Release Date: 30 January 2026
Song Count: 6
Duration: 1 hour, 11 minutes, 26 seconds
Rating: 7.0/10
Description:
And here is another artist from early on in the albumthon making a comeback with a new release! Just around a week ago, Finnish producer Vechi Vrăjitor, known for making ambient tracks themed around dungeons and fantastical worlds, released a new and unique spin on their music, named The Outsider. Alongside containing the expected elements of a mysterious, brooding energy and synths stringing along throughout, there's more introduced and injected into the musical palette this time around to shake things up and breathe new life into the characteristic sound of Old Sorcery: black metal and guitar-based noise.
Alternating between the classic synth-based tunes that have defined dungeon synth for all this time and the muted yet aggressive metal sounds layered in, the album is far from afraid of experimentation; it basks in its uniqueness and fully plays into it, using everything it has to its advantage to create an even darker and more intricate atmosphere going in. This factor of standing out amongst other works of its general genre is further underlined by the structure and length of its tracks: a 71-minute record in spite of only 6 tracks in total, all except one of which exceed 7 minutes of length themselves, with one even landing at a square 20. This way, it's much easier to get lost in the experience - rather than perceiving individual segments divided by choice of instruments as their own songs, listeners are made to consider the entire framing around these segments as integral parts of what one is listening to.
Though it is especially easier to get checked out during the monstrously longer tracks within the record, The Outsider overall is a fascinating piece that follows along in the footsteps of what came before it whilst also channelling in fresh sounds and differing forces to add additional flavour to the ambience it is meant to create. A haunting, dark and ghostly echo sounding extendedly, it is clear that a lot of inspiration and desire for novelty went into the creation of these songs, and it generally pays off very well for what it is trying to make of itself. It also helps that the closing to the record is much more thorough and gradual than with The Escapist, leaving things on one final positive note. Not bad at all!