[evktalo]

Ah yes, I've been meaning to compliment the art. I haven't looked at it thoroughly, but what I've seen (the site, the banners & the image in the first post) it's good, consistent and helps to create an atmosphere for the whole project. The use of colours is very tasteful. I very much like the pic in the first post (although the girl seems a bit she's like contemplating having a bite of the pan flute..). Good work there!

Okay, I think I'll try to do a track-by-track reviewing tour of the project. Note that I have no familiarity with the originals at all. Anyway, here we go with the first two tracks.

Disc 1, track 1: The Unholy Wars

Hard rock/heavy isn't generally my genre. I can sure recognize this as a good track it is, but it doesn't appeal to me much. All these relentlessly wailing leads.. gah!

There's a few spots that I particularly do like production-wise: 02:12 has this sort of a "ghost guitar" filling up a pause without crowding it, very nice. Also I always notice the sound in the background around 02:23 - it's very cool. I like the breakbeatish snare roll stuff that begins around 03:20 too.

Disc 1, track 2: Crisis Healing Salve

The track begins with a strong wind lead with a harpsichord kittering around it. The rhythmical complexity, especially when the double bass comes in, took a bit of listening to sink in (felt crowded on the first listen), but it's really rather intriguing.

The double bass writing has some off notes 00:30 and 00:33-00:34 that really throw me off. Rest of the part is good.

Somewhere along the line strings have blended in, and next the strings dissolve, with a pleasant surprise, into beautiful guitar tones (esp. the clean guitar). On the first listen, this was where I really started appreciating the track. The strings in the background don't mesh perfectly with the guitar (it even sounds they're slightly differently tuned), but that's nothing serious. I love that chord at 01:27. The oboe figure sounds unnecessary - I think it would have made a better impact with just space in that spot.

The rumbling bass (synth?) that starts at 01:30 I really like. Especially when it drops off at 01:40 - goosebumb time! Here the string writing works fantastically with the guitars, it's really beautiful.

Like with the oboe bit before, the string figure that starts at 02:13 feels extraneous. Either the bass goes off the key (badly), or the bass going the way it does combined with the string figure is to blame - but that's another "brown moment".

I like the random sounding start of the guitar solo. When the strings come in again 02:42, it's really quite grand. Here it irks me somewhat (but not too much) that the strings and guitar seem to be playing in completely different rooms. They have quite a different ambience.

In the (beautiful!) quieter part that begins around 03:00, there is no such problem. The sound that begins at 03:09 is.. evocative, and again 03:29.. mourning. The accompanying wind lead is beautiful as well.

At it's best - and that's the most of the track - a fantastic track and a coop that combines respective strengths of the two ReMixers. I have to stress that the brown moments really, really bother me; I hate having to endure them to hear the greatness of the rest of the track.

--Eino