#symphonic dungeon synth

[trvgbild]

𝔙𝔦𝔢𝔯𝔣​ü​𝔯𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔥𝔲𝔪 / 𝔄𝔫 𝔒𝔩𝔡 𝔖𝔞𝔡 𝔊𝔥𝔬𝔰𝔱

[haveyouheardthisband]

[cremationisirreversible]

𝖁𝖗𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖆𝖆𝖙𝖍 – 𝔐𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔒𝔣 𝔐𝔶 𝔄𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔞𝔩 𝔍𝔬𝔲𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔶

Under Vast Dreamskies / Atrocity Altar / 2020

[6vile6bile6]

Nazgûl

[drondskaath]

Hyver | Noirceur Mystique d'Autrefois | 2024

French Ambient/Medieval Black Metal

[fru1t--bat]

Some things I'm interested in because I need relatable mutuals..

Reminder, I also am like a minor, so if you're an adult please be careful 😇😇

Cowboys

RDR1 & RDR2

Arthur Morgan

The wild west

The Victorian era

Pretty much the whole 19th century

Appalachian folklore

LOTR, and like all of the Tolkien universe

Skyrim

Music, folk, bluegrass, country, Appalachian mountain music

Writing

Art

I love learning about occult and witchy stuff

Banjo, guitar and bass

Elves

Vampires

Bg3

The phantom of the opera

Like anything fantasy or mystical

Books

[theparanoid]

Orkrist - Grond

(2003, full album)

[Symphonic Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Folk Metal, Dungeon Synth]

[fvckinnefor]

how can i get more into black metal and the culture? coming from someone whos most heavy band in my wrapped last year and probably this year was cannibal corpse

Hii, I've had this in my inbox for a while I'm sorry :(

Well there are no rules when it comes to listening to music. It's really up to you whether you like it or not and that's totally understandable. I've been in the scene for a while now, and I've listened to a lot of other genres before, needless to say in some aspects of the music it can sound relatively similar to other genres. There are black metal bands that are less melodic and ones that are more melodic. As well as a decent amount of subgenres. ↓

Quick guide to black metal ★

Starting off from the history that black metal is quite known for, I'd say Mayhem and Burzum as well as Darkthrone had the biggest impact on it. You're probably familiar with Pelle's suicide and the album cover so I will not get that much into the whole story as well as pretty much any conversation regarding Mayhem since I'm not really a fan of the band. — Summarized: Lots of murder, lots of suicide, lots of sacrifices, and burning churches. There are documentaries that explain it quite well, and I recommend you to watch "Until the light takes us" rather than wasting time watching "lords of chaos".

Instead of getting into the scene with Mayhem as most people do, try listening to bands that overlap with your favourite genre. For an example, if you like thrash maybe try checking out blackened thrash metal. If you're a fan of stuff that is more melodic maybe go with symphonic or melodic black metal. My personal favourite when I first started listening to black metal was Bathory, Burzum came second and from then on I took a liking into Darkthrone.

As I mentioned, there are numerous genres that you can explore and every band has a different execution !! — Lifelover and Xasthur are both DSBM but are fairly different.

I'd say the scene is the most important part of it. Ranging from the way they dress, how they act on stage, their personal beliefs and so much more.

Corpse paint: Corpse paint is the face paint worn amongst the black metal community, it is used to, of course, make you look like a corpse. Necrobutcher from the band "Mayhem" insisted that they were the first in the scene to wear corpse paint, with Pelle (Dead) Ohlin (their vocalist) being the origin. Today it is heavily mistaken for other styles of face paint. It is not clown paint, it is not anything similar to Jazmin Bean's old makeup style, it is not Joey Jordison's mask style and it definitely isn't the juggalo face paint. For reference, here's a sheet of numerous corpse paint designs:

No paint on the nose, black all around the eyes and usually lines exaggerating your mouth into a frown, as mentioned before it is called corpse paint because it is supposed to make you look like a corpse.

Themes: Black metal's main themes are anti-religion, Satanism, nature, suicide, darkness, and many more. It all depends on the subgenre, really.

DSBM → Depressive Suicidal Black Metal

NSBM → National Socialist Black Metal

It has a high range of genres, as I said. For an example Kellersynth, which still falls under the black metal umbrella (because it branches from DS) even though it sounds NOTHING like it and has no elements of black metal. It originated from Dungeon synth. Now I am not so familiar with the scene of KS as I only got into it last year but it is mainly known for it's designs with the contrast between the dark colours and the highly saturated neon ones, witch hats, gnomes, mushrooms, etc. Pretty sure Kellersynth started the whole gnome hunting trend on TikTok that was popular a while ago but I'm not so sure on that? If someone could tell me more about it, I'd be thankful. It branched off the Dungeon Synth subgenre, except DS is usually gloomy and mysterious sounding whereas KS sounds sort of like techno according to the newer versions of it at least, one of my friends even compared it to the "Jumpstyle" music or whatever it's called. Pretty sure Kellersynth was started by friedhof/grollfried or so I've read a while ago.

Note - Just like with DSBM and other genres, KS also ranges depending on what artist you are listening to. For example Hexenmeister is a lot different than B.S.o.D (mentioning him because he had, I'd say, a great impact on both DS and KS)

PS !! For more info about Grausamkeit here is an article that I think really does a great job at explaining his discography.

[ 1 ] - Wizard of uralia [ 2 ] - Hexenmeister [ 3 ] - Hirtenmörder

Note - Hirtenmörder is tanzelcore but I'm still gonna include it

The difference between KS and Tanzelcore is that Tanzelcore draws from techno and KS draws from dungeon synth, most of the examples I've named up there are pretty much more tanzelcore than Kellersynth but I am putting them out as a perfect example of the cover art. → Bright neon colours, contrast.

These were the first few bands I came across, but my personal favourite is Morkesis. If you happen to like this kind of music and want to find more bands like these, check out the official DEATH FETISH youtube channel.

DSBM is a subgenre that's main themes are suicide, self mutilation, heartbreak, sadness, depression, etc. Again, there are a lot of bands and each one has their own execution. Here is my playlist with some of my favourite DSBM songs!!

The Community is quite toxic, by quite I mean really lol. If you decide to dive into the scene don't be surprised when you come across a lot of neo-nazis and white supremacists, ESPECIALLY in the KS and true Norwegian scene (not even gonna mention NSBM). The gatekeeping is a classic, of course. I'm pretty sure there is no community that gatekeeps like the BM community. In conclusion: Keep your favorite underground bands hidden if you don't want death threats coming at you by other fans of the band for making their favourite artists "mainstream". But even though there are a lot of gatekeepers, there are a lot of posers as well. Now don't get me wrong, "poser" is a very harsh label and I truly only intend to put it on those who are apart of the community for the aesthetics and fangirl/boy typa reason. By far, I don't think any band has a worse fandom than Mayhem, just a simple google search of their name will get you into a rabbit hole of fanart, fanfictions and other gross stuff.

Some fun subgenres worth exploring: (★ on my favs!)

psychedelic black metal ★

kellersynth

tanzelcore

DSBM ★

dungeon synth ★

blackened thrash metal ★

Industrial black metal

black gaze ★

war metal

NSBM (only for the music)

atmospheric BM ★

symphonic BM

melodic BM

folk BM

raw BM ★

blackened death metal ★

Blackened speed metal

Blackened gothic metal

Progressive black metal

Viking metal

Orthodox (or any religious) black metal

Black n roll, etc...

Back in the day, "black-metalheads" were referred to as Blacksters, though I am not sure if that term is still used to this day. But you probably came across the term "Trve Kvlt".

→ Trve Kvlt is basically a joke amongst the community now, I have never seen a true black metal enjoyer unironically use the term. I am pretty sure it originated it originated amongst the true Norwegian scene but is today only used as a joke. "That's so trve kvlt."

Note - As I am writing this I searched up the term as I was curious on it's origin and haven't learned about it before, I found this comment from a reddit user (u/noscope360gokuswag) that I feel like provides a decent enough explanation to the term.

"There is a big explanation in the book "Lords of Chaos" which is solely about the rise of Black Metal following the bands Mayhem, Burzum, and all of the chaos that came from them.

The term originated in the Norwegian black metal sub-culture of the early 1990s to describe ground-breaking artists including Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone and Emperor, whose militantly satanic ethos exemplified the era's black metal feel. Non-satanic bands expressing Norse paganism or strong anti-Christian sentiment may still be regarded as kvlt.

It was originally used by early black metal artists and fans to attribute authenticity to certain bands and was spelled that way due to spelling in Old English (v was used instead of u)

Now it has been transformed into a joke word and used to make fun of bands that try way too hard."

So in conclusion, knowing the history of the subculture and enjoying the music is enough to make you a Blackster. The community has a knot up their ass, everybody faces discrimination amongst it no matter what you do at this point lol. But my advice is to slowly start from the genre and/or band that's the most similar to your music taste now.

Melodic music → Melodic black metal, symphonic black metal, dungeonsynth, blackgaze etc

Heavy → Raw black metal, True Norwegian, blackened death metal, war metal etc

Infamous people in the black metal scene;

[ 1 ] - Count Grishnackh / Varg vikernes (Burzum, Mayhem, Old funeral. (I think there were more though)) [ 2 ] - Per Yngve (Pelle/Dead) Ohlin (Mayhem, Morbid) [ 3 ] - Gylve Fenris Nagell / Fenriz (Darkthrone, Valhall, Neptune Towers, Storm, Isengard (And I'm positive that there was more but these are just the ones I know of as of now.)) [ 4 ] - Øystein Aarseth / Euronymous (Mayhem (lmk if there's any that I'm missing))

Since I skipped over Mayhem's history, here is a documentary that you can watch if interested;

UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US:

A Playlist You Might Want To Check Out:

(( Another thing is I see a lot of Blacksters online saying that if you don't want to be a poser you have to exclusively listen to black metal only. I don't agree with that and believe you can be into black metal without only limiting your music taste to only black metal and it's subgenres, but then again being a Blackster also includes mainly listening to black metal → So it's your top genre. ))

+

You can be a black-metalhead and be a Christian, listening to black metal does NOT make you a nazi even if you listen to NSBM (as long as you're not actively supporting the artist and their beliefs) Not everyone in the black metal scene is a nazi and most of those who spread around such bullshit are not even educated about it. Ps to all of the haunted mound, "skinhead", sped up songs retards that are getting into black metal over TikTok and spreading around nazi propaganda YOU ARE A POSER!!!

At the end of the day black metal is only music. Those who like it will like it and those who don't, don't.

That's all I could come up with for now, I am very tired and I don't have the time to proofread all of this. If there are any troubles, grammar mistakes or gaps in my explanation/knowledge LMK!! Hope this helps at least a little bit. ♡

[swangtup6]

Album Review: Wintermoon - The Mightiest Stand Above (1995)

Wintermoon, from Finland, is a personal favorite band of mine. I found them through their 1995 rehearsal/demo and discovered this release shortly after. They have a lovely take on the genre, and honestly don't get their praises sung enough, likely due to the other finnish bands that were popping off with full-lengths while these guys only ever released demos. Whatever the reason, I've never heard anyone talk about this band online or IRL so id consider them to be a bit of a hidden gem. How great is this underrated demo? Let's discuss.

The tape kicks off with a nice synth intro. I really like the intro actually, because it sets the tone for the demo, is pleasant to listen to, and doesn't take up a shit ton of time (it's only like a minute long). Overall, good start.

Then kicks in the first real song, and if it isn't fucking great idk what it is. It goes hard from the first riff. Wintermoon have a dope combination of black metal and dungeon synth that I really enjoy, so most of the riffing on this is layered with pleasant melodic synths that contrast well with the raw and distorted guitar and drums, somewhat in the realm of late-90s Grausamkeit (especially when it picks up the pace) but a bit cleaner recording-wise. I like this track a lot, it has a hazy, somewhat ethereal sound to it while still having the cold black metal vibe. It's also pretty hook-y, but in a kvlt way, with some catchy synth melodies weaving their way through the distorted mix. This is a very well-composed song, with multiple distinct movements that vary quite a bit but don't sound disjointed.

The 2nd real song, and 3rd overall track, is a little more guitar-heavy, with some almost shoegaze-y staticky riffing taking the forefront and the synths more in the background providing higher pitched melodies. This track also reminds me of Grausamkeit but also of Burzum, what with its slow/medium pace for the main part of the song. the first track is definitely the "flagship" here but this one is also fantastic, and has some beautiful playing, especially from the drummer and keyboardist, as well as during the guitar solo.

The tape ends with another more dungeon synth-y track. This one is a bit longer than the first, but isn't quite as good in my mind. Still a competent piece!

Overall, if you like BSoD, this is a fantastic release. It's very much in that same realm of pseudo-symphonic, dungeon synth tinged black metal as found in most Grausamkeit releases from 1997-2000, but with a slower and more ethereal take. It's much more relaxed as well, I wouldn't call this an aggressive or even particularly high energy release at all, it's very beautiful to listen to, and despite its pretty raw sound (it is a mid-90s black metal demo after all) it's pretty relaxing and accessible. I would highly recommend this to those who are already fans of black metal, but I don't think it would be a great introduction to the genre due to its pretty unconventional sound.

8/10

Standout track: Night so Cryptic is All Mine

[trvgbild]

𝔊𝔞𝔩𝔡𝔯𝔲𝔪 - 𝔖𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔪𝔨𝔢𝔢𝔭

[dresmire]

November 2022 Most Jammed Albums/EPs:

(I promise, I'm going to catch up, soon!)

Each month I will be posting the 10 albums that I found myself frequenting the most! Some will be new releases, while others may be backlist titles. I enjoy being able to look back over time to see which music held my attention. Let me know if any of these are among your favorites…or if you happen to give any a listen through…let’s talk music! In alphabetical order:

Anthelion(幻日) - Bloodshed Rebefallen: Symphonic Black Metal from Taipei, Taiwan. 2007.

Buck-Tick - Cosmos: Visual-Kei/J-Rock from Fujioka, Gunma, Japan. 1996.

Ceremonial Castings - Our Journey Through Forever: Symphonic Blackened Death Metal from Battle Ground, Washington, USA. 2022.

Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror: Darkwave/Indie/Shoegaze from Loas Angelas, California, USA. 2019.

Lord Mantis- Death Mask: Blackened Sludge from Chicago, Illinois, USA. 2014.

Nécropole - Solarité: Black Metal from Ariège, Occitanie, France. 2018.

Oar - The Blood You Crave: Post-Black Metal from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 2022.

Sukekiyo - Immortalis: Experimental Rock 'Supergroup' from Japan. 2014.

The Bishop of Hexen - The Death Masquerade: Symphonic Black Metal from Ramat HaSharon, Tel Aviv, Israel. 2020.

Wood Archer - Blood Moon Sorcery: True Iconoclastic Lo-Fidelity Dark Ambient Dungeon Synth from California, USA. 2022.

[gabethesquid]

Releasing Music

I'm a musician. I started guitar when I was 10, and started playing trumpet in the school band the same year (that year being 2014). In February of 2020, I started working with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and composing my own music.

I made a lot of music throughout the pandemic. Some symphonic stuff, an electronic album, a folk black metal album, two doom metal albums. two dungeon synth albums, and various other tracks. One of the doom albums I released, and it was bad. I deleted it and gave up.

In the spring semester of my senior year of high school (January-June of 2022), I took a Music Tech class, taught by the band teacher. Of what I recorded during that time, I only saved a 5 song electronic album.

Even then, I kept that album close. I thought it was awful, because I remembered how long it took me, a few mistakes that made it into the final recordings, and I just lacked the confidence.

Then I made it to the Liberal Arts college that I go to (that being SUNY Purchase). A lot of people had released albums, and thought that my electronic album was actually pretty good. It took a lot of back and forth in my brain, but I decided to release the album. I revived an old Instagram account for my doom metal and decided to unite my musical projects under one banner: "Of the Mountains Projects", with a logo done by a friend.

Where does that name come from? My last name, Berger, translates from German as "Mountain Dweller" or from French as "Shepherd". Considering it comes from the Jewish side of my family, I'd bet that it has the German meaning (considering how many Jewish people have German last names).

I released the album on September 9th, 2022, under the project name Ymir's Gunship, with an album cover I got by running a picture of a Florida Beach hotel through a filter. It didn't get much hype. I shrugged. It wasn't a perfect album, not by any means. And it was my first, it wasn't bound to get much attention.

Then, on November 9th, 2022, I began to hyperfixate on some riffs I'd written a few months before. I had gotten some MIDI drum tracks and decided to work with them. Within 24 hours I had fully recorded a 3 song Black Metal EP. This too I was told was good.

I released it under the name Wilgskill on November 18th, 2022, with a 19th century painting as the cover and a terribly done logo, and asked Antifascist Black Metal Network, a YouTube channel specializing in Antifascist and leftist extreme metal, to promote it. And they did! The video with the album came out exactly a month after I started to record the EP.

And this actually got some attention. Four people bought the album, and my Instagram for Of The Mountains Projects, formerly just followed by some friends, got a few more followers, including a notable Red Anarchist Black Metal project (a Bring Forth the Exodus member's side project).

I'm working on a ton of new music right now. The next Wilgskill EP is being worked on. A medieval black metal EP is too. I'm almost done with a kind of avant-garde electronic album. And I've formed an actually four person band, so that'll be doing some stuff too!

Was this just a long way of promoting my music? Maybe, but I don't care.

[humannish]

Just asking out of curiosity. I'm trying to get into more genres of metal, so if there's any recommendations for black metal, please do share, as I am still in my nu-metal phase, and I feel like a dork 💔 have a good dayyyyyy :]

incoming yap session. sorry i just love black metal.

so as far as black metal i say start with the classics/ basics: mayhem, burzum, darkthrone, old school Satyricon, emperor, venom, bathory. from there youll discover and find more stuff that youll like. other bands like blasphemy, conquerer and archgoat are some bestial black metal bands witha more primal and chaotic death metal sound. i reccomend using bandcamp (website and app) and rate your music (website) to discover more bands, as well as black metal dedicated youtube channels that release demos/albums by all kinds of bands. theres so much good bm out there bro.

take time to learn about the different styles of black metal. not only is it helpful to be knowledgable but it makes it easier to find what you like. for example theres raw black metal, symphonic black metal, bestial black metal, melodic black metal, depressive suicidal black metal (DSBM), atmospheric black metal, blackened sludge metal, and so on and so forth. its a schizophrenic amount of bm genres out there atp.

Dark ambient and dungeon synth are common genres Black metal fans like so Id check those out too. Ghöest is a nice dungeon synth band I like to listen to.

STAY AWAY from "DSBM" blackgaze emo retarded ass bands like lifelover, happy days, decalius, whatever the fuck those bands suck theyre just emo larping as black metal. they are not DSBM. stick to the real stuff.

Also NSBM is National Socialist Black Metal its where alot of Nazis and shit like to hang out so I reccomend staying away if youre not into that kind of thing.

Overall dont worry too much about how "problematic" a band is and just enjoy the music.

End of yap session sorry i just love talking to ppl about metal.

[flowersandbirdsflyingfree]

Tbh that makes a lot of sense

I can't handle still silence myself, which is why I sleep with a fan at night, for constant white noise.

I can't stand pitch black darkness either, so I sleep with a star projector in my room, which keeps things dark enough for me to sleep, but there's enough light for me to see what's around me, y'know?

And as for music, I personally prefer some bands like Panic! At the Disco and Set It Off, but my music taste is a bit all over the place lmao

I don't listen to just one genre or type of song, it can be described as "If it's good, it's good" tbh

I'm a avid listener of music too, and I do it almost every day lmao

Car rides mainly is when I listen to music the most, so I can imagine animatics/music videos for the song I'm listening to!

OMG I NEED A NEW STAR PROJECTOR BC MINE BROKE😭💖💖💖 So happy you have one at least! It helps make the room more peaceful at night

There is one song I like from Panic! At The Disco called “Turn Off The Lights”.

My music genres are varied as well! But I’d say I enjoy:

-Heavy Metal (sub genres are usually melodic, death, thrash, nu-metal, symphonic, and groove)

- Goth Rock/Darkwave

-New Wave/80s alt

-Grunge/90s alt

-Dungeon Synth

-Industrial music

-90s and 2000s dance/house

-Sinatra-style jazz

-Ambience (dark and happy dreamy kinds)

-Some modern indie artists

[coffinyawns]

𝕭𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖗𝖊 — 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔬𝔣 𝔈𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔬𝔯