Showing posts with label Vampire Synth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vampire Synth. Show all posts

Saturday 7 August 2021

Wampyric Solitude "The Splendor Of Loneliness" (2021)

 

So distant now from its curious origins and sparks of individual majesty, The Splendor Of Loneliness has me checking out from this artist as a clear downward trajectory continues. It is never fun to be critical but this record has been bloated with lengthy and repetitious loops of grating low-fi. Its ideas are obvious but the execution misses the mark too often. Its opening track holds its own, the sparse percussion and esoteric gong strikes from the deep push along a slow whirl of shadowy synths. Devoid of uplift, it stares into the cold, lonely abandon that lays before it.

The music has a chemistry between instruments that overcomes its deliberate distortion and wavering fidelity. The issue is, this approach to tonality swiftly falls apart with tracks like Crypt Of Vampyric Darkness, Eternally I Hate, Enthroned Amongst The Eldritch Shadows and A Putrid Stench From The Grave Of Hope. They all push minimalism on repetition with uncomfortable synth tones that miss the sinister, imposing or demonic presence they likely aim for, sadly faltering to become an irritant for the ears. Singular notes, or small groupings of, lethargically drone sluggishly, cycling incessantly with little sense of building up tension or atmosphere.

For me, it doesn't even work as mood setting background music. Ironically its two shortest songs have flashes of magic. Grave Syndrome ushers in a creepy yet charming sinister energy as its brooding acoustic guitar gets mustered into action as a devious baseline propels it along. Ultimately, I had very little to take away from this experience given I didn't vibe with the aesthetic. I do think a lot of this musicianship rests on a blades edge. Tricky to pull of the chemistry but step wrong and its game over.

Rating: 2/10

Friday 18 June 2021

Wampyric Solitude "Darkness, Beloved And Eternal" (2020)

 

This shall be my last Wampyric Solitude record for now. Wedged between Carpathian Melancholy and Spectral Kingdom Of Nocturnal Sorcery, this one seems to be apart from a perceived downwards slump from its lonely yet enchanting origins. Working with shorter compositions again, its escapades resemble that of its inception, brief and strange encounters with a darkness of solitude, lacking any antagonism or fear of another entity. Its opening track deploys gorgeous stoic strings, yearning across the horizon. Scenic in scope and brooding with loneliness, its presence is rather grabbing. This might be the most Vampiric discovery so far.

The following track drifts back with the same strings into the background. Dense drums strike softly in reverberation giving a sense of sequestering. They rise in volume towards the end but ultimately this song feels like an intentional shadow of what came before. Any trajectory this might of entailed feels entirely swept away as the plucked strings of an over-driven guitar ushers in. Its cold and desolate melody repeats over and over, then reinforced by lively drumming and an eventual climax with psychedelic synths. Fantastic, but feels at odds with whats around it.

The next two tracks lean back into the soft rumblings of esoteric conjuring and perpetual solitude. Now bringing in the quiet percussive grooves again, the Noir Jazz vibes take hold and bestow an indulging mood for drizzle and sunless skies. Its use of dreary guitars and warm lumbering bass lines on the last song highlights some fantastic creativity. Its a mix of ideas achieving the same ends but the transition feels somewhat odd. The inclusion of two bonus instrumentals from the previous records was nice too. Those harsh and bleak howls seemed intrusive but hearing the songs without made it seem as if they belonged there all along.

Rating: 6/10

Wednesday 16 June 2021

Wampyric Solitude "Spectral Kingdom Of Nocturnal Sorcery" (2021)

 

It did not take but a couple of spins to get to know this ones design. Where Lost Age Of Darkness offered an intriguing shade of despairing mystique and Carpathian Melancholy elongated it to lengthy passages, Spectral Kingdom of Nocturnal Sorcery hinges on a minimalist design that doesn't evoke the same magic. Its baron buzz-saw synths are all too bold, upfront and dull. At first glance, perhaps it offers a passing, ancient dazzle but housed by its slow droning percussive loop of hi-hat and deep bellowing tom drum with the occasional gong strike... the whole project is to repetitious and obvious in construct to indulge with as it slugs through slow, drawn out notations that can't rely on the texture for its atmosphere or identity.

After its six minutes of cold ambiguous engine noise that album shifts to its four lengthy cuts that all hinge around a single synth tone. They circle around the same idea, methodically slow, minimal progression in notation and providing some variation on the theme with additional instruments but the magic is just missing entirely. With so little of the pallet being changed track to track, you can practically suss the record out through the first song along. Essentially it feels like a simple execution of a concept with very little to flesh it out. The slow pacing and bold synth tones don't conjure much for me at all, even as background music it grates away in a static state.

Rating: 3/10

Monday 14 June 2021

Wampyric Solitude "Carpathian Melancholy" (2020)

 

Intrigued by the despairing loneliness found among the deeper carvings on Lost Ages of Darkness, I set my sights on finding another record. Operating under a variety of other monikers, this anonymous musician's other incarnations where all to brash and obvious for my taste. The hazardous machinations of militant percussion and Dungeon Synth failing to evoke the magic its intentions clearly strode for under an awkward and bumbling aesthetic. So I returned to the aptly named Wampyric Solitude to find a different approach to a familiar feeling with a melancholic title all to fitting.

Pivoting from the contained variety of shorter tracks, Carpathian Melancholy lurches into the lengthy as its five tracks, averaging ten minutes each, births its inspiration through long, yearning passageways of brooding unease and distant tension. Minimal in nature, its groaning synths steadily build atmospheres that are ripe in the background, meditative as they sink into the subconscious of a distracted mind. Its opening number, The Night And The Sorrow, can't help but carry a subtle uplift in cloudy gloom that fondly reminds me Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent). Its starlit astral synth tone, cutting through the reclusive lingering doom.

Each track pivots and this This Sanguine Affliction steers us to the smoky Noir Jazz vibes again as its haunting hi hat plucks at ones sanity with its grounded tempo. The song musters a rise in its conclusion as the eeriness gathers gusto but mostly it is a slow, drawn out affair of mood setting. The title track is the one song to offset this template of slow, methodical brooding. Its sorrowful opening strings suddenly pivot past the mid point, erupting with a startling piano, passive drum beat and grave vocals. They wretch in pain, smothered in a predictable reverb, howling despairing lyrics. Eventually some hazy distortion guitar is ushered in. Its tone intriguing but the song is locked into its depressive state, paralyzed in repetition.

I don't feel too strongly about it. Maybe it comes shy of something grander but overall this stretching out of duration made the music serve mood and atmosphere more so than its own spectacle. The softness and subtlety I once praised feels lost in its lengthy nature but still this record has offered another flavor of background music, for focus on other tasks, that I may return to on occasion if inclined.

Rating: 5/10

Saturday 12 June 2021

Wampyric Solitude "Lost Ages Of Darkness" (2020)

 

As the third of three attempts, this may be the best of "Vampire Synth" so far. In title alone it defines itself. Solitude... not a word that often comes to mind with music, even though it can be so inherent in the quieter arts of Ambient and Meditative music. As is the activity of listening, if not at a party or concert of course. The Curse Act I sounding so reclusive and illusory with devilish piano notes conjuring a cinematic presence of murder or death, now confined to the loneliness of lifelessness. At times this record strays from the mystique of its esoteric minimalism straight into the arms of a despairing solitude. As for its Vampiric half, I definitely get chills that suite a serious entertainment of the nostalgic, blood drinking folk lore myths.

The castle of its cover alone seems perfect. A decrepit Transylvanian castle in ruins... the grainy black and gray image casting the gloomy mood. Being so akin to the Black Metal scene its no surprise to hear snarling groans of grave sadness cry out across a lonely void on its closing track which musters a the most of its instruments as the gentle percussive beat and its rainy synths conjure a feeling quite similar to Noir Jazz. The rest of the record, however, makes its way to this darkly conclusion through the bleak, pale and terribly lonely minimalism its housed in.

The Lost Ages of Darkness aesthetics are so soft and subtle that even in its culminations of brooding synths, the quiet sounds feel as desolate in tandem as in there lonesome, which many singular melodies explore. With The Curse Act II the music pivots to a new kind of terror. Two minutes of dense reverberated bass kicks leads us too spacey, zany synths that wobble with an almost extra terrestrial threat. Is so carefully crafted as to not over emphasize its unnaturalness. Waltz steers us to the Jazz Noir again and the title track experiments with foggy ambiguities before The Last Wampyr charms with a little childlike melody... with a chilling undertone of course.

This record has revealed itself to be deceptively simple, chilling to inhabit and leaves me with a curiosity has to how long its spell will hang over me. So often can Dungeon Synth hinge on its tropes but this record feels deeper than any of that, yet its bare starkness say perhaps not? I think it takes real talent to make music like this strike a deeper nerve and so with this artist I shall persevere through a few more albums. It will be interesting to hear what lies ahead!

Rating: 7/10

Thursday 10 June 2021

An Old Sad Ghost "Coffin (A Letter For Carmilla)" (2018)

 
After the disappointing Wampyr we move onto the second of three picks from a list of so called "Vampire Synth". I'm please to say An Old Sad Ghost offers much more in its darkly theme and churchy mood but still falls short of the Nosferatu chills I was hoping for. Its a brief nineteen minutes, split into seven roman numeric chapters. They are all choral organ pieces conjuring a slight macabre Gothic charm. It mostly gives a sense of per-enlightenment times, its big foggy organs filling the firelight halls of some weathered cathedral.

Its small selection of organ and airy synth tones are most likely virtual instruments. Its programming shows itself as the "paying" comes with a consistent attack and sustain that offers little in the way of expression through nuance and subtlety. Given some of its arrangements generate simple rhythms with its harsh deadening of repetitive notes, it can be a distraction that an analog performance would of elevated. Its mixing is also a little crass with the instruments routinely rubbing into one another with the mechanical resilience its virtualized reality amplifies.

Flaws aside, Coffin evokes a warm and glowing sense of being sheltered from the grave and despaired. Its aesthetic gloomy, menacing and foreboding yet the majority of melodies performed feel confident, sheltered and warm. Often with this type of music I comment on the "distance from danger" yet here it feels as if all danger is removed entirely from this rather glum and grim temperament. Occasionally its notations peer into something more sinister but its only ever brief.

There is no doubt the music has some bold ideas, resonating with the imagination for ancient realms and cultural mystique. This polishes its apparent flaws. As a lone piece with no vocals, bass or percussion its strengths seem held back. With more love and care these compositions could be truly captivating. Currently they are not, for reasons aforementioned. This record will most likely drift from consciousness however It will hold its spell whenever I return to it. My final thought is the key question, does it inspire the "Vampire Synth" genre name? I think not, but given whats out there, this feels more Vampiric than other Dungeon Synth records that come to mind.

Rating: 4/10

Tuesday 8 June 2021

Wampyr "Wampyr" (2017)

 

This will be the first of three records I will cover on the topic my newest unearthing, Vampire Synth! Whats that? Apparently a subset of the micro-genre Dungeon Synth. Can you imagine my reaction upon stumbling onto a massive list of this so called "vampyric" music. Excitement alright, Ive often yearned for artists to look for new avenues in this easily accessible genre flooded with amateurish attempts like my own Forgotten Conquest. So far we are not off to a good start with this brief EP of three originals and a cover by James McKeown, the man behind the Wampyr moniker.

These lonely, sombre songs lean heavily on their Casio synth keys and low fidelity aesthetics, sounding fumbled and off the mark. Meandering and directionless whatever solemn piano, gaudy choir synth or cheesy tone takes focus the music can't escape its design. The brash and awkward percussive strikes on the opening track seem like a failed rouse to arouse mystique. As it passes the yearning atmospheric synths that arise usher in a new phase seemingly unconnected. With barely more than two instruments chiming in at any one time, its possible minimalist ideas fall flat in forging anything meaningful out of the subdued setting it occupies.

I'm being harsh here, individually some moments do conjure that ancient dungeon feeling but its all to brief and interspersed by the swiftly transitioning music. It doesn't create a sense of theme bigger than any one moment that's passing by. To pile on the critique a little more, where is the vampirism? I picked these records at random, unsure of what to expect, hoping for a new nostalgia, gothic and cruel, drenched in blood, exciting the imagination for mythic legends of Counts and Countesses, dwelling in darkness and conspiring nefarious plans for their victims. This had none of that and thus my disappointment. Even removing my colored expectations I hear little distinction.

Rating: 2/10