"The art which adorns the debut of the puzzlingly monikered Pod Cast project creates the presumption of dungeon synth of an especially committed (die) cast. While Dead King’s Dream is nothing if not an homage to classic tabletop RPGs, the campaign this four PC party embarks upon, guided by a DM narrator, isn’t limited to the stygian crypts that genre attempts to evoke. Instead, Pod Cast roam through castles, taverns, and verdant countrysides in search of adventure and riches, and the music corresponds. Rich plucked strings and wheezing accordions connote the tasks and perils relayed by the DM (complete with specific dice roll demands). The end result has far more in common with neoclassical and early music traditions than lo-fi dungeon synth. The glitching added to the earthy textures of the instrumentation perhaps brings Matmos’ epoch-jamming The Civil War to mind, while the ponderous and sober meditative chimes which often carry simple melodies aloft recalls Ulver’s ambitious William Blake concept record. Were one to look at Dead King’s Dream‘s credits the reasons for these parallels might become clear – members of Burial Hex and Wyrding make up our band of heroes – but it’s more fun to think of the record as the product of the PCs themselves: witch doctor, thief, illusionist, barbarian. We’ve spent many hours planning out the perfect soundtrack to all-night RPG seshes, but it’s an audacious and refreshing thing to record the campaign itself."

- I Die : You Die

www.idieyoudie.com/2018/10/26/observer-slighter-pod-cast/

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"Stilted medieval dungeon-synth arrangements plod along above heavily processed, vapor-wavey-gravy gurglings, shuttering accents, scramblings, and muddy-blurred baroque storylines; each bobbing and weaving "epically", like… like a familiar shadow-demon’s graceful cooperation in fighting off incoming shadow-dragons down below you.

Melodramatic plots “twists”* abound in meta-corkscrew, tongue-in-cheek fashion, all narrated (and curated) in ghostly stoic-cadences, via Troy Schafer**, one seriously innovative*** sound weirdo!***

My partner hates this brilliant tape because she has to study and/or wind down a lot… but I cannot get enough of this shit! Maybe they’ll do a split with Chaucerian Myth or something?!?! In my chainmail’d daydreams!

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

* Perhaps we hear an ashen Artax triumphantly rising from the Swamp of Sadness after all?
**Man, a buddy and I were juuuust drooling over his release on Black Horizons last week!
***See TS's back catalogue for their slew of documented quests in sound exploration.
****As in, if Rae Armantrout converted her daydream-tangents to swirling contrapuntal arpeggiated coil-swirls, Pod Cast would be the soundtra(tta)ck!"

- Cassette Gods

cassettegods.blogspot.com/2019/05/pod-cast-dead-kings-dream-c30-brave.html

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"Whoo boy, this is some next level stuff. But what can we expect from someone such as Troy Schafer, who’s cut his teeth as a versatile composer and musician in Evening of Light favourites such as Kinit Her, Rain Drinkers and Nachtlaub.

Dead King’s Dream is superb narrative dungeon synth, the way it should be done. The basis is of course inspired by old game soundtracks, as all music in the genre tends to be, but this is a D&D session through a surreal psychedelic lens: playful, a good balance of light and dark, seriousness and humour. Think arcane dice, even more so than usual—d32 anyone?, dreamlike attribute inversions, gambling halflings, and creepy crypts.

Schafer’s DM voice is strange yet soothing, the instruments are on point (harps, brass, woodwinds, chants, etc.), and there are plenty of battle sounds, rattling coins and chains, and monster voices. Not content with being a backdrop for a gaming session, this album wants to be its own adventure, and it succeeds admirably at that quest.

I sincerely hope that this session is just the first, and the there’s a whole campaign coming. Onwards!"

- Evening of Light

www.eveningoflight.nl/2018/10/15/pod-cast-dead-kings-dream/

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Navigating through the crypt, you stumble upon a small, dark water well. Lower your torch to the circular opening and gaze deep into the water. A sparkle! A crown! Leaning in close, you’re flooded with the memory of your eldest altar - wandering through the psychic snake pit of past. That crown, which fell from your skull aeons ago, was the last object in view before falling unconscious. use the bucket and rope to slowly draw up the crown. Plunge your hand in to grab it. Try to draw it near. As it moves from water to air, the gold and metal instantly turn to dust in your hands. a ghost wind sweeps it up and carries it towards the north passage. Make haste and follow it into the moonlit graveyard, for even dust holds a charge.