What got you into dungeon synth

[umbralresonans]

I guess Summoning would have been the first band I listened to that had something to do with the genre. As for DS itself, I remember finding the term in the earlier days of youtube and pissing myself laughing at what seemed like a ridiculous genre name (to me). But of course from there I went deeper and got hooked on both the sound AND aesthetic...

[moreteeth]

I'm a stupid zoomer, so it was through word of mouth and the internet, unfortunately. Long story short, upon discovering black metal, I was immediately enraptured by its aesthetics; I had finally found a subculture which was preoccupied in cultivating the unique feeling of eighties and nineties Dungeons and Dragons. I truly found out about dungeon synth soon after (I had only understood it in concept before), which obviously focuses much more on the high fantasy elements than its parent genre does. I have always been a fan of ambient and old video games, because the latter was the only thing that could run on my Mac back then and former seemed to trigger my chimp brain for some reason, so it feels like a match made in heaven, really. I decided to make some of my own just recently.

[countsommrab]

Burzum introduced me to it, which I'm not proud to admit, considering the track record of Count Grishnackh. I was looking for a soundtrack to a video essay based on Disney Channel's The Owl House and how it connected to Nordic mythology. I had heard of Dungeon Synth, but I wasn't sure where to start until I asked Reddit for recommendations. The one that really got me hooked was Depressive Silence, and I remember feeling as if I had achieved Nirvana while listening to Forest of Eternity. In fact, a part of why I've procrastinated for months was just going down the rabbit hole of dungeon synth.

[sinew]

For many years I've been going down the path of ambient, dark ambient, atmospheric black metal and then dungeon synth, all discovering one after another. I feel like Striborg was a big discovery point for me, but Paysage d'Hiver was likely my first proper exposure to ds and after that I was sucked right in. Vanishing Amulet was my first discovery after diving deeper into the genre and it it still probably my favourite project of all time ha ha. I found Striborg through a typo and it it was a snowball down the hill from there. I lucked out with that typo. I find most projects nowadays on bandcamp through tags and such.

[soarloser]

I have to guess the first dungeon synth songs I heard have to be from Filosofem, but what really enraptured me and fully grabbed my attention was hearing More True Than Time Thought by Hedge Wizard

[soarloser]

Apr 11, 2021 23:21:40 GMT -5 Daytol said:

One day, many years ago, I came home from work to happily find a package from a heavy metal company waiting for me that had come in the mail.  My happiness turned to confusion though, making me go "what the hell is THIS?" when all this stuff fell out of the envelope when I opened it.  What was all this *stuff* when all I did was either order one t-shirt or one cd?

Included with the order was free heavy metal fanzines, one of which was The Grimoire of Exhalted Deeds, quite the colorful publication there, to say the least.

The second reason I went "what the hell..." was this thing on the cover, having an obvious prosthetic nose, obviously prosthetic pointy ears, and with his arms being spread, he had bat wings as his costume.

That was Mortiis, of course, which there was an interview with him in that issue. 

Sounding interesting, I went out and got his cd of Født til å Herske at a store without hearing one single note of it beforehand, having a bit of a six sense that I'm going to like something without hearing it first and I was right (I've yet to be wrong, and I don't like everything either!).  I was lucky too, because even though I live in the fourth largest city in my country (Houston), I heard a radio dj say several years later we rank 16th as far as live venues, music availability and the like goes; not a real good ratio, so I was lucky to be able to get that as it was, as the only other time I saw an album of his (The Stargate) was also at a record store on that side of town, which was odd.  Because the place I got Herske at was near a temp job that I was working at the time, which was like a 40 minute drive away.  I never would've gone into that store if it wasn't for that due to the length of the drive.  If you were into popular stuff, the only thing you needed to do back then was find the closest store with the best prices; not so much with underground stuff.

This led me to getting (through the mail) three of his four Vond cds, as well as his Cintecele Diavolui cd too.  I also got Desiderii Marginnis's Songs Over Ruins (yeah I know, dark ambient rather than dungeon synth, but some artists cross over/they have a bit in common) and Swartalf's Candles Burning Blue cds.

I only got back into dungeon synth in the last year due to being on Mortiis's e-mailing list forever, letting me know about the Dungeon Siege concert last year, so I sat through that and this year's (just the other week), getting exposed to a lot of current artists that are new to me.  Nice to be back, after all these years

With the rise of Emperor in the underground thrash metal world, we all heard about how Mortiis played bass with them until he was booted out before their debut was released.  So I'm sure I would have heard of him and gotten into him anyway, but who can say for sure?

So, thanks to whatever employee it was from either Nuclear Blast America or Relapse Records for putting that 'zine in my order, this is how my history with dungeon synth happened, as I could possibly have a great genre of music missing from my life if it didn't.

just listened to mortiis/vond for the first time recently, so certain from recommendations like this that it was just what I was looking for, and I have had a similar revelatory moment

[Daytol]

^Great!

[xjimmyx]

with the first Mortiis albums, then Burzum and Wongraven

[dragonaltar]

I heard Shrouded in Mystery by Forgotten Pathways back in 2012, and I've been hooked ever since. To go way back, though, I've been enamored with the Medieval Style song from RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 since I was very young... probably what makes a lot of DS feel so nostalgic for me now

[olavgrey]

I'm very new to the Dungeon Synth scene. I first heard about it from an interview with Jim Kirkwood on Bandcamp probably 6+ months ago? I think the first DS album I actually listened too was Grayshadow Ruins by Mountain Realm. From there I started devouring all the DS I could find and have found myself in love with the more Fantasy Synth side of the genre with stuff from Aura Merlin and Elyvilon.
DS is also what finally got me making music again for the first time in 6 years. It's honestly that genre I just didn't know I needed in my life!

[udun]

I discovered Hliðskjálf and I knew that this kind of music was fitted for me. But I waited a lot of years before of searching other materials. Mortiis and Wongraven were a really good surprises.
And today, I discover the new wave of Dungeon Synth. I really like what I listen, artists like Thangorodrim, Erang, Frostgard, for example.
But I listened a lot of dungeon synth playlist on youtube for several months, thanks to Dungeon Synth Archives.

I like projects like Fief too, but is it really Dungeon Synth ?
It's a real question.

[Daytol]

^I'd say he is.

[udun]

Ok.
I really enjoy Fief, Thangorodrim and Sequestered Keep. This guy is talented.

[basatan]

I'm not super sure. I have felt lost all my life (I know very original) and the sense of being lost and unaware of your next step is very prevalent in dungeon synth. It wasn't until I listened to dungeon synth that I found something that truly expressed the arcane reality of our lives in music. Sure a lot of it is just fun music which I love but just as much I feel explores the vast unknowns that is life, using a fantasy aura as an analogy. We are all exploring our own dungeons looking for our own treasures and if we are able to get past the dangers that lay in their depths we will have our prize. Also black metal is what really introduced me to the genre. I'd been looking for the music that resonated with my previous ramble and through random tracks on burzum and summoning albums I found it.

[Enowyn]

Like some of the others here, I found dungeon synth through Youtube recommendations! I've always enjoyed ambient and medieval music, and I think listening to the Everquest soundtrack spurred the algorithm to show me Fief: V if I remember correctly. I binged all of their albums, then found Thangorodrim, Secret Stairways, and others. Hircine, Hole Dweller, Tales under the Oak, and Fief are some of my favorites but I do love some more oldschool stuff too!