Dayal Patterson and his crew at Cult Never Dies are responsible for re-release of this expanded and renewed version of the book by dungeon synth/dark ambient godfather Mortiis. This interesting creature from Norway has his roots in black metal scene having played bass for Emperor in their early and decisive days of demos which later brought them to legends they are. Then he decided to go his own way and start his one man alter ego Mortiis which is so much more than mere music and project and this hard cover rich book is a best proof for that. This book contains rich illustrated poems and texts by Mortiis which explain his Era I as it is called, meaning his first opuses and later era with more songs and albums with vocals on, and less dungeon synth/dark ambient as in earlier opus. Illustrations are superb, courtesy of Mark Riddick, Juha Vuorma, David Thiérrée. Besides texts and poems, this book contains unreleased drawings and interviews with Mortiis(interviewed by Dayal himself, very interesting and extensive), interviews with all the illustrators, Proscriptor, Balrog, Forgotten Kingdoms, Chaucerian Myth and more. This is worth having and reading, I will get back to it every once in a while and read some parts again. Great release indeed.
Tag Archives: dungeon synth
(review) Fogweaver – Magelight
Fogweaver from Colorado released new opus with 10 beautiful songs. As Fogweaver calls it, this is dungeon synth from the world of Earthsea. I must admit that I didn’t listen to the previous opuses but this one blew me away. It all starts with melancholic and fantasy filled melody of Illuminated by Magelight, with waves crashing beneath the haunting and a bit soothing, yet eerie melody. Opus continues with A Patterning Spell, a bit ominous yet strong synth melody takes us into the world of sorcery, magic and disbalance between light and darkness, not knowing which side can prevail in man as an individual, depending how you fight your personal demons which you must fight every single day. The music of this opus guides us through that battle to another more beautiful dimension where we can be our trueselves and not having to comply to others and darkness between our hearts and other hearts. Other parts of this opus that I must mention as my highlights are Windbringer and also The Isolate Tower, but I must confess that when listening to this opus, every time you find something more for yourself.
(review) Tales Under The Oak – The Toad Folk (Dark Age Productions)
Besides black metal, there is one genre of underground that I love to listen to in the last couple of years, namely dungeon synth and dark ambient. Tales Under The Oak from Berlin, Germany has a new opus out with Dark Age Productions. This is in fact eight epic songs plus four narrated short stories. The music on this opus is dungeon synth, epic and fantasy melodies go throughout the album as a whole, but there is also a healthy mixture of medieval dark ambient describing the concept of swamp kingdom and its denizens. Stories such as Brogg The Builder are interesting, like reading a great written dark heroic fantasy novel. Dreamy epic synth ambient songs like The One Who Carved It All, Bogg The Berry-Belly or The Water Lily Boat are sure to win you over and along with stories take you to other fantasy world in which you can stay for a while, because it is beautiful although a little bit scary. Great chapter in the tale of honor, life and woe.


