‘Beneath Sun & Soil’ by Unsheathed Glory
‘Beneath Sun & Soil’ by Unsheathed Glory
Dungeon synth has always been as much world-building as it is music. Keys and pads sometimes mix in with maps and bestiaries. 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, and Beneath Sun & Soil is one of the richest journeys yet.
The album is presented as a subterranean expedition under the Khusramli Mountains. The artist’s Bandcamp notes frame the premise as, “ruins rumored, an opaline gate found, a one-way descent compelled by landslide and curiosity.” This establishes a clear through-line for the music to follow. The Underdark in Dungeons & Dragons is usually an ecology of peril, as it's a titanic cavern-network of lightless kingdoms, phosphorescent fungi, and mind-bending denizens. Beneath Sun & Soil leans into a more exploratory and at times cozy interpretation without losing the stakes. Tabletop lore often emphasizes survival horror and alienation, Unsheathed Glory balances wonder with caution, treating underground spaces as living cultures rather than just dungeons.
The album opens with a two-part overture, “Pursuit of Forgotten Depths,” in which glittering lead tones ride a lo-fi fuzz bed while crisp tambourine patterns and quick string figures conjure the thrill of an expedition finally locating its trailhead. A horn-like synth voice widens the frame, inviting reflective awe as the Opal Archway materializes. “Downward, to the Abyss” drops the tempo into steady, boot-beat drums and minimal, nearly muted pads that gradually bloom into an ethereal shimmer. There is a pitter-patter of unseen water echoing through new stone. “The Crystal River” extends that shimmer. It uses slow, wavy swells to push and pull beneath echoing plucks, like light refracting on an underground current.
The middle movement is where the album’s distinct Underdark sensibility crystallizes. “Through Fungi and Fireflies” is a groovy and unguardedly warm track by dungeon-synth standards. It’s still mysterious, but lantern-lit and communal. It’s a fireside breather amid giant mushrooms and fireflies. That sets up “In the Heart of Lumethoria: The Glowing City,” the record’s architectural reveal. The song employs chiptune-styled percussion and triumphant leads ring with a coarse fuzz as if the city’s brilliance overloads the signal, while long, low strings and twinkling arpeggios sketch courtyards and keeps. But here, caution lingers.
The back half pivots from civic grandeur to dangerous consequence. “Abandoned Catacombs” threads a gothic-tinged synth through faint horns, signaling a transition from public square to forbidden vaults. “Cult of the Soulweaver” deepens the gloom with mesmerically static pads that curdle into sinister chorals as a bass synth creeps into view. It’s the feeling of staring too long at something sinister or eerie to make sense of it. Closer “An Ancient Evil Stirs (Escape to the Surface)” initially pares down to a single, seismic tone girded by swishing texture, before breaking into a heart-thumping march and chant-like synth that hustles our protagonist through crypts, across the Crystal River, and toward the blocked Opal Archway. However, there is an abrupt cut to black at the end.
Situating Unsheathed Glory among contemporaries shows what’s unique here. Consider Mountain Realm, albums like Grayshadow Ruins paint the subterranean as bleak antiquity. It’s tonally closer to ruin gazing and CRPG gloom. Unsheathed Glory treats the deep places as habitable and storied. Lumethoria isn’t just a level to clear, it’s a vivid realm with peril and politics. Both visions are authentically “Underdark,” but they have different lenses. Mountain Realm toward austere mythos, Unsheathed Glory toward lived-in fantasy anthropology.
Fans of narrative-forward dungeon synth who love purely sonic world-building or TTRPG GMs seeking set-pieces that suggest scenes will adore this album, but if you purist who prefers grim, purely textural drones you should bounce from this one. Beneath Sun & Soil is an excellent example of dungeon synth’s current “high-concept” streak: music that doubles as a campaign journal and invites you to imagine the missing encounters.
You can follow Unsheathed Glory on Bandcamp, Instagram, and Facebook.
