Snørte - Mort Lente

This rarity finally came in from Russia. Discovered this a while ago but hadn't had a chance to purchase until it briefly appeared on Discogs. Such a good cover! High quality tape rip as always.

Snørte is the eponymous side project of the Snørte Skoggath of the French and Swiss black metal bands Helslakt and Profond Barathre (a few of these tracks are actually redone by Snørte for PB's first demo), this self-titled tape from 2007 being his only solo release. The project falls more into the 'dungeon-esque' category. It's not full dungeon synth but it has many of the elements. Snørte is more of a Lamentation-Aakon Keetreh-Lebenessenz hybrid. There's definite influence here from the LLN dark ambient side projects. Slow melancholic piano reverberates with soft synths with some tracks featuring glacial DSBM drumming. All of the tracks are rather depressive, some have a bit more of a horror tinge to them evocative of Lamentation or the eerier passages of Xasthur. I can't exactly tell if the music is programmed in a sequencer or recorded live, but there's a coldness to it. The human element is very feint, a hopeless soun.

Visitors who come here for dungeon synth may be disappointed with the lack of fantasy synth here, but give it a listen. The chorus-voice synth, slow grand piano, and drum machine may sit well with DSBM fans and dungeon fans alike (but not too well, of course, this is certainly a dark tape). There is one track from this posted on Youtube that happens to be the best from this release, if you want a preview.

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Arthur - Pagan Sun's Fire

A new week and I've decided to do another tape rip from my personal collection. Pagan's Sun's Fire is the only release from Arthur, an eponymous project of Arthur Schkolnick. Pagan Sun's Fire came out in 2005, released with the help of Roman Saenko of Drudkh and Hate Forest (Arthur played bass on Hate Forest's 'The Curse') with no info on the insert other than the track name.

This is quite a full length tape. Nine songs with most hitting the mid-to-late five minute mark. All of the tracks definitely have their own feel and not many instruments are reused albeit the full on Guitar Pro midi drum set (don't get me wrong, I love it). The composure is quite fleshed out, the songs Witch, Song of Rainy Forest, and the melancholic yet triumphant Hate Is My Love being my favorite examples. Most tracks feature a full drum set, which may throw you off when they first come in but they're warmly welcomed once you've grown accustomed. Some might argue that this isn't 'dungeon synth' per se, maybe 'dark medieval synth rock' or something. True, it doesn't have some of the archaic sounds of dungeon synth keys and the full drum setup may liken it more toward conventional 'rock' music, but I would say this is surely in the spirit of dungeon synth if not dungeon synth itself.

A very solid and satisfying release, a shame that it isn't more well known.

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