Northeast Dungeon Siege 2024

On the last weekend of March, fans of dungeon synth music descended on Worcester, Massachusetts for Northeast Dungeon Siege. Dungeon synth is a genre of ambient music that takes its inspiration from fantasy novels and roleplaying games. While it has been around since the early 1990s, it has recently become more well known, perhaps due to the increasing popularity of fantasy films and roleplaying games. Northeast Dungeon Siege is a small music festival dedicated to dungeon synth that has been running since 2018. My friends Steve (@sovthofheaven) and Gage (@noclearcoat) were running some miniature gaming sessions at the festival, and I was fortunate enough to come along and help out. Steve has a gaming fanzine called Under the Dice which he was promoting, along with a miniature-based gaming podcast called Hive Scum that he runs with Gage and some other friends. As readers of the blog will know, I have become more and more enamored by ambient music in recent years and have spent a sizable amount of time listening to dungeon synth in 2023. As such, I was very excited to attend Northeast Dungeon Siege.

The festival was held at a music venue called The Raven, named after Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem.

Gage (left) and Steve (right) are getting excited about the prospect of standing for the next 6 hours, one of the many joys of attending music festivals.

One of the performances that I was most looking forward to on Friday evening was DIM, a musical project from Nova Scotia which eschews the forlorn nature of a lot of dungeon synth to make music that is hopeful and, dare I say, joyous. DIM puts their Christian faith at the forefront of some of their music, but not in a way that is proselytizing or heavy-handed. Being that dungeon synth largely rose from the black metal scene, one which often champions anti-Christian imagery and themes, it is interesting to see the opposite side of the spectrum take up dungeon synth and use it for their own purposes. Their set at Northeast Dungeon Siege was their first live show.

Seregost, decked out in leather armor and spiked bracers, invigorated the crowd with a lively performance with a keytar. It was “sword and sorcery” made manifest.

Before the music started again on Saturday, Steve and Gage ran some miniature wargaming sessions. Here players are getting wrapped up in a game of Forbidden Psalm.

Talvi, Finnish for “winter”, brought chilling tones all the way from Northern Europe.

The headliner of Saturday evening was Quest Master, all the way from Australia. Their brand of dungeon synth was buoyant and bright, evoking memories of playing fantasy video games from the 90s.

Buy DIM’s music here.

Buy Seregost’s music here.

Buy Talvi’s music here.

Buy Quest Master’s music here.