I rather enjoy Italy’s Dusktone Records; they have a solid offering of symphonic black/death metal bands/releases (The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon, Voland, Obscura Qalma, Svartghast), that I enjoy, as well as a very solid stable of reissues and compilations (Einherjer, Stormlord, Aborym, Spite Extreme Wing, etc).

The latest of their offerings that has caught my ear is Gladium Regis (King’s Sword), the solo project of ‘Svafnir’, formerly of Draugr. The bio tells me he is with a ‘Dungeon synth’ artist but only had an unreleased demo under the Svafnir moniker, and that some of his Dungeon Synth ideas made it to Draugr material.

Quest is his second album, and it’s the first effort where he has fully introduced black metal to his dungeon synth sound, as 2020s Kingdom was a pure Dungeon Synth affair, and boy does it pay off.

As you can tell from the moniker, cover, and song titles (the English ones) like “Quest”, Flight of the Hippogriff”, and “The Last True Night in a Broken Land”, this is medieval themed, and it’s melodic black metal with some gorgeous dungeon synth layering and interludes. It’s not full-on bombastic symphonic black metal, but think of a ‘happier’ Summoning as more of a baseline, melded with medieval black metal acts like Véhémence, Darkenhold, Riverflame, Obsequiae, Sühnopfer, Abduction, Hanternoz, and Passéisme- all with a heavy sparkling, flutey, dungeon synth presence.

This is triumphant, melodic, and at times truly a pleasant listen. The dungeon-synth moments/interludes and keyboards have a chamber-music-ish, calming presence, and the vocals are a mix of harsh shrieks and some sort of Garm/Vintersorg-ish clean croons.

And Svafnir has songwriting chops, as almost every song has some sort of cool moment, riff, or bridge that made me smile. Whether it is the delightful gallop that ends “La Audaci imprese io canto”, the uplifting main riff and vocals of “Durindana” and “Acriter Pugno!”, the haunty jaunt of “Crux Inversa Intra Lunam”, the somber sway of “The Last Knight in a Broken land”, or the epic title track. It’s all really well done.

And even if he tends to repeat /lock into a riff a lot (a la Summoning, I guess), they are enjoyable enough, so it’s not an issue. And ultimately, I am really enjoying Quest to the point that it’s got a good shot of making my year-end list.

[Visit the band's website]

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