Enchantment and mystery are essential aspects of quality dungeon synth, as is the art of storytelling. As much of the genre features thematic elements focused on fantasy and magical adventures, Waraxe delivers a delightful new album in Spellbook.

Do you want an album that feels like Bloodborne soaked in 80s darkwave goodness? The Wanderer is that record. For listeners drawn to world-building as a form of meaning-making, to music that constructs somewhere to go…this is a rich and rewarding record.

It’s finally here! Blacforje has compiled the top 20 albums of the year - 10 of our favorite albums in black metal and 10 of the best in dungeon synth. 2025 was the year for some outstanding releases, and here are our favorites.

Enter into a dimension of magic and mystery with Tome Zero, the latest album from dungeon synth legend, Erang. As is standard fare with the artist, the album is brilliantly composed and enrapturing throughout the journey.

What distinguishes Unsheathed Glory is how completely the project braids narrative into that cartography. Based in Boston but probably living in “the mystical lands of Charvencia,” the artist treats each release like a field journal from a highly detailed imagined realm…

Eternal Winds of Ash & Ice by Hellige stands as a beacon in the dungeon synth scene. This seven-track album, mixed and mastered by another dungeon synth master, DIM, at Lowly Dying Steward, delivers a genuinely uplifting spiritual journey wrapped in medieval grandeur.

Mythráen's Wings Beneath Krynn's Moonlight offers an impressive eight-track dungeon synth odyssey through the Dragonlance universe. The album stands as a testament to the genre's capacity for heroic grandeur and spiritual uplift. 

Within the broader dungeon synth scene, Atlantean Sword continues to create a more heroic dungeon synth. The music that acknowledges life's darkness while insisting on the possibility of transcendence through noble action. Ironmaster represents a spiritual maturation for the artist.

TopfHelm's Sir Godric is a plunge into medieval madness that perfectly captures what makes dungeon folk so intriguing. Hailing from Belarus, this 55-minute journey delivers 15 tracks of immersive storytelling that feel like a lost soundtrack to some medieval legend.

Gelure’s most recent album, Inner Sanctum, leans into the more contemplative and meditative aspects of dungeon synth. It captures the sensation of studying difficult books of wisdom while experiencing embarrassing solitude to clear one's mind in prayer and contemplation.

The Warhammer 40K universe and dungeon synth mix every now and again, so it’s a welcomed surprise when I come across an artist trying to capture the strangeness of the franchise. Psychic Hood embodies the 40K universe on their latest release, ‘Warp Ritual.’ 

Not only is Stoneflower’s ‘Invasion of the Thunderbirds’ focused on using the specific TB-303 bassline synthesizer from the 1980s. It also featured a complex revenge narrative centered on clans in a dangerous, unforgiving mountainous landscape.

Based out of Athens, Georgia, Rowland crafts an ongoing narrative for the Hobbit Jamwine, who decided to leave his home in Frogmorton with only a walking stick and a long pipe. 2024’s ‘Flies the Coop III’ continues Jamwine’s sonic story, although in a new manner. 

‘The Collector’ evokes a sense of wonder and enhancement through the mundane with simple, droning synths veiled beneath the sound of ethereal tides churring over and over. Through these calming songs, Witch Bolt creates a hopeful, reflective, and renewing album.

‘Brogvar and Wyrgan's Quest for the Basilisk Horn’ is not just a collection of tracks, but a cohesive narrative that immerses the listener in a fantastical, reptilian world. Pauldron’s ability to guide the listener through a classic RPG story without using lyrics is truly remarkable.

Weress pulls on a fantastical aesthetic to weave fantasy and dungeon synth flawlessly inspired by the medieval-rich landscape of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in their latest release ‘Rêvasseries Chevaleresques’, a title that translates to “Knightly Daydreams” in English. 

Foglord simulates the essence of wandering the woods in meditation on a personal journey, which is exactly the atmosphere of ‘Hymns of the Winterlight’. The album creates an excellent environment to engage in relaxed, meditative thought. 

Mountain Realm, a dungeon synth project that I simply find fascinating, has bestowed upon listeners a gem of an album filled with fantasy, darkness, hope, and enigma. Where the music takes you is as much a mystery.