Explore every episode of the podcast The Heavy Music Club

In this first ever episode of The Heavy Music Club podcast, I practice my interview skills and speak to Darien, the man behind dungeon synth artist Foglord.

He’s been making music under the name Foglord since he was 12 and in 2026 has released a new album called Lore of the Blue Mist on Out of Season.

It’s an astonishing work, fusing music from his heritage and locale, with the nostalgia-heavy sounds of dungeon synth, drawing on a range of influences to bring it all together into 73 minutes of beautiful music.

We spoke for some time about where he’s from, how that’s influenced his music, what he’s done over the years and recently, as well as some of his future plans.

We also covered in some depth the differences between sub-genres of the country music that he loves. It’s a fascinating lesson and I learnt a ton.

Give the show a listen and explore Appalachia, dungeon synth, old time music and his nostalgia for Final Fantasy soundtracks.

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Darien, a.k.a. Foglord is on Instagram as @d.drolgof and can be found on Bandcamp: https://foglord.bandcamp.com/album/lore-of-the-blue-mist

His amazing album is still available digitally and Out of Season has recently announced a second tape pressing. Do not miss out!

The t-shirts I mention can be found at Out of Season here and were printed by Forest Passage, although stock is low.

The Sidna Myers track Twin Sisters he mentions that was his inspiration to learn to play clawhammer banjo is on YouTube and although short, is beautiful: https://youtu.be/7XxkmmtFZUE?is=QTRaSNH-ZGE8jOFn

Foglord is playing the following dates live in the coming months:

Woodland Forest Fest in the Pacific Northwest - 5th & 6th September - although it is sold out!

Spacebar in Columbus, Ohio - 11th September

Distant Stronghold in Portland, Maine - 25th & 26th September - Out of Season’s 10 year anniversary festival

Great Lakes Dungeon Siege in Detroit, Michigan - 24th & 25th October

Finally, thank you very much for listening and reading this far. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this episode to this as much as I enjoyed writing, interviewing Darien, recording and editing it.

Until next time, stay heavy!

The Heavy Music club is a new, in-depth, research-based podcast looking at bands in the heavy music world, their stories, history, origins, evolution and future.

In this show, I’ll take a look at some of my favourite bands, where they’ve come from, where they’ve gone over their career, and where they are going if they’re still around. Then, I’ll work through their discographies discussing each album and its context, sharing some favourite tracks, looking at the reviews and sharing my own thoughts. Finally, I’ll wrap up with a track-by-track look at a favourite, important or new album from their discography, and rank the albums covered from bottom to top.

For the first episode, however, I’m easing us in and trying something else. I’ve interviewed one of my favourite artists of 2026, who released an album mixing some really unusual musical styles. They kindly agreed to have a chat and we had a lot of fun talking about their background, the new album, what they’ve been up to recently, and future plans.

Listen or read along as I talk to and work through what are in my opinion some of the best and most important bands in the heavy music world. And while I do it, join in by chatting and reading more about them, and help build a community of like minded heavy music fans.

Give the podcast a like, subscribe, review, etc… on all the relevant platforms you can find it on - Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, etc… to make sure you don’t miss any, and keep an eye out for the first full episode. It’ll be coming soon!

While we’re at it, give the club a follow on Instagram and YouTube as well. I’ll be sharing things there, too. All handles are @theheavymusicclub

If you enjoyed this podcast, join the club and drop your email below to receive future episodes and other writings.

This trailer for The Heavy Music Club was written, edited and recorded by me, Pete Churchill. Theme music is Yellow Eye’s Warmth Trance Reversal from their amazing 2019 album Rare Field Ceiling and is used with their kind, express permission.