Review Summary: A rather slow, but colorful dungeon synth album which should be on your radar!
Wizards of Aldur is a dungeon synth project from Perth, Australia (the plural name reminds me to Emperor's “I Am The Black Wizards”, or is it just me?), and thematically draws inspiration from David Eddings' "Belgariad" fantasy book series, practically composing one album for each book. The album titled
Magician's Gambit is the third piece in the series and in the discography, a notably diverse dungeon synth album where you can almost feel the imprint of various renowned musicians' styles.
The most evident characteristic of every Wizards of Aldur album is a relatively slowly developing structure, where the listener can hear mostly slow, dreamily flowing melodies, often very similar to, for example, Aindulmedir (also a dungeon synth project of the slower kind). Connecting to the moderate pace, listening to the album often brought a clear association for me with the also quite slumbering
Sôl austan, Mâni vestan album by Burzum, for example in tracks like “Wizard in a Blizzard” or even more so in “The Vale of Aldur II”.
In another sense, you can discover similarities with other dungeon synth projects as well. For instance, the more modern trend in the genre, closely related to neo-classical music, is well represented in the track “The Cave of the Council of the Gods”, where the instruments' interweaving lines creates a magical atmosphere in this piece. Alongside the neo-classical influences, medieval melodies also play a significant role in the album (e.g., “The Vale of Aldur I”), where traces of the styles of Fief, DIM, or Sequestered Keep can be found. The musical diversity of the album is further demonstrated by the inclusion of elements from genres such as new age or synthwave (like in “Aldur, Living God of the Vale”, and “Wizard Duel in Dread City”, respectively), which is particularly refreshing, and testifies to the author's broad taste in music.
I would recommend the third album by Wizards of Aldur (and, in fact, all the project's releases so far) to those who appreciate “simplicity” and don't mind a slower pace in dungeon synth music. Overall,
Magician's Gambit is a very sophisticated album with a mix of various styles, and it's definitely worth spending some time with it.
