Title: More True Than Time Thought
Artist: Hedge Wizard
Rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Dungeon Synth
Year: 2014
Country: USA
Label: Self-released
Dungeon Synth is a genre that has received an increase in attention in underground circles over the past few years. The natural result of the sudden spike of interest in an underground genre is that subpar projects that are not very original or interesting begin to appear. This is especially possible for a genre like Dungeon Synth, where the music is usually composed by a single musician in their room. It can be hard to sift through the mediocrity to find a real gem that is worth your time and support. More True Than Time Thought is one such underground gem.
With only one self-released cassette, Hedge Wizard has already established itself as a true contender in the Dungeon Synth genre. The entire project is as obscure and mysterious as the fantasy / sword and sorcery atmospheres that the music creates. The cassette features hand drawn artwork of a wizard summoning an orb with the Hedge Wizard logo over a lake of fire, and the layout itself looks like an old spellbook that has been hidden in a castle keep for years. Featuring just a tracklist, no information is given regarding the project at all. The obscure nature of the project only enhances the music itself, as the listener is forced to make all judgements and opinions based solely on the songs and the excellent art and layout.
Hedge Wizard’s music is 100% pure Dungeon Synth in it’s most raw form. Vintage synthesizer timbres play dark, nostalgic melodies with a great variety of instruments and sounds. The music tends to be more video game and classic RPG based than many Dungeon Synth projects, which I assume was the creator’s intention. The production of the release is what you would expect from a project of this nature, and sounds like it may even have been recorded live or through a mic’d amplifier. However, this does not take away from the power of the music, in fact it reminds me of listening to old Dungeon Synth projects that I love from the 90’s such as Old Monk’s Saga and Gothmog. Hedge Wizard’s brand of High Fantasy Dungeon Synth is capable of holding it’s place next to those classics. Although Hedge Wizard is a new project, More True Than Time Thought manages to play a completely straight-forward style of Dungeon Synth without sounding like a carbon copy of other projects. I have played Hedge Wizard’s music while reading Tolkien and Robert Jordan, and the effect of mixing this music with fantasy literature never disappoints those who wish to enter a distant and forgotten world. Fans of die-hard fantasy literature who are looking for a straight forward soundtrack to their reading and role-playing nights need not look further; Hedge Wizard is a project that is hard to top.
