Long, dark stone corridors, a distant echoing sound of a drip, or perhaps a squelch. A haunting melody played on a brass instrument, with an uncanny, stiff lifelessness to the notes. A thick guidebook filled with rough sketches of swords, amulets, creatures, and villages. That is the way dungeon synth sounds, the musical incarnation of all that is dusty, magical and nostalgic. But what exactly is dungeon synth? Dungeon synth is what remains when you take black metal and leave out the metal aspect. Take the dark, instrumental intros, outros and interludes of old classic black metal works, and well, that's it. That's Dungeon synth. It's pretty much impossible to unambiguously name the first dungeon synth album. It might have been Jim Kirkwood's "Where Shadows Lie" from 1990, inspired by the works of of the legendary J. R. R. Tolkien.

Dungeon synth is, and will probably ever be, a very niche genre that is easy to produce but more than difficult to master. Even today a lot of hobby musicians just fuck around on their old Casio keyboards, add reverb here and a lonely sigh there, slap a cool album cover and think they've made a dungeon synth album worth publishing. But as easy as it sounds as difficult it is to compose something outstanding. Dungeon synth heavily relies on atmosphere and, if competently composed, manages to build worlds just with melodies and sounds. Sometimes vocals are added to create a more cohesive picture of an ongoing story. Imagine yourself sitting in an old dusty tavern in Middle Earth, or any other fantasy setting of your choice, in a dark corner at a table with a lit candle just illuminating your face. You watch the other dark figures and catch sight of a pale-faced, somehow evil-looking stranger. He approaches you, the two of you start talking and he tells you about the adventures he experienced on his journey through the dark lands. Here, my friend, we get to know Eöl, here he takes us into the dark forest...

Eöl is not only the mysterious stranger in our imaginative tavern, he is really something of a mystery. Not much is known about him, only that he was the keyboardist in the blackened death metal band Suffering Down and in the former black metal project Frostfog of him and drummer Basajaun. Today he still plays in Surt Ur and Numen, in which he seems to have a bigger role, and in one of his solo projects, Aura Negativ, in which he lives out his passion for futuristic electronic/ambient music. As good as the music of his bands and other side projects may sound, nothing seems to surpass the passion he must feel for his main project, Elffor, in which he seems to feel at home due to the immense output he releases. Since 2006, Eöl has been releasing at least one album almost every year, sometimes even several at once.

In 1998, "Into the Dark Forest..." was released, the first album under the Elffor banner. Self-financed and recorded entirely independent, Eöl celebrates a dungeon synth work that is absolutely black metal in its aesthetics. The music can only be described as mystical and foggy, as the title seems to be program. For indeed, the whole album feels like a night hike through a wintry forest. Eöl weaves epic symphonic carpets with nature sounds and folk influences so that the atmosphere takes you back to the middle ages, pretty common for dungeon synth. But I have to admit that Eöl creates an atmosphere with "Into the Dark Forest..." that knows how to captivate me. Especially in dungeon synth, this is a small miracle.

Of course, "Into the Dark Forest..." is not without its flaws. Even if you consider that we are talking about niche music for lovers, on album length it can be a bit exhausting for the average listener because the atmosphere and the tempo hardly change. However, despite the sparse change of pace, musically very much happens in the songs. In contrast to mostly purely instrumental dungeon synth artists, Eöl contributes vocals and underlines the aforementioned black metal aesthetic. Pitch-black and ghost-like vocals in the style of the 90s, bitter screams that could have been on a Burzum album intensify the atmosphere and give the listener a good dose of escapism. Lyrically Eöl moves between gothic romanticism, nature worship and battle epic, here and there refined with a little shot of good old-fashioned hatred.

Elffor tells a dark fairy tale that does capture the listener as soon as he gets involved in it. The aesthetics of black metal and the aforementioned atmosphere will appeal to every black metal fan anyway, but also to those who thirst for gothic escapism. Eöl creates a magical dream world in which it is worth to escape. In times of mostly man-made catastrophes like climate change, war, pandemics and the generally rather negative way of dealing with ourselves, Elffor is exactly what lets you recharge your batteries. I recommend everyone to start with "Into the Dark Forest..." and work steadily through the Elffor discography, every note is worth your time. Hail Eöl, Son of the Shades.