In my regular travels to the mystical land of Bandcamp, I have several noteworthy ports of call. In particular I use the site for listening to some of my favorite Old-school styled, trad-revival, and so-called "NWOTHM" (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal) bands, and several of my favorite ambient artists who might fall under the umbrella term of "Dungeon Synth."
It is this particular mysterious and arcane, yet-intensely evocative and surprisingly relatable genre that is the topic of today's Battle of the Bards. In particular, this is a look at one of my personal favorites, the Salt Lake City-based dungeon synth/"medieval ambient" artist known as Fief.
I first discovered Fief on the Dungeon Synth subreddit not terribly long after I discovered the genre itself a few years ago, and was quickly enthralled by their two albums of well-composed ambient music with a distinctive, medieval style and a uniquely bright tone compared to most other Dungeon Synth. I was instantly enthralled by the incredibly evocative soundscapes that Fief creates, and filled with RPG writing ideas. For a solid week, Fief's second album, the newest at the time, was the main soundtrack to my walks around the neighborhood, on which I often tend to come up with some of my better writing and RPG-related ideas.
As I discussed in the previous Battle of the Bards, there are bands and artists out there which are excellent for getting the creativity to happen and putting one in the general mental space for the best idea-flow. Fief are, as I touched on above, an excellent "mood band." They are, however, also much more. Fief are easily one of my go-to artists when it comes to background music for actually running games as well as writing for them, especially when the current scene of the game isn't located in the typical dark, dingy dungeon environment that old school Mortiis, Wongraven, or Lord Lovidicus are made for. Fief makes high adventure music, for when the players are re-enacting travel scenes from Lord of the Rings, crossing vast plains and climbing high mountains in the search of the lost ruins of ancient, noble kingdoms of Dwarves. Fief is the soundtrack to strolling through the vibrant garden's of a noble's castle, and of daring missions made by heroic, but impoverished knights errant to steal into the courtyard and climb the tower walls to the window of the callous old Lord's beautiful daughter. Fief is the soundtrack to the types of adventures that make me nostalgic for editions of D&D that I've never even played, for the kinds of adventures that transport one from a wood-paneled, shag-carpeted basement to the most epic of locales.
On top of all that, Fief always seems to get the best art for album covers.
That's probably just about all I can really say on the subject of Fief. I cannot possibly recommend them highly enough to anyone interested in RPGs, fantasy writing, or even looking for a musical backdrop for reading, playing a video game, or just relaxing.
"But wait," you might ask, "isn't this a music review?" Well, while it may equally be simply an ode to one of my favorite artists, it is a review nonetheless, brought on by the fact that Fief have just come out with a new album. The release of their new album, simply entitled "IV," was the reason for this post, and listening to it has made writing it an absolute breeze, thus pushing it slightly ahead of a new "Tales of the Table" which I am also working on.
There isn't a whole lot that I can say about the album that I haven't already said above, but as with each of the three before it, Fief's fourth album shows yet further development of a sound that they created on their first, perfected on their second, and have continued to evolve since then. It delivers layered melodies which Bandcamp user Gareth the Grey describes best as "Ear-balm." It transports the mind to far-off fantastical places of adventure.
The verdict: 5/5 Healthy Horns of Mead
To all of you out there, go check out Fief if you haven't yet. Here is a link to their Bandcamp. I'd recommend listening to their albums in chronological order to experience the same journey I have, but at the end of the day, as Mike Muir would say, "Nobody does you better than you."
With that, as always, may your road lead you ever onward to adventure,
-Armstrong
No comments:
Post a Comment