Description
Malfet is a dungeon synth artist from California, first revealed in 2018. Since that time, Malfet has released 3 records and a 7” EP, shared stages with Mortiis (Norway), Taur-Nu-Fuin (New Zealand), Algiz Dawn (New Zealand), Sangre de Muérdago (Galicia/Spain), Latona Odola, T.O.M.B., Dave Parley (Prayers); performed at the USA dungeon synth festival Northeast Dungeon Siege 3 years running, with a headlining performance for NEDS 2021. They have completed a west coast tour in support of their second album in 2019, as well as a west coast tour as direct support for Mortiis in 2020. Their lush orchestration and deep mythologies set them apart from much of the dungeon synth milieu, and their works are widely hailed as modern classics of the genre.
“Alban Arthan,” Malfet’s third full-length album is a rumination on dreams and death. The flickering torchlight and subterranean abysses of mourning are tempered with the relief found in dreams, where friends who have passed into the unknowable realms are reunited and pale fantasies blossom in cheer. Down labyrinthine passages of stone that seem to dance in shadow, echoes of ancient melodies, some plaintive, others blithely redolent, emanate from the naves of dusky halls.
Snatches of lost rhapsodists – the ancient blind harpist, the beautiful young shieldmaiden cut down well before her time – may be recognized among the many new and unfamiliar strains. Bittersweet threnodies plucked by dulcimer and harp follow gentle flute arias and folkish themes by tabor and pipe. It is an ambitious undertaking, these Dungeon Synth lieder ohne worte, to memorialize fallen brethren and sisters without losing what small snatches of light still glow in this crepuscular chapel. The fair and sunny fields of Avalon and that Snaking Path through shadowy forests lie behind us – a deeper, more arduous journey lies ahead, perhaps all the more rewarding to traverse.
GENRE: Dungeon Synth/Ambient
BARCODE: 195269017996
TRACK LISTING
1.The Penumbral Grove
2. Lost In Shadow, We Sought Your Radiance
3. Regina Quondam, Reginaque Futurus
4. On The Tree That None May Ever Know
5. Sage and Cedar Adorn His Antlered Crown Aflame
6. Alban Arthan
7. The Sadness of Her Might
8. Wanderer, May You Pass Through Evermore Verdant Realms
9. Naught But Worn-Out Joy
