philomory

There's a lot to like about this mix. The production quality is absolutely top notch, the performance on saxophone is stellar. The mix is both creative and pleasant to listen to. There's a lot to like about this mix... and yet, I didn't like it. It's not that there's anything, musically, about Akkadia Rising that is bad. In fact, it's an excellent song. My problem with it as a remix (and I realize that most people won't necessarily share this problem) is that it is just too far removed from the source material. The original piece is one of my favorites on any soundtrack, and I found my ear kept waiting for the 'payoff', when the intense, urgent, almost frightening feeling of Awakening would show up... but the track ended and it never did. My own expectations coming into the piece led me astray. In other words, it's an excellent piece in it's own right, but as an interpretation of Awakening it seems, to me, to have missed the mark.

The ending theme of Metroid II is one of my all-time favorite themes. Like Ham On Rye I have a save on my cart at the very end so I can go beat it to hear the end music; I used to press my game boy up against my ear to hear it better. Let me say that this remix is very good. But, because of how much I love the original, I can't help but hold a very high standard for what a remix of it should be. So I have a criticism. Basically I don't feel the remix was opened properly. Anthem spends 1'09 covering what was, in the original, an 0'08 lead in. That's not necessarily a problem, but for someone who's familiar with the original it builds up a lot of anticipation. My problem with Anthem comes at 1'10, when the anticipation built up over the past minute just falls flat. In the original, after the opening bit the theme comes in immediately with a sort of energetic fanfare-ish sound. In the remix, however, there's this sort of winding-down noise, after which the theme fades in, becoming recognizable a few seconds later. I found it to be a big let down. The bit from 4'19 to 4'25 shares the same problem, but not nearly as much, because the theme is picked up again that time. Other than that the only complaint I can make is that at some points it felt like the melody was too soft relative to the beat. Now, I'm not trying to say that that ruins the remix. That would be a gross overstatement. In fact, from 1'18 to 4'18 the remix is very, very good. But it took a long time to shake the feeling that something was missing.