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Draven is the horrorsynth project of producer Deamien Raven. Draven hails from Greece, though I’m not sure that he’s telling the truth. I know the actual Truth. With a capital ‘T.’ The Truth is that Draven hails from the blackest, bloodiest, most fiery pit in the Seventh circle of Hell. Believe me. Have a listen to Draven’s work and you’ll quickly understand. Draven doesn’t release just music. Draven releases danger. And goddamn if I love when music feels dangerous.

Making his debut in the horrorsynth scene in mid-2020 with the single “Vigilante,” Draven first came onto the scene proper with his debut EP, aptly named “EP I” in February of 2021. This was quickly followed up with “EP II” in April of 2021. Draven’s first official full-length, entitled “Abyssal Arcana” will be released on April 29th, 2022.

The artwork for “Abyssal Arcana” was created by Serhiy Krykun who hails from Ukraine. Krykun’s artwork is the perfect companion to Draven’s work. It is violent, visceral, and somewhat campy. It very much reminds me of the character Eddie of Iron Maiden fame.

“Abyssal Arcana” is a concept album of sorts complete with a back story. Abyssal Arcana” takes place in a city called “Necropolis” overrun with “VampZ” which I’m assuming is some kind of vampire zombie hybrid. The antihero, Deamien Raven, is apparently incredibly chapped by the way the clergy of Necropolis treated him while he was in custody. Now he wants a few thousand pounds of flesh as well as some answers which can only be found in a heretical text known only as the “Abyssal Arcana.” If you’re confused, don’t feel bad. The story is used as a framing device to set the atmosphere of the album, and to be honest, it’s fitting. It’s a bit too gory for my tastes, but I definitely think it’s a neat concept that gave me something to hold onto whilst listening to “Abyssal Arcana.” I feel like the entire premise would make a cool video game in the style of Bloodborne or Soul Reaver.

So what does “Abyssal Arcana” sound like? Well, “Abyssal Arcana” sounds like violence.

As a whole, “Abyssal Arcana” is a horror soundtrack that doesn’t let up. This is the kind of music that sounds like an axe murderer chasing someone down a bloodstained hall of pure noxious Evil. Cardio amirite?

The album opens up with “Forgive Me Father…” This short–story driven piece serves as the intro to the entire album. And goddamn if it isn’t creepy as all Hell. Next up is “The Horrifying Autopsy of Daemian Raven.” It opens with some real “Cruelty and the Beast” (Cradle of Filth) string acrobatics, and quickly degenerates into a darksynth vibe broken up by some unpredictable breaks. When the piano kicks in, I picture Daemian getting dissected. There is some cool use of sidechaining towards the end of the song that breaks up the visuals evoked leading into the next track entitled, “Cauchemar Noir” (“Black Nightmare). Immediately, theremin samples and a very John Carpenter piano vibe a la “Halloween” enters the fray. The thing I really like about what Draven does here is his ability to break up typical darksynth monotony with cinematic flourishes. It causes an unsettling feeling when the beat kicks back in. Again, I can’t help but think about earlier works of Cradle of Filth and Hecate Enthroned with the choices made in how the string sections are presented here.

“Silver Coffin” begins the next phase of “Abyssal Arcana” with a slow intro, and begins pumping shortly thereafter. Out of all the songs presented thus far, “Silver Coffin” feels like the most traditional horrorsynth track of the bunch. It’s very straight-forward, and when turned up to maximum volume, the kick drum feels like someone is actively trying to break into your brain cavity. I think that “Silver Coffin” is an easy shoe-in for horrorsynth curators and aficionados. This one is for the playlists.

Draven may be violent but he also like to give advice–he recommends that “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things” on the next track. This one opens with a piano intro, and some real disturbing horns to accentuate that someone is fucking coming for you. The track then speeds up a bit, kick-starting the horror all over again. I particularly enjoy the choice of plunky bass here. It fits well into the mix amidst the Darksynth grind. The high end of this song is occupied by strings etc. There’s a pretty cool break at around 1:55 that eventually goes into some choir and church bell exploration. The break is bookended by a groove and the theremin, looping back to darksynthy goodness rounding out the track.

“Abyssal Arcana” isn’t without guest appearances. Dav Dralleon contributed to the next track entitled “BloodGod.” The intro to this one reminds me of Fleshgod Apocalypse. Bells, choirs, strings, and epic orchestral percussion are again the weapon of choice for Draven. This feels like the most cinematic track on the album as a result. When the bass drops on this one I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. It actually scared the shit out of my yorkie Bella. I felt like the mix on this song was perfect. My earholes thoroughly enjoyed the masterful use of stereo magic here. This is another tremendous track that would fit well on playlists.

“Demonic Incantation Blues” breaks up the aggression with another slow intro, and a swell that breaks off into some ride cymbal fun and also something (a noise) that sounded like a cow being slaughtered. The slow break here instead of a bass drop was a welcome rest from the murder festival that came before it. “Demonic Incantation Blues” is the kind of song that would fit well in a horror movie trailer. Where “Silver Coffin” felt more like traditional horrorsynth, this one breaks the mold.

“Impalement and the Brazen Bull” is another trailer worthy track. The sidechain aggression doesn’t kick in until about 1:27. This one had so many elements to it that it was hard to keep up with. I like some of the tape stop effects here used to to transition from one thought to another. The groove that starts up at 2:39 reminds me of drum and bass.

Up next, “A Horrorsynth Symphony.” A detuned bellish pluck, the theremin, and strings greeted me like a cenobite slowing crawling down a dank-ass hallway. This song lives up to it’s title by exploring more orchestral sounding strings in the breaks. “A Horrorsynth Symphony” illustrates how playing with different tempos and musical dynamics can make a seemingly short track feel long.

“The Conjuring” features one of my favorite people in the synthfam, CONNÖR. The quite bass break at 1:28 was the coolest part of this track. Actually, I take that back, the combination of that riff with the piano break at 2:27 was the coolest part because of where “The Conjuring” takes us starting at 3:00. The subtle quiet spoken vocals here were a nice little surprise.

“The Intimate Portrait of the Devil” makes liberal use of ride cymbals at the beginning following another intro. This track is formulaic of the stuff that came before it, but it’s still a rocker. The subtle note bends on the lower end here in conjunction with the string section and theremin are quite fresh. One of my favorite parts of the entire album begins at 3:00 with a romantic orchestral exploration that makes me feel like I’m a kid again trying to hide my black metal albums from my dad. What would horrorsynth be without a little nostalgia?

“Le Vampire du Grand Guignol” is fiery from the start, and also has a slight romantic feel to it. I would be willing to wager that the romance isn’t for another person. Daemien Raven only romances other people if it’s with a drill. BY THE WAY, I AM IN LOVE WITH THE PIANO BREAK HERE. Goddamn is it dreamy. The darksynth break in the second half is extremely black and white and bare bones. I feel like the way this one was mixed in the beginning was slightly different to how it sounded at the end.

SPEAKING OF DRILLS…the final track of “Abyssal Arcana” has a real Cannibal Corpse kind of title–“Exsanguinated with a Drill.” This is a forward moving track that really lives up to it’s name. There are a combination of sounds shortly after the intro that evokes the feeling of multiple drills spinning. Like “The Horrifying Autopsy of Daemian Raven” this song rounds out this horrifying album quickly and to the point.

One of my only critiques of “Abyssal Arcana” lie in the drum fills. Many feel similar, especially during the more driving parts of the album. The only other thing I had hoped for out of “Abyssal Arcana” was a track with some sung vocals. Even if it was just one. Maybe some Suicide Commando aggrotech vocals or something. That said, I don’t think vocals would’ve fit very easy into any of the tracks presented here. There’s definitely a lot going on, and vocals definitely need space.

Critiques aside, I fucking love this album. Like love, love. I appreciate all of the hard work that was put into this beast. I know that it wasn’t easy, and it deserves to be appreciated. “Abyssal Arcana” isn’t for everyone, and it definitely isn’t an album most would find relaxing, but some of us psychos do. I highly recommend checking this one out if you like having long strolls in morgues, talking to the dead, or playing Doom and just need something to vibe to.

Stand-out tracks: “BloodGod (feat. Dav Dralleon),” “Cauchemar Noir,” and “Le Vampire du Grand Guignol”

Recommended for: horrorsynth fans, axe murderers, and Michael Myers.

Album Color Profile: BLOOD SHOWER RED

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CONNÖR is something of a mystery to me. Apparently they’ve been around in the Synthwave/Darksynth for awhile now. The funny thing is that I can’t seem to find any of their releases before their third album from 2019, entitled “Part III: Living in a Movie.” The mind behind CONNÖR is a producer who goes by the pseudonym “EFX.” Their social media presence is also rather light. EFX resides somewhere in the “deepest Bavarian forest” which, to me, means somewhere in south or southeast Germany. CONNÖR’s latest album, “Out of Traumaville” was released on August 21st, 2020,

“Out of Traumaville” is a fascinating album. Just looking at the liner notes, it’s pretty clear that it had a good financial backing, and that several people were involved in it’s creation. While EFX themself wrote and produced the songs found here, it would seem that White Sea Studio’s Wytse Gerichhausen had a lot to do with the post-production (both mixing and mastering) of this album. Wytse is most well-known, at least to me, for his audio “snake oil” videos on Youtube. Another notable contributor to this album was saxophonist Hugo Lee.

On the cover is artwork by Vladyslav Tsarenko, which features an image that looks like something you might find at one of those spray-on t-shirt shops that were the rage in the late 1990s. It has a girl getting pulled down into a manhole by various creepy crawlies. I think that it’s good artwork, but I don’t think it matches the spirit of the album. I would’ve preferred something a little less cartoony, especially considering the high-quality content found within “Out of Traumaville.”

There are a lot of interesting things going on composition-wise on this album. As I was listening to this album I couldn’t help but ask myself: “Who exactly is this person who created this?” It’s fairly clear that the work EFX has done with CONNÖR isn’t their first rodeo when it comes to writing music. Structure-wise there’s a lot to love on “Out of Traumaville.” While most songs follow a clear cookie-cutter pattern common to both Synthwave and Darksynth, there are a few incredible moments here. The album’s opener, “83. A.T.E.” does a lot in under six minutes. If I had to compare it to something, picture Carpenter Brut’s “Escape from Midwich Valley” with vocals. Similar to “Midwich” there is a slow build up on “83. A.T.E.” leading up to a surprising bass drop (at 4:00) in the last third of the song. Lyrically, this song is absolutely wonderful. I found myself singing it to myself for a few days. There’s just something so satisfying about saying the word combination “Woke up in fear.” “Total Darkness” is another certifiable ear worm that has incredible lyrics, and an incredible overall sound. Like–real talk, this song is just so smooth, and so pleasing to the ear. I honestly had a hard time keeping it together the first time I heard it. “The Fire in Me” which features a memorable sax performance by Hugo Lee and stunning vocals by Winona Drive. This is probably my favorite track on the album. If you aren’t sure about checking this album out, have a listen to “The Fire in Me.” It doesn’t disappoint.

In terms of aesthetic, I think that the first five songs on “Out of Traumaville” and the title track itself are all A-rank, maybe (at times) even S-rank level Darksynth. All of the other songs on the album really aren’t on the same level though from a compositional point of view. “Born to Shine” feels a little too preachy to me, and sounds less like proper Darksynth and more like something you might hear from a mainstream pop group like Imagine Dragons. Ick! Don’t get me wrong, from a technical standpoint I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s definitely not the type of song I would willingly subject myself to.

If I were an executive producer for this album I would’ve cut “Born to Shine,” the two “Holy Wood” tracks, and probably “Tomorrow.” I would’ve kept “My First Bossfight” though, primarily because it fits in with the context of the first five tracks of the album. If this album would’ve only included those seven tracks I think that this could’ve been a classic Darksynth release. The bloat filled in by the tracks that probably should’ve been cut mess with the overall vibe of this release. I’m also little disappointed that CONNÖR didn’t include lyrics on Bandcamp, because while I can easily understand what each vocalist is saying, I like reading lyrics for context, especially when it comes to a concept album like this one.

In conclusion, CONNÖR released some real gold here with the first five tracks on this album and the title track “Out of Traumaville.” Please check those songs out ASAP if you get joy-joy feelings from well-crafted Darksynth.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of Carpenter Brut and Perturbator.

STAND-OUT TRACKS: “83. A.T.E.”, “Total Darkness,” “The Fire in Me” (these three songs are FUCKING INCROYABLE–TREMENDOUS WORK).

Album Color Profile: #FF6699

You can find all things CONNÖR at https://connoer.bandcamp.com/