 Written by: Lord Hsrah
We've all been hearing of people going to space these past few days, with Jeff Bezos being the latest to do so. And while some of us may start to wonder whether or not space is the final frontier here, Epoch of Chirality prepares for launch with their debut album Nucleosynthesis, where space is just the beginning and what lies ahead is a mystery best known to the unknown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, lift off! Epoch of Chirality is a one man sci-fi metal project started by England-based musician Richard How, and Nucleosynthesis is their first full-length album that follows their 2020 EP Dawn of Chirality. The album, dubbed as "sci-fi metal," has 9 instrumental songs in total, all of which, quite obviously, draw heavily from sci-fi soundscapes. Nucleosynthesis starts off pretty slow, and in general, the build up to the actual beefy material of every song takes quite a while too. There's plenty usage of synth and other electronic instruments to help create those soundscapes like they were straight out of the 80's. A lot of it is shared by modern synthwave acts, and what they do. Quite frankly speaking, at times it does feel like a nice space-synth album, albeit heavier in all tones and textures.
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Written by: The Administrator
Welcome, dear read/traveler, to INTO THE DUNGEON, a new (and likely infrequent, if I'm being real) column dedicated to dungeon-dwelling music of the synth-y persuasion. While admittedly less than well-steeped in the genre and its conventions, I've found myself listening to more and more dungeon synth over the past few years. There's a lot of incredible talent and innovation in the space, but said talent all too oft flies under the radar, particularly when it comes to metal-centric sites/medieval townships such as ours. 'Bout time to extend the reach of the limelight, methinks. Anyways, preliminary chatter out of the way: the topic of today's discussion is Sword of Hailstone, the excellent debut album by Minneapolis, Minnesota's own Desolation Plains. A notable aspect of this release is the companion RPG, which features some swell point 'n' click gameplay, plus some of the coolest fuckin' bandcamp code integration we slumbering scribes have ever seen. The music itself--the real focus here--is simply top-notch: everything I crave in a synth-laden experience is inordinately well represented. If you're questing for a soundtrack to adventure, Desolation Plains delivers in spades.  Written by: Blackie Skulless
If this album cover doesn’t catch your eye immediately, then I don’t know what will. There’s so much to look at, just as there is so much to listen to with the debut Universally Estranged record. Entitled Reared Up In Spectral Predation, this is a (pretty obviously) space / sci-fi / alien themed technical death metal album with a drop of synthwave. Yes, you read that correctly, and thankfully it doesn’t try to be a combo of the two, rather it uses passages to join different ideas. So it should go without saying that you’re going to be immersed in wildly fast and intricate strum and riff patterns with sporadic solos all over the place. Nothing we haven’t seen before, right? Well, somewhat. Universally Estranged is actually pretty left-field even for an already niche style. The synths aside, there’s an extra layer of cosmic flavors strictly from the guitar tones casting noisy auras crossed with crystal clear solo wankery. Neat as it sounds, I found it to be overwhelming. 
Written by: The Administrator
When we're not locked in our drafty scriptorium, daily existence here at the Sleeping Village is inevitably beset by the type of backbreaking labor inherent to a (pseudo) medieval township. The grind is real, and, as such, an occasional dose of the weird and wonderful is a bit of a necessity. Hence, the promise of self-declared "space disco synth metal," courtesy of Alpha Boötis, seemed like a likely candidate for injecting a lil' excitement into mid-afternoon drudgery. And boy, is it ever. I seldom write reviews immediately after consuming the music in question, but after jamming this two-track-plus-a-cover EP about eight times over the span of the past few hours, I feel somewhat moved to say my piece post-haste. Let's get to it. |
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We provide thoughtful reviews of music that is heavy, gloomy...and loud enough to wake us from slumber. Written by a highfalutin peasantry!
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