{"id":288895,"date":"2026-02-09T15:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288895\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:12:08","slug":"old-sorcery-the-outsider-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288895\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Sorcery – The Outsider Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Swords and sorcery have served as metal muses since the genre\u2019s earliest days and for the most seminal acts. Indeed, many a writer here at AMG Studios has indulged in a game or three hundred of Dungeons & Dragons, and I imagine the same can be said of our esteemed commentariat. So, on the rare occasion that dungeon synth, the correct soundtrack for all D&D games, falls into the promo sump, it\u2019s picked up fairly quickly. Old Sorcery\u2019s newest full-length, The Outsider, didn\u2019t even make it that far before Mystikus Hugebeard and I had a Canadian standoff about coverage and settled on this appropriately lengthy double review.<\/p>\n

Old Sorcery is the dungeon synth project of Lahti, Finland-based multi-instrumentalist Vechi Vr\u0103jitor. The Outsider sees Vr\u0103jitor continuing the \u201cMasks of the Magi\u201d trilogy that began with 2025\u2019s delightful and exploratory The Escapist. Small excursions from Old Sorcery\u2019s core sound yielded great results, incorporating sweeping cinematic textures and classical instrumentation. That adventurous spirit lives on here, but The Outsider ranges much further afield. Vr\u0103jitor ventures into territory once explored by early Emperor, but he emerges with a sound more atmospheric and raw. 12-grit tremolo walls, blast beats aplenty, and echoing rasps like howling storm winds provide a base upon which Old Sorcery centers icy synths (\u201cMagick Triumph,\u201d \u201cBarrowgrim Asylum\u201d), folk-minded woodwinds (\u201cThe Interior Gates of the True Soul,\u201d \u201cWhere Sorrow Reigns\u201d), and the searching reverence of Sojourner<\/a> or Eldamar. Rather than an end in itself, Vr\u0103jitor uses black metal on The Outsider as a malleable vehicle to further explore the concepts introduced in The Escapist.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Outsider by Old Sorcery<\/a><\/p>\n

The result is a 71-minute behemoth. Following The Escapist\u2019s comparatively trim 50 minutes, The Outsider was a daunting prospect, to say the least. I still think it could lose ten minutes or so\u2014\u201cThe Pain Threshold,\u201d early sections of \u201cInnigkeit\u201d and \u201cMagick Triumph,\u201d and the quirky Gothic section of \u201cWhere Sorrow Reigns\u201d\u2014but repeated listens showed me that I was missing the forest for the trees. And like the moss that grows on those trees, The Outsider grew on me. Both black metal and dungeon synth are well-suited to fostering atmosphere and emotive landscapes, and Vr\u0103jitor harnesses this shared propensity to his advantage. With turns at times subtle\u2014the synths and guitars shifting into lockstep at the end of \u201cMagick Triumph\u201d\u2014and at others, explosive and invigorating\u2014the phenomenal triple attack of gritty guitar, ephemeral synth licks, and breathy woodwind solo in \u201cWhere Sorrow Reigns\u201d\u2014The Outsider is a journey, not a destination.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And it is the compositional vistas and narrative musicality of The Outsider that make it a journey worth taking. The bones of a story are hidden within The Outsider, and Vr\u0103jitor intends them to be found. While there are presumably lyrics to The Outsider, Vr\u0103jitor\u2019s vocals are pushed back in the mix and filtered, allowing this to be a functionally instrumental album. Such Old Sorcery as this will naturally whisper different tales to different listeners, but I defy the skeptic to stand on the moon-kissed snowfields of \u201cMagick Triumph,\u201d tarry by the campfire and tender acoustics of \u201cInnigkeit,\u201d or emerge from the airy, crystalline caverns \u201cWhere Sorrow Reigns\u201d and conjure no dreams of the titular outsider\u2019s adventures. Not merely a pairing, The Outsider weaves wintery synths and raw, blackened atmospherics into a single spell and adorns it with grand, evocative structures and diverse instrumentation to create a story that needs no overt narration, but reveals its bones through music alone.<\/p>\n

Established through the excellent \u201cCastle\u201d trilogy, Old Sorcery is a mainstay in dungeon synth circles, and if The Outsider proves anything, it\u2019s for good reason. While The Escapist took day trips beyond Old Sorcery\u2019s core sound, The Outsider bravely departs familiar territory while never forgetting its heritage. While there are certainly passages and pathways I trudged through rather than enjoyed, The Outsider is a singular, grand tapestry, cleverly composed and beautifully arranged. Old Sorcery\u2019s latest is a work best basked in and consumed organically, rather than dissected microscopically, and has only gotten better with each spin. Set aside an hour on a cold, snowy day (there should be plenty of them right about now), cozy up with a warm drink, and hear The Outsider\u2019s tale.<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.5\/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Avantgarde Music<\/a>
Websites: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: January 30th, 2026<\/p>\n

Mystikus Hugebeard (a practitioner of old sorcery, as it were)<\/p>\n

\"\"Whenever the yearning for old-school dungeon synth takes me, Old Sorcery has long been one of my first choices. However, I\u2019m embarrassed to admit that during my preparatory research, I was rather shocked to learn that Old Sorcery debuted as recently as 2017 with Realms of Magickal Sorrow. I\u2019d just assumed Old Sorcery has been around since, I don\u2019t know, time immemorial, only because Old Sorcery so effortlessly plays that sort of raw, old school dungeon synth that you\u2019d find on a cassette tape tucked away next to a Jim Kirkwood or Depressive Silence. I\u2019m grateful that Spicie Forrest clued me in on this release and allowed me to double review with him, such that I could further inform our readers of the truly quality dungeon synth act that Old Sorcery is. This opportunity has not presented itself in a way I\u2019d anticipated, however, because The Outsider is not merely dungeon synth like most Old Sorcery releases, but also an album of raw, wintry black metal.<\/p>\n

As The Outsider opens in \u201cMagick Triumph,\u201d rumbling horns and scattered synths set the stage for a classic Swords n\u2019 Sorcery experience typical to the Old Sorcery oeuvre, until a grimy guitar chord descends like a fog. It\u2019s worth mentioning that Old Sorcery has traveled this blackened road before with 2020\u2019s Sorrowcrown, but it\u2019s done exceptionally well here. It\u2019s the kind of frigid black metal you\u2019d hear from Paysage d\u2019Hiver<\/a> and Lunar Aurora, with a similarly raw production style to boot. An overly raw-sounding mix that sacrifices too much listenability for \u201cauthenticity\u201d is an immediate album-killer for me, but The Outsider is in that perfect sweet spot. The tremolos and blast-beats buzz with wintry chill and the vocals are way, way in the back, and the synths are always able to cut through the din. The mix has that nice, approachable sort of buzz, like just a little too much wine. Still, headphones will definitely be your friend for this album.<\/p>\n

Old Sorcery weaves dungeon synth and black metal together such that each is stronger for the other\u2019s presence, effectively playing off each other\u2019s strengths. The dungeon synth elements in The Outsider enjoy an active melodic role in the heavier songs, the inviting, pleasant tones of old-school dungeon synth exuding warmth amidst the cold black metal. It makes for some standout moments, like frostbiting synths fading in and out through stormy guitar riffs (\u201cMagick Triumph\u201d), or a crystalline melody ringing hopeful above rhythmic tremolos and strings (\u201cWhere Sorrow Reigns\u201d). \u201cThe Interior Gates of the True Soul\u201d is an exquisite blend of synths and metal with an energy that almost reminds of Khonsu<\/a>, a percussive, mystical synth melody warping, shifting, driving the song forward atop rolling tremolos. There is, naturally, a great deal of care in The Outsider\u2019s construction of atmosphere, but the melodic focus given to the synths in relation to the black metal feels quite refreshing for the genre. As such, The Outsider rarely feels passive even across its length and maintains a strong sense of engagement from moment to moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"Speaking of length, The Outsider is notably on the longer side, clocking in at over 70 minutes. But I find that Old Sorcery manages the time well with a healthy spread of longer and shorter songs, coupled with their diverse songwriting approach. The Outsider begins and ends with its dramatic epics, as the bulk of the album swirls through cackling, malevolent melodies (\u201cBarrowgrim Asylum\u201d), softer dungeon synth proper (\u201cInnigkeit,\u201d \u201cThe Pain Threshold\u201d), and fantastical electronic\/metal harmonies (\u201cThe Interior Gates of the True Soul\u201d). There\u2019s nary a weak link on the album, but while the staccato, electronic synth tones work wonders in \u201cMagick Triumph\u201d and \u201cThe Interior Gates of the True Soul,\u201d I wish they were utilized a bit more in the ambient tracks. \u201cThe Pain Threshold\u201d technically fits that bill, but it\u2019s written in such a way that\u2019s more sweeping and orchestral. It would\u2019ve been nice to see the sharper synth tones common to Old Sorcery\u2019s other works explored in a space less dominated by chaotic black metal, that I might appreciate them in clearer focus.<\/p>\n

All in all, The Outsider is another rock-solid album by an artist who has consistently delivered great music, even though this album is a rare break from the Old Sorcery mold. It\u2019s well-paced, well-written dungeon synth\/black metal that is always good, and often great. I\u2019ve often joked that this hellsite needs more goddamn dungeon synth, and The Outsider is my perfect specimen: just metal enough to bypass Steel\u2019s gaze, yet with enough dungeon synth that I don\u2019t look out of place wearing my wizard robes while listening to it. I furthermore suspect that my Spicie friend has delivered similarly positive tidings, so now that you\u2019ve had two exceedingly trustworthy goobers tell you how good this album is, just go listen to the damn thing.<\/p>\n

Rating: Very Good!<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swords and sorcery have served as metal muses since the genre\u2019s earliest days and for the most seminal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23197,32260,138542,28492,138543,138544,138545,138546,87859,93,103644,61,60,120257,138547,138548,138549,138550,278,138551,138552,563,564,138553,138554,138555],"class_list":{"0":"post-288895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-23197","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-avantgarde-music","11":"tag-black-metal","12":"tag-depressive-silence","13":"tag-dungeon-synth","14":"tag-eldamar","15":"tag-eleea","16":"tag-emperor","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-finnish-metal","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-jan26","22":"tag-jim-kirkwood","23":"tag-khonsu","24":"tag-lunar-aurora","25":"tag-megahammer","26":"tag-music","27":"tag-old-sorcery","28":"tag-paysage-dhiver","29":"tag-review","30":"tag-reviews","31":"tag-sojourner","32":"tag-the-outsider","33":"tag-warmoon-lord"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}