This album fucking rules. A really big step forward in writing and production. This and new Dav Dralleon are really pushing Dark Synth into new territory.
This reminds me of old Juno Reactor stuff. But even more ambitious! God, especially the percussion, I wish I knew where/how to get drums like that. ...And mixing in full blown symphony! Why does this have so few views? This is incredible.
truly, now we get darkwinged out of nowhere bringing in an acoustic guitar, it's only a matter of time before something wild and never heard before is created like an orchestral metalsynth played with church bells, machineguns and a 186mm cannon.
Why the hell are (Atmospheric) Black Metal and Dark Synthwaye such a good combo? I basically listen to these two genres all day long. Both create a sinister, hard and intense ambience - either with riffs or beats - and are like two brothers of the same dark father! ;) Awesome album!
Rockers and Metalheads in general do like this genre very often. I guess it has a lot to do with the "main sound". Its not like classic trance or techno. There is a more underground touch and those darkstyle bass sounds feels sometimes like metalriffs. 😁
Finally. Some interest in the Dark Synthwave arena! This is what we've been lacking. An occult / cosmic horror sounding element. FFS, everyone else is doing the same "cyberpunk"/dark synthwave shtick, essentially trying to out "skrillex" each other or something. The '80s (retro-futurist) vibe gets destroyed. Thankfully not here with King Stephen! Good on all those involved. ... .. . Side note: Deleted comment??! HAHA... I suppose I did overdo it w/ the links, but I remember fondly when an exchange of information, however innocuously disseminated, was NOT seen as competition or self-promo, or w/e. Anyway, I still hold to my recommendation (no association with the band). One of the most foreboding, cosmic horror sounding synth track known.... from Necro Stellar: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8gfRsJtGz04.html ... and then necro stellar astralasia remix (psytrance/occult/dark electro) track too. Wild stuff!
imma be honest man youre just not paying attention if you think the occult and cosmic horror elements are rare.. sure cyberpunk 2077 blew up the scene and cluttered it with generic 'cyberpunk' shit but we still have loads of interesting dudes around.. btw talking about the 80's vibes as if thats at all unique or interesting anymore is fuckin dumb, that shits been copy-pasted for years
@@mothermushroom_ Thanks for sharing your perspective on my '80s vibes comment. I'm wondering if the fact that we're on this channel called "The '80s Guy" momentarily slipped your attention? That's not to suggest "''80s" HAS to define everything the channel does... but my original comment was meant in a referential context. Thanks for informing me, also, that '80s retro-futurism has been copy-pasted for a while... which I'd argue is probably a contributing factor of this SHIFT towards "cyberpunk" to begin with. And may indicate that it's accidental, to some degree. Certainly artists like Power Glove, Mega Drive, Dan Terminus, etc. were already starting to explore this back around 2014-15 though. I don't see Cyberpunk 2077 playing a major influential role, other than as a gateway experience for uninitiated gamers. When I said "finally. some interest", I meant "finally. somethING interestING". I've heard my share of "cosmic horror" interpretations; a lot of them UNinteresting. Sorry about my prior wording, tho, as I can see how it's misleading. But I do think there's a disconnect w/ projects trying to do "cosmic horror", coming off rather formulaic. Easiest way to describe it: conceptualize a mashup sound of perturbator/c.brut with dynatron, as if adding these respective sub-genres together equates necessarily to a palpable sense of ontological shock (cosmic horror). This King Stephen album isn't exactly an exception either, but it's at least done well. If you haven't clicked the reference link in my OP, tho, I can't really help it if you don't have a proper gauge of where I was coming from. --- Also, if you haven't dropped any names or shared links that would help qualify you... it's somewhat difficult for me to put stock in your response to my musical perspective.
@NocturnalRuine I think you listed some good names there. I mean, anyone who checks my channel and sees my playlists can probably figure out where I'm coming from. And honestly, there have been dark electro-industrial/ebm groups since the '80s and '90s who have been making electronic music that covered most, if not all, of this ground before. They were looking to the future, of course. On the other hand, the reason the first dark synth(wave) was enjoyable, for me, was due to it trying to recapture an era of '80s horror movie soundtracks or their interpretation of '80s retro-futurism, which is firmly based in the sound of the day (whether it was the tr 808 drum machine, the jupiter-8, the dx7, "gated reverb", or any other iconic aspect that defined the decade). The whole current cyberpunk/dark synth genre at the moment comes off boring to me, and has almost nothing to do with the original dark synth artists who kept things more or less authentic to the '80s sound. They were expanding on it, out of love of soundtracks for everything from The Terminator to Halloween 3, and then taking it to new and interesting places. That's not to say I don't like anything that sounds newer... but I guess it just feels like they co-opted the "dark synth" sub-genre and not for the better.
![KING STEPHEN - VANITAS (Full Album) [Dark Synthwave / Cyberpunk]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
