As a longtime fan and player of tabletop games of every sort I’ve always found it helpful to have music selected for writing material for games, whatever the setting, especially those that are bleak or horror oriented, in which case, Undead Magic User’s “Master of Dungeons” has satisfied my profane desires. The subtle charms of … Continue reading “Master of Dungeons” – Undead Magic User
Today is Halloween, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with some top-notch music, so here are my top five albums for All Hallow’s Eve. 5: “Under a Funeral Moon” - Darkthrone Darkthrone’s “Under a Funeral Moon” was a particularly special album that expertly captured the raw, monochromatic aesthetic of Norwegian black metal in … Continue reading Towers of Rust: Top Five Albums for Halloween
Four years after the release of “A Journey Through the Dark”, Dungeons of Irithyll has embarked upon yet another jarring and dangerous raid of dungeons deep, this time carrying listeners to a fresh setting which emulates “a small DLC area that could potentially be found within the Dark Souls universe” called “The Dire Pass, That … Continue reading “Quest II: The Dire Pass, That Few Have Known as Sarnath” – Dungeons of Irithyll
Blending elements of death metal, blistering grindcore and d-beat, Florida’s WØRSEN released “Grand Scheme” August 16, 2016 and it’s an absolute hammer of an album. Featuring eight short but grueling tracks of misery-fueled sonic vomit, Grand Scheme eschews the pomp and overdriven technicality of some of today’s popular metal and gets straight to the point, … Continue reading “Grand Scheme” – WØRSEN
I don’t quite recall how or where I first heard of Emit. It was either via the Crucial Blast Records website or from Zero Tolerance Magazine, but I do know that when I first heard “Spectre Music of an Antiquary” I was thoroughly pleased. Each song is like a portent of a slowly creeping doom … Continue reading “Spectre Music of an Antiquary” – Emit
Like the many-headed hydra of Greek myth, The True Mayhem sprouted yet another serpentine head with the celebrated release of 2019’s “Daemon”. This spiraling descent into pure black metal hell hearkens back to the golden age of the genre, luring us in with it’s Faustian offerings and casting us into a deep abyss of woe … Continue reading “Daemon” – Mayhem
My first encounter with Gnawed was shortly after the release of 2014’s Feign and Cloak, which I discovered after it was recommended by Zero Tolerance Magazine in an issue published around the same time. I was immediately a fan of the harsh, gritty soundscapes and dank atmosphere which Grant Richardson (Gnawed) produced. Unlike other noise … Continue reading “Subterranean Rites” – Gnawed
One of my very favorite dungeon synth albums, “A Journey Through the Dark” by Dungeons of Irithyll bathes listeners in dolorous synth passages conjured from the lore of the Dark Souls video game series. The somber minimalism of this album is reminiscent of many environs from within the games (of which I am also a … Continue reading “A Journey Through the Dark” – Dungeons of Irithyll
In 2005 I was fifteen years old, and my burgeoning interest in all things black metal was all-consuming. I was drawn to the genre like a lunar moth to a pale flame and was fiercely inspired by various artists within the genre, particularly the classic 2nd wave Scandinavian bands, but also to the handful of … Continue reading Lurker of Chalice (S/T)
Like necrotic seepage dripping from a gangrenous wound, Lord Mantis reemerged from the gutters anew with Charlie Fell back in the band, and their latest offering, “Universal Death Church” is disastrously filthy, the heaviest and most putrescent of blackened sludge has been funneled and condensed into a nightmare-cocktail for the world to imbibe. While many … Continue reading “Universal Death Church” -Lord Mantis
Towers of Rust 