Title: The Minstrel’s Fireplace Tales
Artist: Medhelan
Rating: 4.0 / 5
Genre: Dungeon Synth
Year: 2015
Country: Italy
Label: Self-released
Medhelan is a fairly new project in the Dungeon Synth genre, debuting with the first album “Ticinum Insubria”, which was a dark trip into the pagan woodlands of Italy. With this EP, “The Minstrel’s Fireplace Tales”, composer and mastermind Matteo Brusa moves toward a more epic and medieval approach. What immediately caught my attention about this EP is the amazing soundtrack quality of the songs. The opening track, The Age of Wizards, easily brings to mind soundtracks from The Lord of the Rings or Kull The Conqueror; with incredible string melodies, strong timpani and percussion, and song structures which take listeners through a variety of emotions and atmospheres, although the music is always exciting and heroic. Medhelan has achieved the very difficult task of creating music that can rival movie and video game soundtracks, while still maintaining the simplicity and focus of Dungeon Synth. This music is not meant to accompany a story, but to tell a story by itself. I can’t imagine a better way to begin this EP than with The Age of Wizards, a song that can easily rival any of the best Dungeon Synth artists today.
Tale of the Jester King features some great brass fanfare, and immediately brings the image of a medieval castle and court into my mind. Again, Matteo Brusa must be recognized for his ability to take listeners through several moods with his songwriting. The song begins with proud, valiant brass instrumentation before leading the listener into a nostalgic string and flute section, only to return to the heroic fanfare from the start of the song. Twilight of the Forest Gods features a great harp and plucked string duet and definitely carries a Celtic influence that was present on the first album Ticinum Insubria. The string sections later in this song are also the closest this album gets to the Lord of the Rings atmosphere. I personally imagine the riders of Rohan travelling across the plains, and the end of the song brings to mind the great shadow and black iron of Isengard. This is perhaps the most intense song on the EP.
The Siege of the Citadel begins with militant percussion, cymbal crashes and awesome string and brass work. The militant feeling persists through the entire song, and is a great transition to the final track, Song of a Wandering Minstrel. The final track is the “bard’s song” of the album, and can be seen as the defining song for “The Minstrel’s Fireplace Tales”. The official Medhelan bandcamp page says the following about the album: “In ancient times every minstrel would tell his own version of a same tale; for this reason track titles are meant to suggest a story every listener can make up using his own imagination.” It is hard to imagine any fan of medieval music, fantasy, or Dungeon Synth disliking this album. The composition is highly impressive, the music is atmospheric and memorable, and carries all of the obsession with an old forgotten past that is so admired and praised here at Barbarian Skull. I truly hope that Medhelan will release another album in this style in the future.
