OCR00913 - Castlevania II 'Dark Madness Resurrection'

[djpretzel]

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

[MoeFeaux]

I liked it a lot. I'm a big fan of solo guitar (like the intro) and pipe organ, so no complaints from me. I like synths but it's nice to hear a real instrument once in a while

[The Coop]

First off... kudos for the guitar work. Well handled and nicely performed.

I enjoyed the opening, the return to the same style of guitar work at the end and the riffs that were being pounded out at the 3:00 mark on. I thought these areas were the strongest compositionally. The transition at the 1:00 mark lead me to believe that there was heavily metalization heading my way... but nothing hit until the 3:00 mark. For me, this extended build up was the weak point.
I'm not speaking of the guitar playing, as it was good through out... agains, kudos there. I'm speaking compositionally. During that two minutes (1:00 - 3:00), it seems to build up, then return right back to the beginning of a build up. By the time the dual metal guitar riffs start at 3:00, they feel too delayed in their arrival and then overwith far too early. Listening, I thought those dual guitars should have had at least a minute of that two minute stretch, to really give them time to thrive in the spotlight, and to contain the build up into them.

Despite my feelings on that point, a good mix with some great guitar work.

[Psycrow]

Very cool and with subtle yet powerful uniqueness. Would love to hear you do more guitar and/or castlevania stuff. :) I had a suggestion a while ago that was never picked up: mixing C:SOTN's Dance of Illusions with its Crystal Teardrops. Maybe you'd be interested in picking it up :)

[Vortex RuneCutter]

THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES OVER!

I know you probably didn't know, but I've been requesting this mix for a long time, and it's day has come. It's great!

THANK YOU GOAT!!!


Vortex

[DaleNorth]

NICE!

Some very spiffy playing. A slight upgrade in the mixing, and this would be album material.

And what I like most about this is that it sounds like it was Fun to make.

[Ryan8bit]

Alas, a remix from NES. Well, it's been over a month! Anyways, I was glad to see it was by goat. I was impressed with his last work covering an uncovered tune from CV2. Now, he covers a bit of Dracula's Castle, or Castlevania as it were. And when he gets to that part it's great. I covered this song once, and I must admit I like goat's interpretation of this part much better.

My only complaint is that there is so little of the actual source material in the song. Yes, the rest of it is good, but with the transitions to and from the parts that are Castlevania, and the ones that aren't, it sounds like a bunch of jamming with Castlevania in between. It's still cool, but imo out of place.

At any rate, good work.

[The Infernal Storm]

Awesome mix! I was wondering when someone would finally touch that track. So far Goat has done two of the more 'offbeat' CV2 tracks, and neither have disappointed me thus far. The production quality has definitely been improved upon from what I'm hearing, and the arranging is much more refined. The parts of note to me, were the clean opening leading into the theme to Dracula's mansion, and that section in its' entirety. It does an amazing job of capturing the doomy and foreboding atmosphere of the original. The double bass at 1:40 was a really nice touch, and was well-executed. Also, the other part that stuck out was the changeover at 3:00, I can hear a strong Maiden influence in the rhythm and in a lot of the lead work as well. All in all, an awesome mix, it's earned a spot on my playlist!

Nice work Goat, keep 'em coming!!

[Rize]

I was picking up some strong Megadeth vibes during that solo. Nice work, especially on the Dracula's Castle theme (I was going to do that once, but I didn't feel that it was long enough, and I was having trouble splicing it all together... I should send you the midi "idea" file for fun though :) )

[The Hiryuu]

Yeah...the intro was a bit too long. Perhaps if the fast/distorted section of the song was longer, and had more riffs in it, then the intro would be fine.

Other than that, it kicks major ass. Sounds a lot like something I would do, if I could get a halfway decent guitar tone out of my damn Line6 Spider...

[IanthePez]

Wow, great song....I wish we could have some more heavier guitar stuff, I just love it. Keep it up!

[DarknessTear]

To tell the truth.. this scared me when I first heard it.

Why? Because this is exactly how I pictured this song in my mind and I was going to do it this exact way.. well maybe a little different here and there but the guitar parts are like right on the dot.

Aside from that, this is really good, yummy, delicious, tasty.

[Snowman]

To bad that at the ending of CastleVania 2 they didnt have an FMV of Dracula and Belmont busting out on gutars and one of thoses swamp guys on the drums playing that song.

[Gman]

WOW, that was some WONDER F'in TASTIC MOTHER F'n GUITAR WORK! like Dale said, little touchups and you got yourself some album matirial...PMM Heavy Metal tribut maybe?!?!? PLZ!! I'd write more...but I have to listen to it some more!!!

Gman

[M.P. Reyart]

...are easily clear in this mix. Reminds me of when I whooped the crap outta this game, long, long ago.

CV2 is still one of my favorite games to this day, and this track is a beautiful reminder of that. The guitar riffs are well laid out and make a fine accompaniment.

Excellent.

-M.P. Reyart

[neostormx]

2 reasons why i like this remix a lot. One, it screams professionalism and two, the remixer's name is Goat. my only gripe is the uneasy transition at 3:44

[k-wix]

Hey Goat.. Beautiful Stuff here, i dig the guitar work. A Few very minor things a don't like, but overall, an excellent piece of work, my Detailed review follows :P Worth the Download everyone, Especially fans of Castlevania music.. as everyone is.


0:01 - Excellent work here.. I love the introduction..Sounds Reallly good.

0:46 - Don't know about this part, but the title reaffirms my faith, this part fits it rather nicely.. The organ sounds Really good.

1:20 - Sounds like it needs something more in through this part.. I love what im hearing..i just think something else could push it even farther.

2:11 - Cool guitar work.

2:36 - Really Cool guitar work.

3:01 - Goood stuff here, A Very professional quality surrounding the entire thing, I love this part.

3:20 - A Few Shakey things here, but you quickly recover.

3:45 - Don't like the sudden change, It sounds like you just threw it right on top. Id prefer a nice ease out, or a Sudden drop..then this to kick back in slow and mellow-like..but its like an instant transversion which i don't like ..(is Transversion a word?)

[Valhalla_Steed]

WOW. I like. I was always a fan of the theme from Drac's castle in CV2. I think this piece did a wonderful job of remixing it. I'm not much of a remixer, though I do enjoy playing guitar. I basically don't bother figuring out entire songs, but just riffs that I like. I must say, after listening to the intro to this tune, I almost instinctively reached for my guitar to figure it out. Other's have mentioned the abrupt transitions from section to section, especially at 3:47, but I thought it worked quite well. I do think that it would have been an interesting idea to have the abrupt dropoff and then the fade in of that intro riff again as was mentioned in a previous post. But overall, I am thoroughly impressed and am looking forward to future submissions. Oh yeah, NoFleshAllowed also rocks, but that's a whole other post. Keep up the good work.

[danny B]

This song is gorgeous.

I've never heard a song on OC that so strongly expresses emotion.

The intro and outro are simply beautiful, and the innards are very-well produced metal chuggage.

Could have stood a longer ending, but still excellent overall.

[PhantomMagi]

Excellent work. Quite nostalgic, actually.
Anyway, I love the transition at 0:50.
All in all, a very good piece.

[Gnam]

I don't really recognize the original tune (but then I never played very much CV2, hated that "wander around the towns aimlessly" 8bit RPG format) but this mix rocks anyway. The mood has a lot of range, going from solemn to desperate with the guitars, then the hauntin organs, then the agressive rage of the distorted electric guitars, and back again. Unique, interesting, and rockin.

[Zebceponaf]

Awesome! I want more! download this now if you haven't

[Taffin]

This track couldn't be much better (and kudos for picking a neglected CV2 song). The darker side of CV is well captured and features my favorite use of gothic organ in a metal song outside of Avenged Sevenfold's "Eternal Rest." OCR has but a small sampling of goat's work. If you love his particular brand of CV Metal as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to check out http://www.powergoat.com. I didn't notice the link on his remixer page for a while, so I'm pointing it out for those who may have missed it.

[bladiator]

Really nice piece. The break around the 1:00 mark made me think something was going wrong with my car and freaked me out. The electric guitar shredding is the same stuff you've used throughout your mixing career and that's A-OK in my books. The classical guitar intro and outtro were really tasteful, but that transition back in the outtro at about 3:49 made me want to poke my eye out.

But seeing as how I know the way you've grown, I don't mind it too much.

[OA]

Great intro, I love it.
Once the metalz comes in it works pretty well too, with some cool riffing and good rhythms. Lot of parts that I don't specifically recognize as castlevania melodies, but it certainly had the feel, so if it was original material, nice work. If not, I need to brush up on my CV listening. :-)

Nice playing, decent production, and a good flow. Rock fans have been requesting Goat since 2004, and with good reason. I'd love to hear what he's been up to recently. :-)

[Sir_Downunder]

Another golden oldie from Goat.

The intro for this was surprisingly mellow and I thought this was going to be a rather stripped-back track... BEFORE MY MIND WAS RIPPED TO SHREDS BY EPIC SHREDDING!! *Cough* Ahem... Back to what I was saying before, once the shredding came in, it kicked the whole track up another gear. The mixture of both the intro/outro and the beefy middle made this a very memorable track for me and one of my ultimate favorites.

[tweek]

Awesome intro. The guitar sound is clean and super crisp. The performance is spot on. Hello Metallica :). The heavily filtered guitar SFX were really nice underneath the organ. This is epic. Something you would hear as the opening number to an old heavy metal show. My goodness, his hands are flying on those power chords. I'm impressed with the precision of it. The soundscape feels a little empt in this one during that section, but then the high lead busts in and takes center stage. I'm diggin' it for sure. The drums are still a little thin, but they are definitely better from his first mix. God, I love the clean guitar sound. The transition into the clean section was a little awkward, but for how sexy they are, I can forgive it. I can also forgive the fade out :). However, the FO actually works pretty well. Very good second mix here!