In the
heart of an icy forest stands the silhouette of a man, a lone wizard in meditation, as still as the dark surrounding trees, compelled to
do nothing but sway to crystalline winds.
All around the scene float mysterious colors, spirits of departed magic,
wisps of the essence, long since fled from our sterilized
world.
This is
some extremely pure dungeon synth from Mexico, released some months ago. It doesn't introduce anything new, but it
nails the traditional dungeon aesthetic.
The synths sound straight from the early 90's, rich and raw digital
orchestral tones, letting the full ugly colors of the patches shine through to
great effect.
The
tracks primarily wander over a static mood, slightly changing the riffs here
and there to keep the listener interested in the surrounding scene, but never
providing much conflict. So in that way
it should be primarily listened to as background music, a palpable ancient
atmosphere to guide one's concentration.
The mood is typically one of romanticized loss, which is evident in the
artist's name and track titles, focusing on the forgotten, the fallen,
the final, and the twilight. Night
descends for the last time, leaving one only with fading memories of the day to cling
to as they progress into the darkness.
I'm not very enthusiastic the piano is used in "Enchanted Dreams Waltz." Piano in dungeon synth is generally fine, as
is sentimentality, but when you mix the two it becomes a bit sappy
sounding. It doesn't ruin the song, and
it can be appreciated in and of itself, but I think it's a good way to indicate
the line between nostalgic yearning and sentimental camp; most of the album
falls into the former category, but not this track.
A real
guitar is introduced into the mix in the fourth track, "The Final
Battle." Normally guitars quickly
detract from the dungeon sound, bringing the cosmic synths back down to earth,
however here, very minimally playing the backing chords undistorted, it
strongly complements the concept of pure dungeon synth. So clearly one does not have to use all synth
to be true, but probably does need to compose with a synthesizer sensibility. Vocals are introduced in the last track,
"Twilight of Forgotten Times," and while they are quite fitting for
the genre, being ghostly whispers, they are a bit loud in the mix. But it's definitely on the right track, going
for vocals which serve atmosphere first and foremost.
While
this isn't a great album, it's a very good one for a debut.
A close comparison in mood, I think, would be
Depressive Silence.
It has that
thoroughly 90's digital sound, with that perfect amount of wear and decay, and
is fairly consistent in its atmosphere of mystical nostalgia.
It can be downloaded for free (or a price of your choosing) here:
http://forgottentimes.bandcamp.com/album/forgotten-times