Charts

[crystallogic13]

Besides the already mentioned, I think also this one oldsorcery.bandcamp.com/album/the-path-lies-hidden is more into Berlin/Electronic/Early Electronic/insert name here than DS territory, and it is excellent too.. I'll get back at some point going through my stuff to search for more recommendations but I think you got me covered with Grimrik being the most obvious relevant.. I also tend to think/remember that some specific stuff from Ancient Boreal Forest and Voronmrak could also fit maybe this setting, at least the space feel..

[poppet108]

Howabout one for crustier/punk influenced dungeon synth, DS with a real dirty and raw sound, with some political/anarchist undertones. Precious is probably the most clear example
preciousiowa.bandcamp.com/album/a-promise
but I also associate this sound with artists like Cold Wight, Rabbit Witch and Mausoleum Wanderer

[thekeeper]

Okay, so I'll probably start gathering some stuff that brings in that berlin school krautrock spacey influence for those interested. I think there's enough of it to create a chart, most of it I think it kind of forgotten about (like that one Inquisitor album from a couple years back).

Besides this, anyone have any thoughts on the effects of creating charts like this? I can obviously see why people like them because people enjoy categorization and they're useful to find some kool albums that share similar attributes to some themes, styles, or other albums one might like. I'm curious about what people think of how the names of these have affected anything. What happens in the catalog of DS releases if a bunch of things are gathered under a made up name? I'm probably overestimating the impact of these charts, but it's just a wonder I always have about them that fuels my backing away from wanting to make more since I'm not really interested in changing things, creating new subscenes, or whatever.

Oct 21, 2019 14:02:28 GMT -5 poppet108 said:

Howabout one for crustier/punk influenced dungeon synth, DS with a real dirty and raw sound, with some political/anarchist undertones. Precious is probably the most clear example
preciousiowa.bandcamp.com/album/a-promise
but I also associate this sound with artists like Cold Wight, Rabbit Witch and Mausoleum Wanderer

I don't know if that's an actually present atmosphere or theme that I've come across. I don't find those artists very punky, so maybe personal relationships with the artists play into that categorization since it seems aside from the music itself. If I did make a dungeon punk chart, it'd probably be half Moonworshipper releases.

[Witherer]

Nov 5, 2019 14:44:35 GMT -5 thekeeper said:

Besides this, anyone have any thoughts on the effects of creating charts like this? I can obviously see why people like them because people enjoy categorization and they're useful to find some kool albums that share similar attributes to some themes, styles, or other albums one might like. I'm curious about what people think of how the names of these have affected anything. What happens in the catalog of DS releases if a bunch of things are gathered under a made up name? I'm probably overestimating the impact of these charts, but it's just a wonder I always have about them that fuels my backing away from wanting to make more since I'm not really interested in changing things, creating new subscenes, or whatever.

Do you feel like this has happened with the previous charts? From my own view I'd tend to take inspiration from a particular album (or diverse, unrelated albums more likely) that catches my attention rather than named grouping. Keeping a name very broad and less colorful - light DS rather than Idyllic - might lessen this side effect.

I think the discovery that these charts generate outweighs the negative sides of any mild scene steering. I'm in favor of any dialog between artists to each other via releases and it seems like this is already occurring naturally as is. But perhaps there are others that do see a chart and decide afterwards to specifically create something to cram in there.

[AndruJorj]

Oct 21, 2019 14:02:28 GMT -5 poppet108 said:

Howabout one for crustier/punk influenced dungeon synth, DS with a real dirty and raw sound, with some political/anarchist undertones. Precious is probably the most clear example
preciousiowa.bandcamp.com/album/a-promise
but I also associate this sound with artists like Cold Wight, Rabbit Witch and Mausoleum Wanderer

I've listened to some of the link you posted.  Nothing about the music is even remotely related to punk or crust.  Nothing about the album artwork, the song titles, or the general aesthetics being presented conjure thoughts of punk and crust in any way. Would you care to elaborate on what you meant by this? I fail to understand how to came to this conclusion.

[dungeonsynthzine]

This is probably the best thing that ever happened to this forum, and compiling all this alone is just, wow, hats off. So far I see only one choice that I consider more than disputable: Summoning. "Minas Morgul" instead of "Let Mortal Heroes..." (seriously, why?)

[thekeeper]

Feb 2, 2020 19:57:18 GMT -5 dungeonsynthzine said:

This is probably the best thing that ever happened to this forum, and compiling all this alone is just, wow, hats off. So far I see only one choice that I consider more than disputable: Summoning. "Minas Morgul" instead of "Let Mortal Heroes..." (seriously, why?)

Glad you've enjoyed these. Are you referring to the 'essentials circa 2016' chart? I guess it's my personal bias that Let Mortal Heroes is their best album. I'm usually between that one and Dol Guldur as my favorite, though I think I'm more on the Dol Guldur side these days. Minas Morgul is still a great album. I see a lot of people cite the original Minas Morgul demo as a DS classic since it's more stripped down than the actual album. So, just personal preference I guess!

[dungeonsynthzine]

Feb 12, 2020 15:54:56 GMT -5 thekeeper said:

Feb 2, 2020 19:57:18 GMT -5 dungeonsynthzine said:

This is probably the best thing that ever happened to this forum, and compiling all this alone is just, wow, hats off. So far I see only one choice that I consider more than disputable: Summoning. "Minas Morgul" instead of "Let Mortal Heroes..." (seriously, why?)

Glad you've enjoyed these. Are you referring to the 'essentials circa 2016' chart? I guess it's my personal bias that Let Mortal Heroes is their best album. I'm usually between that one and Dol Guldur as my favorite, though I think I'm more on the Dol Guldur side these days. Minas Morgul is still a great album. I see a lot of people cite the original Minas Morgul demo as a DS classic since it's more stripped down than the actual album. So, just personal preference I guess!

Alright, what was then the assumption behind making these charts? Are they personal favorites? Are they typical representatives of sub-genres? Or objective classics of these genres?

[thekeeper]

Feb 13, 2020 17:51:35 GMT -5 dungeonsynthzine said:

Feb 12, 2020 15:54:56 GMT -5 thekeeper said:

Glad you've enjoyed these. Are you referring to the 'essentials circa 2016' chart? I guess it's my personal bias that Let Mortal Heroes is their best album. I'm usually between that one and Dol Guldur as my favorite, though I think I'm more on the Dol Guldur side these days. Minas Morgul is still a great album. I see a lot of people cite the original Minas Morgul demo as a DS classic since it's more stripped down than the actual album. So, just personal preference I guess!

Alright, what was then the assumption behind making these charts? Are they personal favorites? Are they typical representatives of sub-genres? Or objective classics of these genres?

To some degree, they're all going to be based on my own opinion, but usually at the times of making each of these, I felt that each sound/aesthetic was becoming more prominent, enough to form a pattern that could be pointed out. Most of these charts are going to be about all I could gather under a certain style name at the time. Some styles have grown considerably (idyllic, for one), but like dungeon jazz is still really small.

Originally, my intention behind these was to show people who were very rigid about 'what DS sounds like' that there is variety to the music, enough variety that you could make these kinds of pseudo-genres within DS. Considering how fast DS has moved, there's a lot of stuff in the charts that people who've started listening the genre like last year aren't going to recognize (or even some 2018 newcomers, who knows), but a lot of these albums aren't new to genre vets. If you take the 'essentials chart' for example, 2016 was the first year in where DS seemed like it was 'getting big' relative to how things moved before, so the albums I picked there were pretty much agreed upon classics for the time. At this point, there's so much DS that people could make their own charts like these on pure personal preference and they'd likely look different from person to person.

[dungeonsynthzine]

Once again, I believe this is a great job, and will be a pattern and a paragon for the future, but as it happens with things done for the first time, it requires some discussion. I truly believe that it could be a work of ages if we all just discuss it a bit, for the things are slightly murky atm. I believe that the assumption of objective reasons is the best one, and personal tastes will always be highly questionable. Here's a couple of remarks:
1. "Let Mortal Heroes..." is a great album, and if anybody considers it to be the best one, I understand. I would probably say the same on some days. Still, the most important one - and by this I mean the one that inspired probably the biggest number of artists - is Minas Morgul OR Dol Guldur, but knowing history a bit, the earliest one usually is the most crucial. This will of course become obvious with time, after a few dozen interviews when artists reveal their inspirations, but I'm pretty sure it will not be Let Mortal Heroes.
2. How in the world would you justify the choice of Konjuro's Keep as representative to the genre at all? It looks more like a joke, and it has less than 50 hits on youtube. There is no way this is a paragon of anything or inspired anybody.
3. Same question for Xynfonica, how would justify that?

[andrewwerdna]

dungeonsynthzine

There's no justifying Xynfonica. But it is on the "levels of insanity" chart, so I don't think he's trying to indicate that it's representative of the wider genre of DS, and I know there's a least a few artists that Xynfonica has influenced (unfortunately).

[dungeonsynthzine]

Feb 15, 2020 11:05:43 GMT -5 andrewwerdna said:

dungeonsynthzine

There's no justifying Xynfonica. But it is on the "levels of insanity" chart, so I don't think he's trying to indicate that it's representative of the wider genre of DS, and I know there's a least a few artists that Xynfonica has influenced (unfortunately).

And you actually listened to them? Poor soul

[andrewwerdna]

dungeonsynthzine

Repeatedly, back-to-back, because I actually reviewed the album back in 2015, meant as just having fun on April Fool's Day, but they thought the same thing when they played the tape and opened the Necronomicon at the beginning of Evil Dead, just a bit of fun until a Deadite is jamming a pencil in your ankle. Needless to say I've never been the same since.

[dungeonsynthzine]

Oh, so it is you behind Dungeon Synth Blog. Why did you discontinue it?
Through your review I started listening to Shevalreq. I feel like writing an article about Hakaloth Records for Zine #2. MZ.412 sounds like Lynyrd Skynyrd next to this.

[andrewwerdna]

Feb 15, 2020 14:52:58 GMT -5 dungeonsynthzine said:

Oh, so it is you behind Dungeon Synth Blog. Why did you discontinue it?

There's a number of reasons, some having to do with how the genre changed and got so much bigger. It was a lot easier to drunkenly wax poetic and make grand declarations about a genre when thinking it was entirely dead and that nobody but me and a handful of other weirdos were listening to it. But mostly it just came down to my own laziness and inability to focus on a single project for more than a few months at a time. I hope to start posting on there again someday, but when that might be I couldn't say, definitely not in the near future.