Interview: TopfHelm
Image by TopfHelm
TopfHelm impressed us recently with their latest release, Sir Godric. Not only does the album provide an impressive sonic journey as it is, but TopfHelm is innovating in the dungeon synth space by adding a full cast of voice actors to explore the wild and majestic world of crusading knights that the artist is crafting. The album also draws inspiration from an emerging subgenre within dungeon synth known as dungeon folk.
There’s so much to unpack with TopfHelm and Sir Godric that we chatted with Nikita Shkurd, the creative force behind it all, to get more insight and details into the world of Sir Godric, the sound of dungeon folk, and so much more.
You are based out of Belarus, correct? Do you find that living there influences your music in any manner?
Yes, that’s correct! I was born and live in Belarus. It’s a country rich in nature and traditions. Belarusian swamps are called “the lungs of Europe” because of their vast size and oxygen production. Belarus is also known for its European bison, called zubr in our language. It’s one of the last places in Europe where these majestic animals still live in the wild. They’ve become a national symbol of strength, endurance, and connection to the primeval forest.
Naturally, living here has influenced the way I perceive music and added a unique flavor to my writing and the techniques I use. For example, the accordion was one of the most popular instruments in Belarusian villages. As a child, I would spend summers at my grandmother’s in the countryside and often hear an old man from the neighboring house playing it. He played beautifully and with deep emotion, and as a kid, I found that fascinating.
At the same time, I listened mostly to Western music: rock, metal, German electronic music, and, in my teenage years, a lot of classical: Beethoven, Mozart, Guillaume de Machaut, Philippe de Vitry, and others. So now, in my head, there’s a kind of cocktail made up of all these wildly different influences, and that’s what eventually shaped the sound of TopfHelm.
Before getting into Sir Godric, you mentioned that your music falls into a dungeon synth subgenre known as Dungeon Folk. You even have a nice essay about it on your website. What is the genre in your own words? How does it differ from dungeon synth? How is it similar?
Dungeon Folk is a subgenre of Dungeon Synth characterized by the use of natural, folk-inspired instruments and more traditional, folk-like melodies. Unlike classic Dungeon Synth, which is often slow, ambient, and brooding, Dungeon Folk tends to be more energetic, danceable, and sometimes even humorous or cheerful. You could say it playfully mocks the pomp and seriousness of traditional Dungeon Synth by embracing more grounded and simple themes, like village life, taverns, or rustic festivities.
If Dungeon Synth is the soundtrack to a fantasy hero’s journey through mystical and unknown lands, then Dungeon Folk is more like a rowdy knight’s feast that ends in a chaotic brawl. My EP Sanguis Et Mulsum is 100% Dungeon Folk, except for the track “The Ruin,” which sits somewhere between Dungeon Synth and Keller Synth.
That said, the Dungeon Synth scene is full of incredibly creative composers with complete artistic freedom. Very often, a single track can fall into multiple microstyles: Dungeon Folk, Comfy Synth, or others, depending on the listener’s perspective.
Both of your albums, Sir Godric and Sanguis Et Mulsum, draw inspiration from the Crusades. What sparked your interest in the Crusades? Why create dungeon synth music set during that historical period?
I have to admit that theme wasn’t something I originally planned at all. When I first started writing Sanguis et Mulsum, the very first track was “The Ruin,” and my idea was more in the direction of Keller Synth, something about witches gathering in a dark forest at night to perform strange rituals. Then, I accidentally wrote “Fortress Debauchery,” and I immediately realized this was about something entirely different.
Like many kids from post-Soviet countries, I grew up watching historical films about knights and ancient warriors, such as stories about medieval battles, like Dmitry Donskoy leading the Rus' army against the Teutonic Knights, and so on. We watched those movies in terrible VHS quality on old Soviet TVs with rattling speakers that barely transmitted half the audio range, and “Fortress Debauchery” sounded exactly like that: like I was a kid again, hearing medieval soldiers march off to war through crackling speakers.
But then it hit me. This wasn’t just about knights. It was about crusaders in heavy armor dancing drunk on top of oak tables. Like something straight out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So that’s the direction I took it: chaotic and absurd. It’s not a tribute to the Crusades. It’s more of a meta-ironic take on them. It’s a clumsy, drunken reenactment of that grim history.
Image by TopfHelm
One of the most impressive aspects of Sir Godric is that you worked to transform it into a full narrative journey with voice actors and all, which our readers can experience on the impressive cassettes you created for the album. Why did you want to add voice acting to it, which is rare in the mainly instrumental dungeon synth community? What all went into the process of making it?
To be honest, it was a pretty spontaneous and financially risky decision. After seeing how warmly the community received Sanguis et Mulsum, I knew I wanted to keep developing the themes of crusaders, medieval battles, and dark humor with a touch of absurd gore.
Musically, I already had a strong concept in mind. But I felt the album needed a unique twist. It needed something that would turn it from just a collection of tracks into a full-blown experience. A piece you could listen to, laugh at, be disturbed by, and share with friends. Something equally epic, yet awkwardly funny, disgusting, and captivating, yet also tense and absurd.
That’s when it hit me: what if I added narration and turned the album into a story?
First, I built a loose structure, drafted the absurd plot and jokes. And as it all came together, I realized that narration alone wasn’t enough. It needed characters. It needed voice actors. Not perfect actors, but voices that would bring this bizarre story to life.
From the beginning, I imagined the narrator with a warm British accent, someone who sounded like a slightly deranged grandpa telling bedtime stories to his grandkids and sometimes breaking the 4th wall, trying to describe events. I went through over 50 voice actors on Fiverr until I stumbled upon Jon White, and he was perfect. His voice was exactly what I had in mind: serious, cozy, clumsy-funny all at once. And the performance he delivered? Spot on. Exactly what I envisioned.
The other two actors came from Fiverr as well: Rob Sharp voiced Godric and Ferryman with a deep, gritty tone and a Scottish accent. And Hank Dee, oh, she nailed The Crone, The Witch, and the Final Boss. She’s brilliantly insane (in the best way possible).
Of course, they’re not professional stage actors with months of prep and dramatic technique, but for what I could afford, the results were way beyond my expectations. I spent the last of my money on this, and it was worth every cent.
Now about the cassettes…
When I released Sanguis et Mulsum, some haters accused me of using AI to create the music. Other listeners quickly shut that down in the comments, but as a creator, it really stung. So I made a decision to go full DIY. I drew the artwork by hand. I recorded each cassette myself on a SONY-TC144cs tape recorder from the 70s. I glued the covers. I crafted custom boxes. Everything was made with my own hands as far as possible.
That same philosophy led me to include voice acting: I wanted the album to be real, human, and authentic. And I’ll say this, the support from my fans and the Dungeon Synth community has meant the world to me. I actually enjoy spending hours hand-making each cassette. I do it with real love. And that, I think, is what makes this project special.
Sir Godric can be classified as a tragicomedy. Why did you want to make an album that mixes tragedy and comedy?
I can’t stand predictable art. It feels boring, especially in our time. I grew up on absurd comedies and surreal shows. On stories that make you stop and say: “Wait… What?!” On works that stimulate associative thinking, not just linearly tell a story from A to B. And Sir Godric is exactly that: it’s filled with references, unexpected twists, absurd moments.
That’s the essence of tragicomedy: the art of laughing at the inevitable instead of suffering from it. The art of living with humor, no matter what happens. As the Russian writer Karamzin once said, "To laugh at everything that seems funny is not a sin." That perfectly sums up Sir Godric.
The world of Sir Godric and Sanguis Et Mulsum feels fully realized. Do you see these albums coexisting in the same world?
Exactly! You can think of Sir Godric as one of those crusaders who were tearing up the tavern in Sanguis Et Mulsumbefore heading off to their final battle. And my next work, the symphony "40,” tells the final chapter in that man’s story. Because in Christian tradition, a person’s journey doesn’t end with physical death.
To follow up on world-building, you incorporate a wide variety of synth tones and sounds. For example, in "Siege of Jerusalem," you can hear the clatter of armor and the thunder of hooves. With a track like "The Nightmare Realm,” you work to make the synth sound surreal and unsettling. What goes into making these tracks feel so full and realized?
I believe the most important thing for any composer is deep listening. The more diverse music you expose yourself to, even genres you don’t necessarily enjoy, the more emotional and stylistic vocabulary you develop. I make a habit of listening to everything, including music I dislike, just to expand my musical and intellectual toolkit. So when I set out to depict a scene through sound, it’s not difficult for me to create something that sparks a clear image in the listener’s mind.
I also spent a brief part of my life writing music for games and films, which helped me a lot in the regard of thinking visually, narratively, and atmospherically. In “Siege of Jerusalem”, the track begins with the sound of whistling projectiles, followed by the collapse of the city wall, and then the chaos of hand-to-hand combat erupts: clashing swords, chainmail rattling, panic, adrenaline, a racing heartbeat. The conflict between East and West is also mirrored musically through the use of sitar and accordion, instruments with contrasting cultural colors, just like the actual history of that city.
In “The Nightmare Realm,” my goal was to evoke a feeling of subterranean landscapes, shimmering light reflected on cave water, the uneasy calm of a dark river, and the eerie presence of the one who ferries the character across. And of course, the mystic, almost religious undertone is carried by the layered choral synths.
At the end of the day, I just love experimenting with combinations of textures, tones, and instruments. That’s what brings these strange and vivid compositions to life.
Without spoiling much, why did you decide to go about ending Sir Godric the way you did?
When you dig into real medieval history, you quickly realize something: While knights, battles, and conquests dominate the stories, the majority of people didn’t die in epic duels or glorious warfare. They died from banal causes, from illnesses we barely even consider serious today.
In the 14th century, for example, a swarm of rats carrying the plague wiped out more people across Europe and parts of Asia than any war ever did. 25 million people died. So, the ending of Sir Godric is a reflection of that brutal reality. No matter how much someone is seen as a “demigod,” a hero clad in shining armor, he is still made of flesh and blood. And in the unforgiving world of the Middle Ages, his life could end just as suddenly and absurdly as those of his followers.
It’s a reminder that death is democratic, and history is often darker, stranger, and more ironic than legend.
As an individual, are you spiritual in nature? Do you have a philosophical or spiritual worldview that influences your music?
I can't say for certain whether I'm a spiritual person or not. But I do know one thing: I want to live my life in a way that leaves behind a cultural legacy, something future generations might find value in. It would be dreadful if I were remembered simply as a successful office worker, for example. Music—and art in general—holds the most important place in my life. And artists hold a special place in my heart. Perhaps there's something spiritual in that kind of reverence for art.
I know you have your next album, your new symphony 40, about to be released. What is in store for TopfHelm in the near future?
That’s right! By the time this interview goes live, my new symphony 40 will already be out. It’s a two-part, 40-minute conceptual piece that tells the story of a soul’s journey and purification inspired by the Christian tradition of the 40 days that follow a person’s death, when the soul departs from the earthly world and prepares to face divine judgment.
It’s definitely more Dungeon Synth–oriented than my previous releases, but still very much in the TopfHelm style: dramatic, textured, and emotional. Two 20-minute tracks, made for those who love to really listen and immerse themselves in music.
With "40", I also began experimenting with brass instruments, which gave the symphony a distinctive timbre and helped me expand my range as a composer. It was a very rewarding process, both technically and emotionally.
Right now, I’ve already started work on the next album, which will mark a shift toward a more heroic and triumphant sound. I’m also currently looking for a label to help with a vinyl pressing of that upcoming release. And hopefully, I’ll complete one or two more albums before the end of this year, including one inspired by traditional Belarusian folk music and themes. The challenge is fitting it all in.
But the plans are solid, and TopfHelm will continue to grow, evolve, and hopefully surprise people. That much, I can promise.
Last question: You yourself get teleported back in time to the Crusades. What do you do?
I’d love to say that I’d become a great bard, traveling between cities and inspiring noble knights with songs of glory… but in reality, I’d probably just die of dysentery or get executed for speaking strange words no one understands.
