Fantasy Synth Music
Oct 12, 2017 16:08:19 GMT -5
Post by ranseur on Oct 12, 2017 16:08:19 GMT -5
From my point of view I embraced the term dungeon synth as a description of this stuff for three reasons, it's synth based, it's related to black metal, and it's distinct from ambient. Those to me are the foundational qualities. Even the fantasy aspect I don't think is so clear, it's common, but there are plenty of albums that are not based on fantasy so directly (mythology, nature). Even with the winter synth thing I think the more important point is that most of it is closer to ambient than the winter or nature themes. But I think clearly dungeon synth evolved out of metal intros and outros, and for that reason it makes sense that it would develop in parallel with 90s synth new age, 90s video game music, and other examples like the ones given here. So no I wouldn't call those dungeon synth, but it's interesting to draw the parallels.
But I don't agree that a record should be disqualified just because it isn't dark enough or because it's too clean or too dirty. If anything when I first heard about the new term and some of the earlier acts in the new wave like abandoned places and erang, what I was hoping would happen has happened. We have a genre that has finally been liberated from it's erroneous association with dark ambient, and we have new takes that could be called sub-genres. I don't really see a problem with the idyllic stuff not being dark or deep enough, being dark isn't really a fundamental part of the genre in my opinion. I mean mortiis isn't dark or cavernous at all compared to lustmord or amon, that to me is more fundamental.
But my bigger point maybe is that if the criteria from the genre is too closed than all this will be is a revival, just a bunch of people copying albums from the 90s. It's a lot more exciting to me because of the new variety, and especially what's been happening in the past year. As long as it has an association with black metal I'm cool with it, even if that association is somewhat tenuous. Because I really doubt anyone doing video game soundtracks or new age albums in 1989 was into black metal.
But I don't agree that a record should be disqualified just because it isn't dark enough or because it's too clean or too dirty. If anything when I first heard about the new term and some of the earlier acts in the new wave like abandoned places and erang, what I was hoping would happen has happened. We have a genre that has finally been liberated from it's erroneous association with dark ambient, and we have new takes that could be called sub-genres. I don't really see a problem with the idyllic stuff not being dark or deep enough, being dark isn't really a fundamental part of the genre in my opinion. I mean mortiis isn't dark or cavernous at all compared to lustmord or amon, that to me is more fundamental.
But my bigger point maybe is that if the criteria from the genre is too closed than all this will be is a revival, just a bunch of people copying albums from the 90s. It's a lot more exciting to me because of the new variety, and especially what's been happening in the past year. As long as it has an association with black metal I'm cool with it, even if that association is somewhat tenuous. Because I really doubt anyone doing video game soundtracks or new age albums in 1989 was into black metal.