Dungeon Synth has always been a strange, mist-shrouded territory for me. Of course, the early Mortiis records have stood on my shelf for years, relics from a prehistoric age, but that was more or less where my exploration of this marvellous niche ended. The genre often felt too much like a game soundtrack — too many echoes of the ’80s, too much 8-bit nostalgia. And believe me, I did try to dive deeper into the immense, underground discography of the Dungeon Synth scene. But every time I surfaced with the feeling that I was missing something.
Until I was offered Gwallgofrydd — a Dungeon Synth project from Wales, and suddenly the atmosphere shifted.
Even the name is a statement: written in Welsh and translatable as both “mental illness” and “fury, madness, derangement.” A title that doesn’t merely follow an aesthetic, but demands a psychological space. A space where mist, mythology, depressive folklore, and mental disintegration quietly converge.
Gwallgofrydd doesn’t sound as though it’s trying to imitate digital nostalgia, but rather as if it’s opening a forgotten chamber in a half-decayed castle no one remembered existed. Instead of clear melodies floating beneath a retro filter, we get shadowy layers of sound, rough as weathered stone, with echoes that evoke abandoned chapels and crypt-like cellars rather than 8-bit adventures.
Yr Arwr — The Hero — is a medieval tale that deserves a brief summary.
A brave warrior is sent by the king on an epic quest and seals a pact at court while sharing his battle stories. His journey leads him through dark caves and perilous places, yet at the break of dawn he finds hope again. As the end of the quest approaches, he still must conquer a mountain and brave a cursed place where misfortune lurks. In the end, the hero is remembered for his courage and for the countless fears and foes he overcame.
Musically, we’re dealing with synth pieces combined with what seem to be field recordings — don’t hold me to it, this is all new territory for me. But I must say that I genuinely enjoyed this epic drama in sonic form; it draws you into the story almost unconsciously and makes you feel the hero’s suffering.
Available on cassette via the artist’s own label in Wales.
85/100