Artist: Skelm
Title: Blood Month Demo ’25
Type: Demo
Label: Digital
Yep it’s a demo, but on hearing this it seemed unavoidable that I should talk about it and as another your project that first crept out of the shadows this year it seemed a good one to take a look where they are.
‘The First Croak…’ begins with ominous, hammering on a piano, the synths rising in support until we have a strange sense of something coming that perhaps we would better hide from. The sense of malevolence and the atmosphere created here is why the dungeon synth from Skelm has been so notable this year but…. Oh shit here comes ‘Smite My Blade’. Ponderous beginning, a hiss of distortion, an epic dark entrance sound and then the full on black metal lashes out. The vocals are feral and brutal, the song fizzing with the distortion that is melded tightly to the synths sounds until you cannot describe this as dungeon synth this is black metal cut from an absolutely incredible cloth. The perfect hybrid. Utterly savage, using the synths as a weapon just as the distortion and vocals.
It completely floored me, blew me away…
And really ‘Dying On A Pentagram’ finished me off. Guitars reduced to snarling hiss, keyboards cloaked in imperious drama like old Necromantia and 80s black metal but the way the synths are used here is mesmeric. The vocals are brilliant, frankly, recorded to perfection and there is nothing weak about this sound. The odd taint of the gothic, the atmospheric building of dungeon synth but all utterly shredded by the black metal herein.
‘Winterfylleth’ is perhaps a little calmer but still this amazing fusion of complete raw black metal and the grandiose synth sounds of the dungeon.
The demo closes with ‘Thee Book Of Burning Lies’ which is most definitely dungeon synth. And it is excellent; a sombre, dark and slow passage through the shadows. Old school, dark dungeon music for certain but with the sound looking outwards, just enough to the more epic projects out there. Just a little. It is still insular, dark and grim but with a fine sound and unerring sense of melody.
Yes it’s a demo, but the prospect of more, dungeon synth from this source but, perhaps more exciting the absolutely feral mix of raw black metal, synths and deeply old school black metal with those incredible vocals is something to look forward to next year.
Honestly, give this a listen for the shape of things to come.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 