Dungeon Synth

 During my extended adolescence, spent largely in basements and garages, rolling dice and slaying monsters, our GMs never really played music in the background. Mood and setting weren’t a factor. We were all just pumped to be around a foldable card table, drinks and snacks in hand, ready to spend entire nights playing games until dawn. 

These days, there’s music at the table and I really like it. I don’t always hear it, but it’s always there. And, through this, I kind of discovered dungeon synth. I’m awful at remembering the origins of things, but if I had to guess, I’d wager my GM got me into it.

It feels like it’s way outside the realm of music I’d normally listen to. Metal, punk rock, postpunk…these are the dominant forces in my aural soundscape. But, instrumental music, especially of or sounding of a certain era (real or fantasy) has a place for me. 

In 1995, I was deep in the throes of roleplaying obsession. Every weekend during school, every night during summer. At school, at home, on my paper route…always roleplaying or thinking about roleplaying. Anything even closely related thematically or aesthetically to the genres of RPGs I was into was being consumed. And it was coming in at breakneck speed. All of my friends were into the same shit, so the amount of “Hey man, check this out…” was infinite. Many years prior to content overload, birds of a feather would make it happen anyway.

Included in all of this were movies, books, comics, games, action figures, you-fucking-name-it. And the reason I bring up 1995 specifically is because that was the year Braveheart was released. Not fantasy, but boy did it have swords and castles and horses and plenty of action to which we could assign THAC0 and AC while watching. And with it came the soundtrack. It had everything I could’ve wanted in genre-relevant music. Cavalry charges, love, tragedy, triumph. James Horner blew my mind with his score to that movie. Not that I didn’t know music like that existed, but that soundtrack specifically hit hard. 

Fast forward to right now and I’m at work, listening to Celestial Aeon Project, a dungeon synth outfit that makes music tailor made for the game table. Dungeon synth has almost taken over my Spotify algorithm to the point that my year-end list is going to be a lot of “wtf?”. It’s music that constantly keeps my old brain in an RPG/genre mindset and I don't know how much time I have left, so why not occupy my gray matter with things that light the serotonin cannons on repeat?

Wait, hold…I shit you not, as I’m typing this, the algo just played “A Gift of a Thistle” from the Braveheart soundtrack. See? This stuff is cosmic. I spend my time focusing on things like this because they make me happy and I don’t know about you, but happiness is a commodity and inflation is a bitch. 

Dungeon synth forever.