Review: Dungeon Serpent – Lamentations of the Shadowkingdoms

October 30, 2026

An arcane masterwork from the darkest realms

Since I first started writing reviews, I’ve gone at length about my exhaustion and frustration with “old school death metal,” and I always bring it up because it’s the best segue to whenever I find a death metal band that I do enjoy, or at the very least can elicit genuine anger, though that’s not the case here.

Dungeon Serpent first came out of nowhere in 2021 and dropped World of Sorrows, one of the best death metal albums I’ve heard in a long time, and I wasn’t alone in that sentiment. When, after a half decade of waiting, this Canadian act finally decided to unveil their long-awaited sophomore record, Lamentations of the Shadowkingdoms, I knew that I needed to check it out ASAP.

For the uninitiated, Dungeon Serpent is the brainchild of Canadian multi-instrumentalist Arawn, and plays melodic death metal that puts a big emphasis on both the METAL and MELODIC, so the style is both harsh and punishing death metal with soaring, epic melodies in a good balance. Basically, if you’re not a fan of the various bands that borrow heavily from At the Gates and Amon Amarth, then you’ll love this band.

This is a record I’ve been waiting eagerly for, and while I didn’t have any set expectations beyond more music by Arawn and co. I was totally unprepared for the massive leap in ambition and skill from the debut album.

All the main selling points from Dungeon Serpent are here: the harsh and punishing riffs full of pitch shifting, gorgeous melodies counterbalancing, and a mystical atmosphere, but the major shift is in the sound itself. It’s very clear that Arawn wanted to go big for this record and this is a big record: long, complicated songs with changing time signatures, more eclectic instrumentation with widespread use of keyboards, and prominent violin, courtesy of Anju “Nausea” Singh of Ceremonial Bloodbath, Ahna, Grave Infestation and Deathwinds, who is one of various guests providing their own skills to enhance the music.

Despite the larger cast of artists here, it doesn’t take away from Arawn who remains the MVP and visionary; his songwriting skill which was already very good is on a whole other level here. While you can definitely hear the influence of other ambitious death metal bands like Edge of Sanity and Gorguts, this is still a Dungeon Serpent record, and if anything this just solidifies this project as its own thing, and that’s thanks to Arawn. He handles most of the strings, and it’s frankly awe-inspiring how he nails both the guitar riffs and solos, as well as making powerful basslines. As both a bass player and enthusiast myself, this record just hits all the right notes, but more impressively, Arawn also employs the same skill and attention to detail to his clean tones and acoustic passages; it’s not just a distorted buzz-sawing onslaught and is complimented by the keys and synths, and all together they sound majestic. The masterful production really makes all these epic compositions and complex instrumentation shine and without any of it blurring together.

Next to Arawn is drummer Bhraonáin, and while he’s only handling percussion, the man manages to both match the skill and dedication of his bandmate, as well as rising above and beyond in delivering a masterful performance. This album wouldn’t sound as good as it does nor feel as huge without Bhraonáin’s drumming, and he does it all: blast-beats, double bass, complex rhythms, and it’s another massive leap in quality from the debut album World of Sorrows which had programmed drums. While they did the job, you can just hear the absolute difference between well-arranged drum programming and the real deal with an expert percussionist behind the kit.

As a whole this record is just a masterpiece and delivered beyond all preconceived notions, and really makes Dungeon Serpent a band to follow. While listening to this record I checked out the band on social media and it feels jarring hearing such great music and seeing the band still on the underground level, because Dungeon Serpent really just wipes the floor with many of their peers, and completely obliterates the entire “OSDM” scene three times over. They deserve more exposure as a whole; suffice to say, I love this album and it’s gonna be high in favorites of the year.