Keygen Church: The Gothic Metal Video Game Music of Your Dreams

Correction: Almost everything I wrote in this article is wrong. Laurent sang on Direct Memory Access but he isn’t behind MBR. He’s not involved in Keygen Church, which is a side project of MBR. I apologize for the fuck up.

France’s Laurent Lunoir, sometimes known as Öxxö Xööx, is fast turning out to be one of those bastards who’s so talented you just wanna kick him in the shin. The umlaut-obsessed multi-instrumentalist has already knocked our socks off as one of the vocalists for Igorrr, and as the mastermind behind Synthwave Sunday favorites Master Boot Record. Now Monsieur Lunoir has unveiled another project, Keygen Church, and… it is also friggin’ excellent. Goddamn it.

So what does Keygen Church sound like? Like the sinister score for an epic Castlevania movie that hasn’t yet been made. As the project’s name suggests, Keygen Church maintains some of the electronic elements of Master Boot Record; Lunoir’s general style of composition, which moody and perpetually-cascading, also remains intact. But Keygen Church sounds much fuller, more rock and less synthwave. It’s also the rare piece of modern music that is inarguably organ-centric. Bach would be proud; Dimmu Borgir should be jealous.

Listen to the new Keygen Church album, which is apprently called ░ ▒ ▓ █, below. You can buy it here for a mere €3.33 (about four bucks).