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Post by Tidemancer on Dec 26, 2021 10:08:27 GMT -5
Hi everyone!
As I'm starting to incorporate more and more dungeon synth elements in my own music, which is at this point some sort of black metal and post rock hybrid with synths and DS inspired melodies and interludes, but I'm not sure it'd qualify as proper dungeon synth.
I like the DS community as it's generally much more "fluid" and less prone to elitism like many other underground music communities, but I was curious to know: where do you draw the line between real DS and just "synthy stuff"?
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Post by mahrgdidj on Dec 26, 2021 12:21:25 GMT -5
Personally I think it’s a state of mind thing. You have artists on HDK making all kinds of synth focused music, but they have a very strong dungeon-leaning aesthetic and ethic. Then you have Baerdcyn who barely uses any synths at all and still fits snugly under the descriptor, and has been totally embraced by the community too. I know many folks would say the type of music I put out doesn’t fit every convention for the genre, but it’s always what I’ve considered it. I guess it happens but I really haven’t encountered any gatekeeping.
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Post by Daytol on Dec 26, 2021 13:21:20 GMT -5
"Synthy stuff" is just that. Usually dungeon synth is more moody.
As I've mentioned the new age group Cusco a few times on these forums they're new age. Not much of their stuff is moody. Anyone with at least half a brain can tell the difference between the two genres. As I've heard (/own most) I think like seven of Cusco's cds not a single one sounds anything like d. synth except maybe a few seconds of a song here and there.
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Post by Tidemancer on Dec 27, 2021 10:09:22 GMT -5
"Dungeon Synth" is a label which was invented "a posteriori". It is a galaxy of musical and thematic sensibilities, not a "genre", so there cannot be any "stylistic purity" concerning DS. That's what I gathered, yeah, from what I've gathered it's more of an attitude than anything. Just wanted to know how the community feels about it
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Post by mahrgdidj on Dec 27, 2021 22:18:42 GMT -5
…a galaxy of musical and thematic sensibilities… Well said, stealing this. Daytol, did you ever hear that The Sprout release that was basically a slowed down version of a Cusco album? Had me convinced until I found out lol.
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Post by Daytol on Dec 28, 2021 0:43:38 GMT -5
Yeah, that was posted on here. Pathetic, but at least he had good taste, I'll grant him that.
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Post by scuttlegoat on Jan 25, 2022 6:44:40 GMT -5
I´m pretty new to Dungeon Synth, but I always thought part of the sound was embracing outdated sounds in a way that was mostly unironic. Like how Romplers are very common in DS, but most producers for other genres would basically not consider them at all. So for me personally, it would probably depend on if the artist does that.
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Post by ancientmeadow on Mar 23, 2022 10:05:37 GMT -5
I'm a broken record and no one really cares to dig into the weeds with me anymore, but I'll throw in my 2 cents:
Dungeon synth is music composed on a keyboard or synthesizer (or a digital equivalent in a D.A.W.) using minor chords to craft diatonic melodies in, typically, the Phrygian, Aeolian, or (ancient) Dorian modes. Dungeon synth incorporates elements of industrial subgenres like dark ambient, darkwave, neoclassical darkwave, etc, and similar stylistic traits of experimental music such as heavy reliance on atmospheric sounds--particularly from "the natural world". It is generally accepted that dungeon synth must be "dark dungeon music", or at least possesses an outward appearance and attitude that suggests something from a "dark dungeon", and--according to the person who coined the term--is inherently escapist and would be misused if applied to anything which suggests it could exist in "our time", and by that I assume he meant, anything modern or understood to exist as typical of "the present". Dungeon synth is music that is inspired--whether directly or indirectly--by the aesthetics, motifs, and sounds of second-wave black metal.
I appreciate that most folks prefer to "cast a wider net", but I personally prefer to narrow the channel and try to find more descriptive and effective ways to characterize dungeon synth as predictable and with hallmarks and identifiers of its own. Just seems more challenging and fun to be more specific.
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Post by crystallogic13 on Mar 24, 2022 12:13:41 GMT -5
I enjoy a lot this thread and similar discussions always on the frontiers of a genre or maybe anything.. It's all subjective but the resulting talk is so satisfying still.. Personally I love that DS has come to unite so many different backgrounds/genres, ancient,medieval,fantasy,ost,ambient,dark ambient,early/electronic,black metal atmosphere and interludes,RPGs culture and video game/rpg music, neoclassical, even noise and experimental and many other genres I surely forger... So many vast styles that after the baptism of the genre got together under a same umbrella.. I love it Yesterday after posting here on the now DS playing thread Mortiis, and reading this discussion I got to encyclopedia metallum and checked the OLD reviews of it that is only 2, pre 2013 where that review is "modern" and puts Mortiis in the DS genre.. I will just make some copy paste just to see how interesting/amusing it is to read people describing this music without having the ease of a DS tag : (I also really want to post some more in a later post maybe asap about other classic era albums reviews pre-DS modern era): ( from www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Mortiis/%C3%85nden_som_gjorde_oppr%C3%B8r/292/ ) , bolds are mine for people who don't want to read it all at once ) (a 2004 review:)
And the a quote from the 2007 metallum review :
I really want to start digging even old magazines reviews besides metallum on how the perceived specific old releases and studying the whole thing..
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Post by ancientmeadow on Mar 24, 2022 12:29:45 GMT -5
I really want to start digging even old magazines reviews besides metallum on how the perceived specific old releases and studying the whole thing.. "a heavy black metal vibe, harking back to Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times and Burzum's Aske EP" and then,
"neoclassical, medieval-sounding synths creating an atmosphere of dark forests" Wow! They were really right on the bullseye.
I have this theory that Peter Jackson's movies changed the way music like Mortiis' or even black metal albums were reviewed or even discussed. I feel like the films supplanted so much visual imagery onto the already existing genre of Tolkien black metal and sparse examples of early dungeon synth that one could, possibly, make a really stark contrast between the way black metal and "medieval dark ambient" albums were considered before the first film debuted and how similar albums which came after the debut were discussed and depicted in the media.
I have a ton of old black metal zines and one thing that nearly all of them have in common is they all mention Mortiis or a similar ambient project. I don't mean just 3-4. I have no fewer than 20 from the 90s which all mention acts like Darkness Enshroud, Wongraven, Pazuzu, Summoning, Grabesmond, Aghast, Penitent, lots of CMI artist interviews and advertisements (in the middle of black metal zines, mind you), The Soil Bleeds Black, Equitant, Equimanthorn, Dark Funeral (Den) and more. It's really affirming to see it because it cements the origins of the genre in black metal.
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Post by crystallogic13 on Mar 25, 2022 4:04:51 GMT -5
ancientmeadow for sure , maybe in the non-metal/rpg circles LotR got super mainstream attention by the masses so even people already familiar with the works certainly were affected by the way they depicted in the movie, even after reading the book.. Personally I feel happy that being the younger of all in the widest family I was exposed to all these very young at the ealy to mid 90s, so I still have my own depictions of Hobbit and LotR etc etc, but I also loved the movies too.. It would be great btw if you could find some old magazines and post for our leisure some contemporary reviews of famous DS stuff (unfortunately I've thrown away my music magazines(greek Metal Hammer, Metal Invader) of the time..).. Stéphane F. haha it would be hard not to agree that's also a valid response
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Post by automatedhero on Mar 26, 2022 12:15:14 GMT -5
Can we agree that Dungeon Synth was, at the beginning, a poorly played mix of dark ambient / darkwave / post-industrial music, on poor material, by lousy metal teenagers ? I don't see a problem (for the most part)
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