Category: news

Polish black-death veterans MASSTERON are ready to unleash their first full-length album, “Second in the Spheres”, set for release on September 24th, 2026 via ATMF. The album will be available as a six-panel Digipak CD, presenting the band’s uncompromising vision of extreme metal in its purest and most focused form. The first single “True Midnight” is now streaming HERE. Preorders at this location. […]

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Italian symphonic power metallers TEMPERANCE delve deeper into their personal deck of Tarot with the release of “Death: Right Before We Die”. The second single from their upcoming album Arcani, coming October 16, 2026 via Napalm Records, deals with an experience the band members shared while on tour. While having dinner in Tallinn, Estonia, during Sabaton Cruise 2024, the […]

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French acoustic post-metal outfit DRONTE will return in autumn 2027 with a unique collaborative release created alongside black metal band PER MOMENTUM. The two projects already share a close connection, as they are fronted by the same vocalist. The forthcoming conceptual split EP is built around the meeting of the bands’ contrasting musical identities. Its […]

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Chaos rises: emerging from the heart of the French scene, BERLIAL return to carve out darkness with a devastating new album. “Des Crevettes Sans Tête” is the title of this malevolent creation. Set for release via My Kingdom Music on November 20th, this new album from the French Post-Black Metal outfit is poised to shatter boundaries and upend the […]

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“Those making dark dungeon music will continue to carry a torch in the underground regardless of how popular it might get,” says Scott Padamonsky, the owner of Chimney Rocks Records. To him, dungeon synth is “getting bigger and expanding into a more fantasy-centric type of sound and scene, which I think is more approachable to the masses… I feel like Great Lakes Dungeon Siege represents both of those scenes, giving homage to the old while embracing the new.”

Padamonsky is referring to the upcoming third edition of the Great Lakes Dungeon Siege festival, taking place October 24 to 25 at Ghost Light in Detroit. With a new venue and an all-star roster featuring headliners Thangorodrim and Malfet, it’s set to uphold the prestige it’s garnered in the small dungeon synth community. 

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Within that community, Padamonsky knows what he’s talking about. He attended both prior editions of GLDS as well as two North East Dungeon Sieges, so I reached out to him for his thoughts on the upcoming event. Bryan Mobley boasts the same festival resume as Padamonsky and was heralded by GLDS organizers as “the biggest dungeon synth fan ever.” I needed his insight too. However, neither Padamonsky nor Mobley performed at GLDS, so I also contacted Jake Kohn, who performed last year as Vale Minstrel and will grace the stage this year as Faydark. 

As a composer, performer, and nomadic concert goer–Kohn has attended dungeon synth festivals around the United States as if they’re checkpoints on an in-game map–he had plenty to say about dungeon synth’s relevance over the last few years. 

“Most people believe it is increasing in popularity across the board, but what I have seen is that the activity around live shows, tours, and festivals has increased quite a lot in recent years, but the age of online hype, quick sell-out of merch and high clicks seems to have slightly dwindled. I’ve noticed a lot of things get fewer views, clicks, and hype online than around the pandemic or early 2020s when posting anything meant almost instant viral reaction or 10k, 20k, 30k+ views. It’s not quite like that anymore, as far as I have seen.”

It’s an interesting development for a genre that didn’t garner a name until two decades after its inception and was largely fertilized on the internet. In-person events now carry it forward. As such, GLDS has assembled a particularly productive line-up. Most of them released a new album this year. A few will be hitting the stage for the first time ever, including Tomb Wizard, Cefaris, and Bergtagen, the dark metal band who released their debut EP, In Forests Eternal, earlier this year. 

Distinguishing GLDS is that the sliver separating attendee, vendor, and performer doesn’t exist. For instance, I walked by 2025 festival headliner Fief multiple times at the last iteration without once knowing it was him. He was a dude, like me, at the event. The festival is more akin to folk music, not the genre but the tradition, wherein people were transiently performers and observers, listening to others play as much as they played their own music. No one was elevated onto a pedestal because the ritual itself, the shifting roles everyone occupied, was the main attraction. 

“It’s not a huge scene with massive egos, so it’s a great chance to get social and meet like-minded people face to face. You can talk to the musicians; they’re just like you!  There is basically no drunken mayhem that I’ve witnessed and it’s a safe space for all,” says Padamonsky.

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It’s in this way that dungeon synth’s tightly knit bonds are evident. Unfamiliar with a performer? The venue is small. You’ll likely bump into them, and if you’ve already done that, may as well watch them on stage. As both Padamonsky and Mobley point out, being on the line-up is proof enough that an act is worth checking out. Kohn adds to that: “It’s a much more organic experience to watch a musical act and sample it that way as opposed to just clicking on (yet another) link somewhere online. It’s a great way to hear many different artists that you might not normally check out.” There’s an inherent trust because the mage on-stage orchestrating alchemy is someone you spoke with 20 minutes ago while waiting for food. The music is obscure at GLDS, but the people are easier to reach. 

The amorphous relationship between audience and performers, if there’s even a point in drawing that distinction, especially considering last year’s pre-fest party had a dungeon synth open mic event, dismantles hierarchy. Kohn describes the atmosphere as, “essentially a forum of musical expression. Where artists and fans are interchangeable and freely mingle. A place with no pretention, where the buzz and excitement is equal from the opening acts to the closers. There’s a feeling of gratitude and excitement just to be there!”

This closeness humanizes the dungeon synth’s fantastical dressings, the lush album arts remodelled into janky attires and DIY sets. For comparison, Mortiis’ set on the Decibel Tour 2025 boasted large banners with his own prosthetic face, a mountainous backdrop, ornate keyboard accoutrements, and booming, nearly overcompensating, percussion. It was mythical. GLDS, even at its most epic, is quaint. The performers are clearly on budgets and they use that metaknowledge to their advantage, translating the genre’s auditory self-awareness into a visual language. 

The most grandiose display of this was, in Padamonsky’s words, “Mythstone, who brought one of the most over-the-top performances of the [GLDS 2025] weekend. Merging the musical talents of Redhorn Gate and Elyvilon with a huge dose of theatrics and puppetry, their set was captivating. I was blown away with how well it came together live on stage and could see them bringing that show to a wider audience in the future.”

By contrast, DragonKeep’s subdued set from the year prior earned praise from Mobley. “Her setup was so minimal, just up there with a keyboard and stool of some sort. I thought about how much guts it must take to do that the whole time.I was watching her fingers bounce across the keys. Off into dreamland.”

Dungeon synth is long removed from its dungeon purgatory, with GLDS performers showing the multitude of directions it can travel. DragonKeep and Mythstone are opposite ends of the spectrum, though there’s a z-axis that diversifies the acts; theme. Kohn says, “I really enjoy the deep creativity of acts like Alder Deep. The Hi-Fi Fantasy of Wraith Knight. The ancient cult of Cernunnos Woods. The atmospheric minimal perfection of Coniferous Myst. The sleek polar melodies of Hoarfrost. Or the whimsy of Fernmage. And of course the Medieval Mastery of Fief.”

Even through this thematic variety, dungeon synth is, for the most part, slow, ponderous, and journeys without conclusions. Seemingly, it’s antithetical to a live show. Yet, everyone I spoke with heralded it for those attributes. Those in attendance are already familiar with dungeon synth’s immersive and individual properties, so to them, the transition is seamless. Mobley states, “I watched Forgotten Lore do a most incredible set with a keyboard and a kick drum. She turned the temp down in that place by like 10 degrees. Icy. Chilling.”

Among the GLDS roster this year, Mobley, Padamonsky, and Kohn each picked a few acts they’d recommend to those who haven’t attended a dungeon synth event before. Their prescriptions included Foglord, Malfet, Hoarfrost, Caitha, Cefaris, and Thangorodrim.

Speaking from experience, Great Lakes Dungeon Siege is an atypical festival. It’s sleepy and without ego. I don’t make or play dungeon synth, yet I felt like I could, if only because I stood at the same equitable level as the rest of the festival by nature of being there. It’s the fantastical appearing in our realm for a brief weekend, new scenery entering our world and speaking its culture back to us. You won’t feel like you’re not in Michigan, but you may feel much closer to art commonly deemed as escapist. 

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Statement from organizer Jon Rosenthal:

I don’t think that there is any doubt concerning live dungeon synth anymore. Mortiis constantly tours, and people like Josh Pratt, Shane Hall, and Tirith (plus anyone else who runs a dungeon synth fest or books dungeon synth shows) helped cement the style as a live art form. Fests like Great Lakes Dungeon Siege are more like opportunities to give artists who might not have had one to play live, and for the audience to experience their art and how they express it in a live setting. Live dungeon synth is great because it is that passive, introspective style, as you said, meaning live performances are filled with opportunity for immense creativity. I think about fantasy artists like Mythstone’s epic, puppeteered live performances compared to Fief’s sunglasses-and-chainmailled minimalism, or Erythrite Throne and Coniferous Myst’s plainclothes, corpse painted misery. Great Lakes Dungeon Siege is a combining of these dungeon and fantasy styles and a conduit for their creativities in extra-musical and theatrical ways. We are so excited to see how everyone expresses themselves this year.

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Great Lakes Dungeon Siege takes place October 24-25 at Ghost Light in Detroit, Michigan. Tickets are available here.

It’s not easy being a performer these days. They have to worry about concertgoers shitting on the floor or throwing projectiles at them. On Thursday (Aug. 6), Billy Strings was playing a show in Fishers, Indiana, when he became the victim of a very skilled pitcher. He was in the middle of speaking when an object hit him in the head. That was the first of three nights that the folk/bluegrass musician was doing at the Fishers Event Center, so last night he returned with protective headgear.

The post Billy Strings Wears Protective Headgear After Getting Hit By Object The Previous Night appeared first on Stereogum.

Swedish melodic metal force TUNGSTEN unveil “Fuego Del Sol”, the brand-new single from their upcoming studio album Ashes, slated for a release on October 9 via PERCEPTION – Powered by Reigning Phoenix Music. Blending the band’s signature heavy sound with unmistakable Spanish and Latin American influences, the track delivers powerful riffs, infectious rhythms and a vibrant atmosphere that sets it apart from […]

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FEN choose continuous escalation with their next advance track ‘Abyssal Plain‘, which is taken from the East Anglian post-black metal stalwarts’ forthcoming new album, “Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth“, which is scheduled for release on August 21, 2026. Pre-sale link: https://spkr.store/collections/fen FEN comment: “From the highest peaks to the deepest depths of the seabed – this is now our fate”, mastermind Frank “The Watcher” Allain writes. “The ‘Abyssal Plain’ is a […]

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Posted on August 8th 2026, 4:12pm

Bludgeoning, bruising, and belligerent, brutal death metal beats listeners down into bloody paste when it does its job right. Indonesian duo Vertiginous takes this direction to heart, holding back nothing as they trounce on listeners with nary a batted eye. The pair released debut Reek of Putrefaction on Excruciating Lust in 2024, and now Hendika Dwi Prasetyo and Jossi Bima return to pulpify you with sophomore outing Incessant Affliction. As is the case for many in the genre, Vertiginous keeps it simple via a relentless teeth-rattling clatter that induces merciless pulverization. In the end, does this Incessant Affliction incubate an infectiously good time, or leave us dying to be put out of our collective misery?

From its first moment, Incessant Affliction pulverizes listeners with unflinching ruthlessness. Opener “Suffering, Misery, and Slaughtering” surges forth with tortured, inhuman vocals, flurries of snare abuse, and lawless stringed onslaught, setting the stage for Incessant Affliction’s violent incursion. And the hits keep coming, as each track roils with the seething intensity of touchstone titans. Musically, Vertiginous recalls early Suffocation with flecks of Devourment and Cannibal Corpse thrown in. Sprinkled throughout are bite-sized bass breaks that act as nice ‘n’ chunky, Alex Webster-inspired flourishes (“Mutilated with Anguishes”). And while paces mostly accelerate toward maximum impact, “Suffering, Misery, and Slaughtering,” “Engraved Loathing,” and “Unclear Misery” dawdle in quick snatches of lurching trudgery, providing brief but welcome respites.

For all the dizzying bombardments that Vertiginous unleashes, though, I find it difficult to differentiate one blood-soaked moment from the next. “Crucified in Fate Hesitation” mauls with pummeling drumming and buzzsaw guitar licks, leaving you sticky with phlegm and ichor. But moving into follow-up track “Incubated Inquietude,” I wouldn’t notice the songs changing if not for the short gap of silence between them. “Tortured with Endless Despair” and “Mutilated with Anguishes” repeat this pattern, separated only by the fading crash of a cymbal. And so on. At half an hour, Incessant Affliction rips and renders with nary a moment to cull, yet there’s also no peak or passage that sticks with me after “Unclear Misery” fades into the ether. Ultimately, this slathers Vertiginous’s latest with too much similitude, undercutting an album that otherwise roars with delicious menace.

Although Vertiginous could stand to add some diversity to Incessant Affliction, they elect some pretty mouthwatering choices as well. The production pushes everything to the fore, but given the genre, this embodies an appropriate choice. The sonic concussion is a calculated bludgeon rather than the result of a glossy or careless mix, and even with Vertiginous relentlessly flogging your skull, Incessant Affliction rumbles with a carefully honed depth. In addition to the production, performances satisfy as well. Bima’s frog-stomping gutturals can be felt as much as heard, churning guts and bowels with seismic malevolence. Prasetyo, meanwhile, handles all instrumentation, impressing with his clangorous drumming. The guitars are suitably chaotic and deadly, although a more focused effort on riff development would go a long way towards solidifying identities for individual songs, which characterizes what separates Vertiginous from brutal death greats like Cryptopsy, Skinless, and Dying Fetus. I also wish the bass played a more prominent role, as the times when it’s most audible create a refreshing dimension that stands out above the pack.

Despite the knocks against Incessant Affliction when evaluated as a whole, taken a song at a time, Vertiginous supplies killer tricks sopping with venomous barbs. I like it more than the score may reflect, but the lack of distinction between songs unfortunately hampers my desire to return to it. Still, I’ll be interested in what Vertiginous cooks up next, because their brand of unrestrained brutality evinces a potent batch of death metal. While Incessant Affliction doesn’t prove as contagious as I’d hoped, the disease is rotten enough for fans to give it a whiff or three.

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Rating: Mixed
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Websites: Bandcamp | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: August 7th, 2026

The post Vertiginous – Incessant Affliction Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.