Artist: Sokol Keep
Title: Dungeon Paths: Hymns For Nameless Gods
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Physical / Sokol Keep
Here’s something out of legend. Long gone hero, a bard some say but a man o’ the blade nonetheless, vanishes. And the Empire moves on. Oh there are tales of course; helping others sing their song they say, rumours that they shared the battlefield with young adventurers. Rumour and whispers. The stuff of taverns and firesides.
But when times are dark and hate runs riot in the ramshackle streets and the gauche gilded ballrooms alike we wonder, we hope even. Is it time for one last ride? One last anthem?
Then we hear the call…
‘The Dark Embark’ with dread synths. Slow and dark but the melody that glides up through catches your breath immediately. There is age to this sound, the drum beat opens wide the doors not just to the land but to the history past and what we walk towards.
‘Hope, Whispered The Failing Wind (Bold Adventurer)’ seems to look out over this embarcation. There is a solemnity rising in the keyboards, the choral sounds which build from the base. There is an uncertainty at first, a strange flitting to and fro of the music but with the percussion shaking our hero, eyes turn upwards. You can feel the breath being taken and then the steps. The keyboard sound is so beautiful, so full of those dark dungeon days when we were all blinking in the torchlight of adventure. And then the tune, the bells just lift us. A moment and no more; the history we have shared floods us. Hearts catch a beat, fallen friends are with us once more. So much has gone, enough to make our eyes ache that ache of loss, but those memories give us strength and we know. One more ride. One. More. Ride…
I blink. Something on my cheek perhaps.
‘The Longest Paths Take You To The Best Places’ are words to live a good life by. The sound is adventure and discovery in the tune and the firm, determined but beats. Melody peeks out from the most unexpected of shadows. Pipe sounds, echoing notes, the rise of the epic tune as cresting a hill a bold new land suddenly lies before you. It has been waiting for you, for the deeds you are about to commit to. Small figures on the hill, heroes heartbeats across the vale below.
What journey does not force you to test the caves below and ‘Brigands Have The Run Of These Underlands’ becomes clear. The music is of the dark, the depths. It harbours trepidation and fear. Steps become soft, careful, lantern lights are hooded. It is not a place to wake the inhabitants. But even here, as the tune softens and widens we see the grim beauty beneath the eart; the hidden world, the strange beauty where sharp blades and sharper teeth might hide and, pjust perhaps, things that walk which should never heave learned to crawl… The pipe organ melody strengthens, reminds us of hope and the goal. And onwards we press. A skirmish, a fight that no one will ever know of…. no one but us na that binds us closer.
Onwards as ‘We Must Face The Long Dark Again’. This is haunting. Cold. The drone of lightless caverns, blind hallways, a world that once perhaps was home to the great, the mighty but now? Now the music sends a cold, bitter draft over your skin. Slow, malevolent and no longer of the world we know. The beauty here is hidden in shaodw and masked by the sense that there are things observing us, considering us. Deciding based on how we creep through their world. This is the part those fireside songs miss, that only those there keep. It is not to share it is to endure and survive. If there was any other way you would take it…
‘My Steel’s Sharp And Overdue For Goblin Blood (Ambush! To Arms!)’ is a cry of relief. At last an enemy we understand, a feeling we know. Fear, yes but that is held in check by our blood and our companions and turns to steel edges and old memories to the fore against the old foe. There may be loss, there will be blood, but whether in flesh or just in those triumphant epic melodies we all live on…. Breaths; take them in deep, and once more prove our worth as the music pulses to our heartbeats.
And the world spins away….’Parting With Shadows, Adieu (Bold Adventurer Encore) The day dawns, we see that glorious sun from atop the hill. Bloodied, unbowed and a brotherhood all. We smile for the day, and our skin prickles with emotion for those who never saw it…. Reality takes us, as it always does. The rain cares nothing for deeds. We seek shelter and perhaps offer a wry smile at how the weather can soak even a hero on the long walk back from the world of adventure.
Perhaps on the way the smile is held though. ‘The Secret Of Sokol Keep Pt1’ is somehow our last sight of this world. Grand music, imperious drums. The grace of history of Empires and the implacable roll of the sea. A tavern, a fire, and the sound of a teller of tales captures our attention and spins a yarn of a world.
A world we have known, a world we may never see again; but one that we keep in our hearts and in our dreams and will always return to and so once more see our friends.
Raise your blade, for this is the tale of Sokol Keep. Hold it to your hearts, always. Keep that feeling strong.
Always remember those times.
That is where heroes live on.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 