Alrighty friends, it’s Risa again, back with more dungeon synth. The EP this time is an artist called Tharmalog, hailing from Guatemala City. I was pretty excited to take a listen to this one. I was very curious to see if the music would reflect the geographical location. I don’t think I have ever heard any dungeon synth from a latin locale before and I was excited to see how different it was from the various european and north american artists I have heard and reviewed before.
After listening to the 3 tracks on this EP, I can say that, while I am no expert on Guatemalan culture, I did not notice anything specific that felt like a direct reflection of the location. Nothing stuck out to me as new or different than all of the other music in the genre.
Alright, moving on from that, let’s get into the actual music.
The first track starts off okay. It’s dark and slow and feels very doom and gloom. It has some deep percussion sounds that give it that damp dungeon feel, and I love that. And then about a minute into the track the monologue starts…. Now, I personally do not like vocals in my synth music so I was really not into this.
Then at the 2.5 minute mark, the entire sound changes, like an entirely different song starts playing despite it being 1 track. Around the 4 minute mark it changes again and we get some surprise strings. This final third of the song is the best part, in my opinion. The strings are very interesting and give it a new and lighter feel. I do think it was pretty disgruntling to have it all be in one seven minute song. I think it would have been better received if it had be broken up into two or three tracks.
Track 2, Black Magic Tongue of Old, starts with a harsh guitar. It isn’t bad, just unexpected. Unfortunately though, at the minute mark, the vocal overlay starts and the rest of this 5 minute song is just screaming over some very loud percussion. I was unable to finish the track fully. If the vocal overlay was taken off, it would probably be fine. Still not my preference, but at least listenable.
The final track is the best one. It has much more depth. The sparse percussion with the deep brass sounds make it feel like the lead up score for an upcoming important battle in a fantasy movie. I think it is very well done. About half way through the track there is a shift into a more crystalline and angelic feel. This half of the song feels like walking through a magical forest. It is still overall, very well done. But then the end of the song suddenly flips bck to the original sound and feel. It is a little confusing. My only suggestion here would maybe be to separate them in the future because both halves are very good, but they aren’t cohesive together. It would make more sense, to me at least, if they were separate songs.
I think this EP has some very good qualities, but most of it could use some work. I do have hope that whatever this artist produces next could be much better.
Head on over to the Tharmalog Bandcamp page and check it out for yourself.
RATING: 2 OUT OF 5
RATING SYSTEM:
- 0 – 1: Fucking shit
- 1 – 2: Shit
- 2 – 3: Not Bad Shit
- 3 – 4: Pretty Good Shit
- 4 – 5: Amazing Fucking Shit
- 5: The Best Shit You Will Ever Hear
