[djpretzel]

Email sub file castlevania_2_cursed_bloodline_oc_remix.mp3 - djp

"Cursed Bloodline", by Dennis Mott
Originally "Bloody Tears" from Castlevania 2

Done in Swedish melodic death metal style with vocals, etc.

my website is http://www.dissolutionmusic.com if it matters!

-Dennis Mott

Here are the lyrics:

a bloodline charged
with ridding dracula from the land
they never fail to do so
except dracula has his hand
upon the dark art of necromancy
and a grasp betwixt the times in which
he lives and dies and lives again

born to die in vain
to rid a curse insane
frivolous time serene
the curse returns again

a whip in hand
and holy water strapped to the belt
a sharpened wooden cross
impaled black heart, sure death is dealt
time and again
the vicious cycle repeats once more
for the belmonts, dracula laughs
in their face and gives them what for

born to die in vain
to rid a curse insane
frivolous time serene
the curse returns again

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/castle~1.zip - Track 2 ("Bloody Tears")

So fucking sick! Played this back on VGF43, and yea it was good. Just a nasty metal arrangement going full throttle with a good amount of energy and some welcome turns in the performance at 1:57 & especially at 2:14 going for the chorus and 2:46 with the arranged freestyle work. If you're not a VGMix regular, you're really missing out on Dennis's shit.

My main gripe for this one was that Dennis's vocals were too soft compared to the music. Maybe the instrumentation is intended to take center stage here, but the vocals should have been louder to really pimp out the lyrics, not to mention the POWER! While this song played on VG Frequency, I recalled someone commenting that doing metal vocals doesn't require any talent, so someone's bound to say that in a review on this, but you try belting these lyrics out yourself and not destroying your vocal chords. It's not easy.

I could have went for something new on the lyrics at 3:18, but the composition was nice and cyclical regardless; very nice structure and excellent ideas. Love it or hate it, it will kick you in the face. Not for the weak at heart. Always a pleasure talking to Dennis, and I hope this isn't the last mix we get from him. Keep 'em coming!

YES

[zyko]

like larry said, if you aren't familiar with dennis' work, you are missing out on perhaps the best metal mixer in the scene.

that said, bias plays no role here. this is quite simply quality work. from top to bottom, this is excellent; arrangement is brilliant given that castlevania has this tendency to lend itself easily to metal... but what's this? a fresh and original take? noo... it can't be. but it is. and its courtesy of dennis mott and excellent drum programming, flawless guitar playing (very underrated guitarist, by the way), and awesome lyrics and vocals (i'm going to hunt whoever said metal vocals don't require talent because you have a seriously damaged brain)

recognizable and not at the same time. rock on

YES

[GrayLightning]

Though this is not my cup of tea genre, I can easily appreciate quality work. The way Dennis puts together this mix in concept and excecution is just impressive. The arrangement, production is all there. While it may be acceptable for this genre, I feel the rhythm distortion at times overpowers the vocals too much. I'd personally prefer the vocals have more presence in the mix. Minor complaint though. I personally liked the guitar sections the best where the distortion wasn't overpowering the rest of the mix.

Quality work that shines through regardless of whether or not one likes the genre. YES

As a special guest voter, I have invited one of OCR's most crazed metal heads, EdgeCrusher, to unofficially weigh in on the mix.

Originally Posted by EdgeCrusher

The intro really sets the mood for this remix. It has lots of similarities to At The Gates, Hypocrisy, the whole Gothenburg sound of in Sweden. Its becoming very popular over in the US now, and this remix does wonders at showing its versitility. Ill go ahead and do the negatives on it first though. The only thing I can really pick out as weak with this is the bass, but then again, its not exactly a staple of the genre to have big standout bass that you can easily pick out. Most bands of the genre dont even have bass players that are well known, aside from a few, ala Cannibal Corpse ;) Another thing, just to nitpick was the solo starting at 2:15. There are a few mistakes here and there, but nothing that can be considered lacking to the average listener. The good, is pretty much every thing else. The rythym guitars are the shit. Very fast and accurate picking. Very well put together drumming too. Most of the time I hate lyrics in remixes, but this one stands out as probably my personal favorite, due to it being a good description of the base material, as to some Ive tried to listen to.
All and all, this does the genre justice, and should open the door to a new kind of music to some people if they are open to hearing it.
YES

Edit: readding prior guest vote.

[zircon]

I'm with Gray here that this really isn't my style, but it's easy to see that it has some strong positive qualities. The arrangement expands much more on the original than most metal/rock guitar remixes we get, for one thing, and the overall production is good; it's obviously somewhat 'dirty', but there's no clipping, and there are no problems with processing/dynamics. My own opinion would be that the vocals should be louder, but this is a really minor issue, and this may simply be a characteristic of the genre. Dennis definitely deserves praise for the overall structure of the mix, too.

YES