Title: Sign of Mung
Artist: Voormithadreth
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Dungeon Synth
Year: 2016
Country: USA
Label: Self-released
From the deepest depths of obscurity comes Voormithadreth, an extremely mysterious project which debuted earlier this year with “Sign of Mung”. The only thing that is known about the project is the description on the bandcamp page, which reads “Paracosmic music dedicated to Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany. NO TOLKIEN”. While Tolkien’s Germanic world of elves, orcs and grand heroes has been a popular theme since the earliest days of the genre, Voormithadreth has made a conscious effort to explore stranger and less common fantasy tropes, and does this quite well musically.
The opening song “Dorozhand, Whose Eyes Regard the End” instantly draws the listener in. The production is extremely raw, at times instruments can even blend into each other. It’s likely that the creator intended this, and like the Hedge Wizard tape, this doesn’t detract from the vibe of the music. While many Dungeon Synth projects prefer the 90’s digital synth sound, Voormithadreth prefers to compose using more primitive, analog style synth sounds. These strange and alien synth sounds only add to the otherworldly atmosphere and are a nice break from the digital sounds many of us are used to. While the opening track has several layers, the title track “Sign of Mung” is much more ambient and isolated. “Kilooloogung, Lord of Arising Smoke” continues in that vein, while “Kib Is Kib” features more percussion than the previous tracks, ending the release with a fading delayed synth sound. With 40 minutes of music Voormithadreth has managed to create a very raw and interesting Dungeon Synth release which brings the listener to even darker and more unknown worlds.
Voormithadreth’s existence may actually be more important to Dungeon Synth in general than people may realize. I think of Dungeon Synth today as being in the same place that Second Wave Black Metal was in the late 80’s / early 90’s. Bands such as Master’s Hammer, Necromantia, Von, and Enslaved were all Black Metal, but each band had its own identity and unique sound. The genre was more about a certain feeling and aesthetic, rather than being very strictly defined. We are now seeing this evolution in Dungeon Synth. Voormithadreth has chosen to break away from the Tolkien theme which has dominated the genre (either directly or indirectly) and pursue a different path. Despite not sounding like any other Dungeon Synth project I know of, Voormithadreth has created a release that is still very much traditional Dungeon Synth in essence and style. The fact that projects like Voormithadreth exist proves that Dungeon Synth is evolving and growing for the better. I will definitely be looking forward to hearing more from this project in the future.
