old-school hardcore. It works really well on a few notable songs--like the title track--but the rest of the album feels a bit like filler (even the dungeon synth parts, which are still pretty strong). I think there's just not enough going on on this album to turn a few great songs into a great album--but damn, those great songs really are great.

Favorite track: Execute

7. Bootlicker - 1000 Yd. Stare

I somehow missed this album when it came out in May, so when I finally listened to it a couple weeks ago, I had to totally rearrange this list to fit it in. It's worth it--Bootlicker brings an unlikely combination of clunky d-beat production & oi-tinged vocals that ended up sticking with me more than I expected it to. The band also seems to have hit its stride in using the military/military-fetish theming to maximum caustically-ironic effect.

Favorite track: Mercy Dog

6. S.H.I.T. - For A Better World

Some of the best drumming from this year in the vehicle of an extremely short lo-fi hardcore record. It feels like a Discharge demo tape performed with a sneer and stimulants. I only wish it was longer, even just that last track could keep going for 10 minutes & this might be my #1 pick.

Favorite track: Imminent Destruction

5. Lagrimas - A Life of Destruction

I've been keeping up with Lagrimas for a few years and I'm excited to say that their first LP cashes in--and improves--on everything I love about their recorded material up to this point. The grind drum licks, the lacrimose emo guitars, the post-rock song structures--it's all here & turned up to 11. The Habak features are great, but the band really stands on its own now. If I had to pick something to complain about, it would be the extended dialogue sampled in the middle of the album, but even that contributes to the overall tone. More than anything, I'm really excited to see people my age doing something new with the crust punk genre.

Favorite track: Cultural Destruction.

4. Trhä - ∫um'ad∂ejja cavvaj

Damián Ojeda's project Trhä had crossed my path before with albums that combined black metal & dungeon synth with a mix of softer electronic sounds and danceable drum machine tracks. This album, on the other hand, is much more traditional, but I find myself drawn to it because of that--it seems to descend into a primordial era of black metal where the realms of crust punk and death metal aren't so far away. Maybe that's only the hallucination of a poor traveller lost in the world of Trhä's atmospheric invention, missing her precious d-beats, but the madness this album has afflicted me with isn't going anywhere. The tremolo picking starts to sound like bowed strings & juggles minor and major keys under howling vocals. I'm totally entranced.

Favorite track: ah qältak da £ä Kado£ m £ä Nahatlav

3. POLLUTE. - Microplastics, Massive Profits

https://pollute.bandcamp.com/album/microplastics-massive-profits

POLLUTE's demo tape back in May had already put them on my list of acts to keep an eye on. This album is everything I had hoped to see from them, and so shortly after that first release too. In a genre as niche as d-beat punk, it's impressive to get so much variety on a single album--at only 20 minutes long, no less. "Castle Freaks" does something to the style I've never heard before, and I can't wait to hear more innovations like it--and that's not even the high point of the album for me. POLLUTE's got the right mix of cruster craziness & hardcore deliberateness, bringing very controlled breakdowns to their most off-the-walls tracks. It rules.

Favorite track: Cancer They Create

2. Lifeless Dark - Forces of Nature's Transformation

https://lifelessdark.bandcamp.com/album/forces-of-natures-transformation

The first time I heard this, I stood there with my mouth open through, like, the first three tracks. I just can't believe anyone is making music like this in 2024. Holy shit. The reverb-y vocals, the Bolt-Thrower-esque riffage, it's all perfect. Lifeless Dark doesn't just worship the stenchcore gods, they understand them.

Favorite track: Feeding the Light

1. Kriegshög - Love & Revenge

https://lavidaesunmus.bandcamp.com/album/love-revenge

There's nothing like a band you've never been super attached to releasing a completely flawless album. From the first note I just couldn't believe what I was hearing--it's an incredible balance of being legible and--dare I say it--catchy while being totally uncompromising on the drive of d-beat hardcore. The vocals are shouted with just a hint of a shriek that gives the lyrics an urgency unhindered by language barriers. The guitars are fuzzy and distorted but kept under tight control, passing melodies back & forth and dropping out to let the drums shine at key junctures. It's beautiful. It's Motörhead a few decades after being abducted into a post-apocalyptic alternate universe when the bloodlust has really started to sink in. I hold Kriegshög fully responsible for making me start working on a new spiky leather jacket & knocking over college kids in the train station, plus any other acts of depravity from this year not fit to print. This album has become my mantra, my pulse, my anthem.

Favorite track: Grey Agony

[dungeonsynthguide]

📌

Welcome to the Dungeon Synth Guide! I'm Nick, your host, and this is my blog where I post dungeon synth I've heard and liked, and sort each release into various sub-types. The main home of this guide is actually on RateYourMusic.

What is dungeon synth? Dungeon synth is a form of electronic music that came into being in the 1990s, taking influence from various sources—most commonly pastiches of medieval folk music, progressive electronic, ambient, and RPG soundtracks. Dungeon synth was frequently performed by musicians within the black metal scene, especially in its early days, so much of it has ties to black metal as well. It was easy and inexpensive to put demos on cassette tape by hand, and cassettes remain popular among fans to this day. The genre nearly died out in the mid-to-late 2000s, but interest in it was renewed in the 2010s due to the Internet making music discovery and sharing much easier. With the barrier to entry regarding producing and publishing one's own music lower than ever, a vibrant community of dungeon synth enthusiasts has emerged—one in which some preserve the traditional sound of old-school dungeon synth while others push the envelope to test the limits of the genre. You can browse by sub-type here. You can browse by country of origin here. You can browse by decade here. Reblogs are tagged with "reblog." They are tagged with "potpourri" if they aren't specifically dungeon synth related. If you're into fash/NS shit, you're not welcome here. Fuck off!

[thydungeongal]

dungeon gal, what is your opinion on dungeon synth?

It's okay! I'm not the biggest fan but like idk there is something charming about a musical genre built entirely around those dinky keyboard solos from early black metal and with the aesthetics of old-school role-playing games. Musically most of it doesn't exactly set me on fire, but I realize my sample size is very small admittedly and I'm certain I would find something I liked if I looked further.

[alphachromeyayo]

Druid Grove Theme from Baldur's Gate 3 but make it metal af ⚔️🤘

Fully obsessed with this game, and when I'm not playing, I'm blasting the awesome soundtrack.

So I made this ridiculous thing, old school Mortiis kinda dungeon synth vibes. Enjoy, I hope!

[princessfaerygia]

Ok y'all I decided I am going to the gym. I took a bath and feel refreshed. And being ADHD, unmedicated for it, I don't currently feel the concentration to practice yoga. The stairstepper is simple, plain, structured, easy. I'm wearing dark blue polka dotted leggings, plain washed out black v neck shirt, and dark blue cardigan with my dark green neck warmer. I brought the white gloves, newly washed. And of course I'm wearing my light grey new balance sneakers. I don't think I will ever buy another type of shoe. This is my third time buying these particular grey sneakers. They are comfy and great. I wear them with everything. Even if I had a dress to wear, I'd wear my sneakers. For awhile I was posting kawaii pink, blue, white, and black dresses. Its fun to daydream about being super kawaii, or fairy kei. Even elegant gothic Lolita. When I was in highschool I loved the band "malice mizer". Mana, the vocalist, is how i learned the elegant gothic lolita look. The songs are part Japanese and English, tho mostly Japanese. Sometimes throughout my life I listen to music in different languages. My other favorite singer is Henri Dekongue, who sings mostly in different language i don't understand. He is so jolly and warm. But lately I don't listen to music much. For a long time I was very interested in dungeon synth and instrumental music, piano very much. My fave band is probably secret stairways and tangerine dream. For a period of time in my life when I stayed at my rapists apartment the room would glow blue with his fish tank and id play "boards of Canada". I enjoy that band alot. When I was in my teens my favorite bands were Jack off jill, hole, and most of all the Dresden dolls. I even performed an art piece on stage with the Dresden dolls and kissed Amanda Palmer on the lips once at a show. I asked her permission, but I believe I was only 17 or 18 years old lol. She wore striped white and black stockings at nearly every performance. So in high school as much as I could I wore striped white n black stockings with a fairy shredded black skirt, or frilly black skirt. I remember cutting my arms because of her song"bad habit" which is about self injury. I don't think she's a good role model and I'm a bit peeved she used to be my fixation/obsession. I also tweezed each of my eyebrow hairs out one by one, and drew them on with liquid black eyeliner. Like she does, or did, but I'm sure she isn't OCD like me and just shaved her brows off like a less ocd person would. Alright I'm about to go to gym now. Thankyou for allowing me to share. I hope this is a safe place for sharing. Love y'all!

[monumental-darkness]