Dungeon synth, the offspring of '90s black metal and ambient music, is a lo-fi genre with a focus on fantastical settings and sonic themes. Ambient music is exactly how it sounds and needs no in-depth explanation for music enthusiasts, and the same attitude extends to the 1990s concrete wave of black metal. Comfy synth, one of numerous prefix-synth sister genres, concentrates on sentimentality and nostalgic sounds; a comfy atmosphere with finite overlap with metal. Comfy synth is a relatively new style, rising in the late 2010s—arguably with Grandma's Cottage's self-titled record, released in December 2019—while dungeon synth falls many decades back.
The man behind Hole Dweller, Tim Rowland is a true synth pioneer. Situated in Atlanta, he brought dungeon-infused comfy synth to the ([extremely] relative) mainstream with 2019's Flies the Coop, completing a trilogy started in 2024. His most recent album, Long Road Home, caught my eye this week—mostly through the album art, but partially because of the online hubbub surrounding it. At a digestible half-hour runtime, it isn't a daunting introduction to the genre. Each of the fourteen tracks spans no longer than two minutes (the longest, "stay while the birds sing," reaches 2:47, while "painted in memory" only runs to 1:33), and this is on purpose: Rowland focuses on minimalism, and each track can be looped, like video game soundtracks.
Other instruments, like a stringed folk guitar of sorts, are welcome, frequenting tracks with rain and/or nature sounds. The darkest highlight is "bones consumed by moss and root," which takes a badass title and turns the mood to melancholic instead of hopeful. That being said, there are some instances where the focus is taken slightly away from the pure ambience that Hole Dweller convinced me to love in just one playthrough. One is the soft percussion in "summer inventory," and while a steady beat isn't an awful inclusion, the song following it, "sleeping fields," exemplifies that soft cinematics are better on their own, and "in the afterglow" follows this trend.
The only other gripe I have is the shift from lo-fi to modern production means. The LP's overall quality dips during "grace in low places" and "in the afterglow", and—despite it being in dungeon synth's nature to not sound crystal clear—the bulk of Long Road Home seems very present-day. This isn't even a complaint though, really, since this duality of feels is perfect for introductory dungeon synthers. Personally, I need no further convincing to join Hole Dweller on the Long Road Home.