Back in the day, “Some music was meant to stay underground” was a tagline used by the Roadracer Records imprint in their press adverts, yet in the case of Dungeon Music, it is a phrase that’s particularly apt. No other music has shunned the media spotlight and deliberately hid itself away like this deliciously dark genre. Thankfully, author Jordan Whiteman has shone a light into the black and placed this most elusive of musical styles under the microscope. Beautifully designed and thoroughly researched, Dark Dungeon Music: The Unlikely Story Of Dungeon Synth is a mammoth book that will please the scene’s devotees whilst providing a perfect introduction for the curious, making this the ideal starting point to explore all the nooks and crannies of Dark Dungeon Music.
In a logical manner, this book begins at the genres start, detailing the scenes origins and placing it in well-defined parameters by exploring roots which constitute proto-dungeon synth (and later its split from black metal). Even if you’ve never heard of said genre, the opening chapters will give you an idea of what dungeon synth sounds like and will fill your head with cavernous echoes and chilly atmospherics (which is probably the greatest gift a book about music can give). Good music journalism should make you open Spotify and listen to the artists of whom you are reading, and Dark Dungeon Music affords plenty of opportunity for that. It’s partly due to Jordan’s enthusiasm for his subject, it’s contagious and sweeps the reader along and that renders the book a real “page turner”. However, he’s also managed to put distance between him and his subject; there’s an obvious fandom shining through these pages, yet it never veers into gushing and his encyclopedic knowledge gives the book a scholarly feel and you get the impression that this tome will remain the definitive word on dungeon synth for many years to come.
Interspersed with the text are rare photographs, press adverts, extracts from fanzines and demo cassette inlays, all of which complement the words and gives an impression of the genres aesthetic (an important, often overlooked part of dungeon synth). A book of two halves; the first gives us a historical account of the genre, whilst the second presents a series of interviews with the scene’s movers and shakers, including in-depth chats with Mortiis, Bjorn Schmidt (Depressive Silence) and Aslan, amongst others, all of whom add a different facet to the story and prove Dungeon Synth a truly global movement. In between, there’s a rather nice 40-page photo gallery that brings some colour to proceedings and makes a nifty bridge between the two parts.
At 200,000 words and almost 400 (large) pages, it would be no understatement to say that this book is “definitive”. Yet, rather than leaving you daunted, Dark Dungeon Music will have you embracing the darkness.
- Dark Dungeon Music: The Unlikely Story Of Dungeon Synth is released via Cult Never Dies.
