Vlakolak Mekrevtrozmbreh
Not something new but something old that has (nonetheless) turned into quite a cult classic among our fellow dungeoneers. A cult classic which has been released physical a couple of times and is (sadly) out of stock, hard to locate on Discogs as well (Released on Eldest Gate Records from Hungary). So what about it?... is it good enough to own the digital copy? Let´s give this sucker a listen or two.
The first thing you´ll notice would be the cover-artwork itself, which should reveal to you that we are within the harsh and minimalistic primitive nature of dungeon synth. A slightly archaic and esoteric vampiric/necromantic design if I might add.
First track Around the Castle lets the listener around a dreaded castle in the middle of a rainy and windy cold night. A thief in the night speculating how to enter the cursed castle without being noticed?. The atmospheric and harsh synths reveal danger and evil intent being inside. A lovely intro track, a lovely fusion between harsh dark ambiance and vampiric dungeon synth. Second track Awakened Craving works it further on the vampiric theme. A claustrophobic deep and warm foreboding one-finger synth-tune slowly builds up the tension, additional horn-like trumpets drops in to give the piece a slightly erotic ritualistic edge to it. Love the way the track ends in a really weird way. Third track with its creepy and heavy violins gives you that feeling of being bound to something, and just knowing that something in that pitch blackness of the night (hungry as it is) is heading straight towards you. A very seductive and hypnotic melody, with some interest noises and hisses here and there. The track ends here rather suddenly, sounds as this was not the intention. The bad track ending of the third track gets rescued by the fourth track by something which could have been in Herzog´s Nosferatu. Dreamy cosmic Berlin-School´ish synth with tons of atmosphere just puts it right on top of creaking doors and movie samples from... probably some German horror flick (I suck at German ok?!).
Following track further builds up that synth-driven with kraut-rock proto-ambient textures, this track could work as a background soundtrack for Carl Theodor Dryer´s Vampyr flick from 1932. A very beautiful, eerie and drone´ish synth-ambient track. The sixth track has that choking darkness edge to it, darkness and fright closing in and almost drowning your very senses. The seventh track Into the Crypt isolates perfectly that certain feeling of fright when you dare not to breathe, a very moody icy piece. Further vampiric tendencies of pure fright and terror await any listener who dares venture further through the bloody excellent album!
A very cool album and a very unique release within the world of dungeon synth. Pure vampire-themed horror-synth music with a clear focus on minimalistic eerieness as it´s the prime motivator. And yes, I have added the physical release to my wish-list on Discogs. I want this lovely thing!
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