Artist: Gilgareth
Title: Khazad Doom
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Dale Of Shadows
I am sure that Gligareth are a name very familiar to many of you by now following a wonderful number of releases for the last couple of years from their haunted eyrie in Germany and I feel fortunate that I have number amongst those many. I normally assume I am way behind the curve on so much in the dungeons synth world to be honest. Some of it may be imposter syndrome, but other parts are simple truth.
This album though, now in physical form from Dale Of Shadows, stood out for me as its tone genuinely surprised and pulled me in.
‘Boron’s Ruff (Boron’s Call)’ leads us in. The sound is dark, rattling noises and echoing harsh edges sounds but then the synths push out from the shadows….or rather the shadows themselves billow out like ink in cold water. We are in a dark place indeed. There are the occasional sounds of snatches of voices; calls, screams and an insistent sound that might be chains. It has that medieval melodic touch too, incredibly arranged and layered that acts almost like a light through what can only be described as dark and very dangerous places. The refrains that keeps returning nags on my mind, reminding me of something forgotten that still walks ghost like through my mind. It is darker than other Gilgareth in my mind, but also so unfathomably rich and enveloping in its atmosphere. Slow with softly phrased synths that deepen the mystery.
There is, I should say, a whole tale laid out for this album. Words to read as it plays but such is the pleasure of the opening mystery and sense of malevolence here I shall not recite what is laid down, just hopefully hint with my words.
From the call to the ‘Abstieg in die Tempelhallen (Descent into the Temple Halls)’. This is hesitant and with an initial feeling of great age in a simple sound the pattering of electronic beats in a glorious mix of deep old school dungeon synth and modern dark ambient we enter a world of magic. There is wonder here without doubt; captivating, almost cosmic magic flitting between Vangelis styles and perhaps things like the Starspire ‘Dim Lights’ album. No greater praise from me. It offers a sense of passage and of other worldly places entered through this world, this earth. It is true, and utterly magical beauty. Dancing lights in the void coming closer and with strange curiosity. Perfectly layered, deceptively intricate and as light as motes caught in a ray of moonlight.
‘Der Kreis des Ungebrochenen Rades (The Circle of the Unbroken Wheel)’ is almost a catching of the breath. Slow but perhaps with a little light of the sun. And yet the sound of a single drumbeat and a scraping of stone, a calling raven, make me hesitant. Rightly so as the slow sound of doom descends. Breath, the dragging across stone, the intonation of religious voices…
And so we reach ‘Die Überschreitung (The Crossing)’. I know not where we cross to, but this place is dark. It sounds as though I am walking forward without light, fingers reaching out to ward off wall or rock or….? The music in notes and keys descripes a descent somehow not simply a mere crossing though if that descent is physical or spiritual I am afraid to ask. But this crossing is haunted. And slowly it feels more ascent than descent. It is all, somehow, not what I expected.
‘Borons Schlafgemach (Boron’s Bedchamber)’ is the strange place to end this quest. It feels strange as though a revelation is here. It might be a sound of distant rain outside, or a whsipering in the air. The melodies here are curiously softer, forgiving even. This passage genuinely puzzled me, an ending I was not expecting. And then I read the words and…. It is a moment of serenity I think. A repetition of a short refrain, a slow drum beat, the most gentle ebb and flow of deep synth waves. Even when it intensifies I feel no fear, just a growing sense of this is the places I was meant to reach and here, if I look, the lesson is waiting.
Khazad Doom is the most beautiful of dungeon synth albums; it holds such a mystery within its darkened tones and other worldly melodies and it drive you, with the most gentle of hands but the most ominous of omens to explore. To quest and to find the treasure you seek even if that treasure is not the one you set out to retrieve.
Somehow I feel that might be straight to the heart of so much dungeon synth. The Quest is something we can never know until we reach its end and the lessons learned along the way may not be what we expected but they are treasure all in themselves.
Absolutely captivating.
Gizmo
LRDXN163 – Gilgareth – Khazad Dôom | Gilgareth | Dale Of Shadows
