Release Date: 3 October 2025
Song Count: 9
Rating: 7.7/10
Description:
A recent release from the Finnish Dungeon Synth musician Vechi Vrăjitor, known in the scene as Old Sorcery, The Escapist is an electronic music album plunging into the depths of an esoteric and intriguing sound tinged with the key theme of fantasy.
The album is a slow-burner, beginning with low-tempo tracks filled with synths, guitar leads, minimal percussion, and an overall immersive atmosphere that leaves the listener eager to hear the continuation of what succeeds the mysterious, nigh-hypnotic tunes they are hearing. The provided ambience is as if one had entered a dark and deep cave far away from human civilisation in search of an ancient artifact, drawn in by the unknowns of the cave but simlutaneously ready to jump at the slightest hint of danger.
The track "Gem Hoarder Goblin" approaching the midway point signals a shift in tone and tempo for the album, adding in a flavour of fantastical whimsy and mischief through its beat, chord progressions and other musical stylicism, almost telling a story in its own right without even utilising any words, singing or lyrics. From this point, the song become more varied in their invoked emotions and structural nature whilst keeping their built-up theme and setting, emphasised prominently by succeding tracks such as "At The Wayfarer's Lantern" taking on a more upbeat tone and being dominated by the playings of the acoustic guitar. This then gradually transitions into a more synth-like and less grounded sound over the course of what follows, until it reaches the musical climax that is "Immortal Passion", the final track, where things come together in one dramatic swirl of synths, flutes, sawtooth-like sounds, distant yet hard-hitting drums, and eventually the trembling sounds of distorted electric guitars providing sprinkles of metal that make way for a fade-out in the end.
Whilst I hoped for a more conclusive ending to the sum of the audial build-up throughout the final song rather than it all simply dying out, this is still a very good listen, a perfect mood-setter for a roleplaying game session, and an album that has certainly piqued my further interest for the genres of Berlin School music as well as Dungeon Synth.