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Post by spaceman00 on Jun 13, 2022 20:42:37 GMT -5
Does that count?
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Post by smog on Sept 11, 2023 12:34:20 GMT -5
Doom Synth is a fairly new musical style that combines doom metal and dungeon synth. It takes structure from the former and melodies from the latter. The genre usually has a synthesizer-based sound, yet it has samples that imitate a distorted guitar and base. Just like instrumental dungeon synth, vocals are rare in synth doom. Like all the other instruments, the rhythm sections are written using the synth and are rarely faster than the tempo common for doom metal.
The origins of synth doom lie primarily in dungeon synth, drone ambient, and industrial. The metal component consists of drone, funeral doom, ambient doom, and other doom styles.
The music style should be considered an interpretation of doom metal, which unfolds itself not through guitar sounds but mostly through electronic music. Synth doom does not have a unified theme; its varied nature allows synth doom to incorporate themes of fantasy and science fiction, from the dinosaur epoch to deep space travel.
The earliest recordings are dated to the first half of the 2010s. At that time, the dungeon synth scene was undergoing a second birth. Stoner and sludge were rising from the metal underground and making themselves known to the mass listener, making a broader audience familiar with slow and low, heavy sound. It is clear why it was an ideal field of experimentation both for fans of electronic music and for metal enthusiasts. If we look at alternative sources of inspiration for musicians, we may glance at the atmospheric and doom death scene of the 90s as well as some funeral doom bands such as Nortt and Skepticism. The finnish band used dungeon-like-sounding synths to create a dark atmosphere. In the 2000s, there were some examples of such sounds, but they were not common and were mostly overlooked by listeners.
Despite the fact that synth doom is closer to classical dungeon synth (pure electronic sound), we should note a second branch of sound. We would not put a tag on the bands that play synth doom of the second branch; the music is experimental and is outside of any fixed stylistic bounderies.
The sound may include bass guitar and other instruments with different effect pedals. The musicians do not attempt to make something strictly defined like stoner doom but simply try to combine various aspects of synth music with existing metal styles and see what comes out of that.
Drone metal and drone doom are most commonly combined with dungeon synth, which is logical. Drone, in its purest form, is a minimalist melodic tone generated by low humming and buzzing sounds. Dungeon synth also tends to be minimalist, with only one synth as the instrument. As a drone, its main goal is to create a dark atmosphere. Both use minimalist means to create that atmosphere. That is why synth doom musicians often use drones as a backdrop for a synth-laden melodic landscape.
Besides, drone synth doom goes perfectly with funeral doom. While drone doom works best in synth doom, it is a bit harder to incorporate funeral doom into the mix. Funeral doom thrives on the dark, suicidal atmosphere of existential dread, sometimes akin to the horror works of H.P. Lovecraft. So there is less room for expression here because the sound is limited to a dark atmosphere. Fortunately, funeral doom mostly does not tend to have progressive song structures, so a hybrid with dungeon synth is entirely possible.
We think synth doom has some perspectives for development in fusion with funeral doom drone and different avantgarde darkwave and psychedelic sounds. In theory, it is possible to even add stoner, but something tells us that the microtrend for stoner doom dies down before synth doom has the chance to emerge from the undeground in the broder music world.
Synth doom is an emerging genre; it is still young. It does not even have a scene. Many projects release one or two albums and tend to fade into obscurity. The main reason for this is that there is no flagman musician, like Candlemass in the Epic Doom Metal genre, who can set the path for other musicians to follow and whose discography can be an entry point for listeners to get into the genre's rabbit hole. Synth doom is still known only in very narrow circles.
But not everything is so grim. We could speculate and claim that synth doom has one advantage over other styles of dungeon synth (winter synth, sea synth, or black synth), and it's a structural difference, not only a thematic difference.
A unifying theme in synth doom is nonexistent today. It is not a case of turning on a release and getting a guaranteed sound (like screaming and raw guitar in black metal). Synth doom offers a variety of sounds and paths to the listener, from the Lovecraftian horrors to the meadows of Shire, from acid industrial chaos to blackened disosnats, and from goblin and troll caves to cosmic sci-fi space odessy sounds.
The article was prepared by the administrators of the Russian communities Dungeon Synth and Apostle of Doom (Ρ)
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Post by Mike Moth on Nov 13, 2023 14:16:56 GMT -5
This is pretty close to my take, except I shy away from the conventional ABABAB structure that's still apparent in a lot of doom. I'm essentially trying to compose and arrange doom using the sound palette of dungeon synth / dungeon noise. I retain the ostinato repetition / riffing of doom but employ a good bit of counterpoint and use the notion of theme and variation a bit more than is used in conventional doom.
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Post by amnor on Jan 15, 2024 20:53:17 GMT -5
This looks good. I like running my tracks through distortion effects, and I like low frequencies, drones and some dissonance. Thanks for that list.
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Post by LordofCarcee on Jan 23, 2024 18:50:00 GMT -5
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Post by disgustingcathedral on Feb 8, 2024 16:25:04 GMT -5
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