ReMix: Demon's Crest 'Phalanx(PossessedbyHumans)'

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Game: Demon's Crest (Capcom, 1994, SNES)
ReMixer(s): Steve Pordon
Composer(s): Toshihiko Horiyama
Song(s):
Posted: 2002-09-13, evaluated by the judges

Steve Pordon defined persistence with this Demon's Crest ReMix. He's revised it, based in part off feedback from yours truly, at least a dozen times, and the end result is much more solid than the initial work. I don't know how many months it's been, but I believe over half a year has gone by; at least over four months. That, to me, is persistence. I'd be the first to tell you that if I'm not happy with something of my own or I don't think it's quite "there", I can play around with it for maybe . . . a day . . . but afterwards end up deleting many of my experiments or early efforts. It takes discipline and grit to stick with something and improve upon it in steps over time, and to me it's a skill I essentially lack but still admire. Now, the end result isn't Steve's best effort to date, an honor I'd probably reserve for his barebones, elegant FF6 piece, but it's VERY heavy, in less an industrial sense and more a speed metal sense of the adjective. If you crave subtlety and have a general distaste for cacophonic orgies of rapid-fire drums and tortured guitars, this probably isn't your bag. But if that perks your interest, come on in. The biggest restructuring of the song over time has been with the drums, which were originally more artificial-sounding and did not yield themselves to the rigorous paces this track puts its rhythm section through. In addition to hyper, machine-gun drums, the guitars are essentially measured, controlled chaos, with triplet riffs on top of dual-panned power chords on top of a moving bassline . . . like I said, subtle it is not, but it certainly has a menacing, satanic ring to it - appropriate considering the game's protagonist and themes. My absolute favorite bit, though it is brief, is the downright sepulchral shout at 0'41 - I wouldn't have minded more of this sort of accoutrement to balance out the dominating guitar presence, in fact. All in all, a ReMix that's been a long time coming, shows much improvement over the original, and - to fans of the genre (important qualifier) - should provide a welcome treat.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 14 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.

tweek;708669 wrote: And we're back to the GM sounds in the intro :). Not a fan of the intro, but then the real mix comes in. Much better tone in the guitars from the past mixes, but there is still room for growth. The drums are probably my biggest qualm as they lack any kind of punch to them, which for this genre, is a MUST HAVE!! THe performance of the guitar is a little wishy washy in the beginning but Steve seemed to find the pocket pretty well a little later in. The exposed GM drums were not my favorite and the ending was super abrupt. I can heard Steve pounding on the door that will take him to the next level, and with just a few changes, I really think he can blow it up. On to the next!

The intro is actually sampled straight from the game's audio. :3
This mix is a bit crazy. Can't say I really recognized much of a source in there. I'm sure in the past 8 years, this guy has gotten a lot better! Hehe.. It's strange to comment on such an old mix in a critiquing fashion. Anyway, quite interesting indeed.

- Brandon Strader on November 19, 2010

And we're back to the GM sounds in the intro :). Not a fan of the intro, but then the real mix comes in. Much better tone in the guitars from the past mixes, but there is still room for growth. The drums are probably my biggest qualm as they lack any kind of punch to them, which for this genre, is a MUST HAVE!! THe performance of the guitar is a little wishy washy in the beginning but Steve seemed to find the pocket pretty well a little later in. The exposed GM drums were not my favorite and the ending was super abrupt. I can heard Steve pounding on the door that will take him to the next level, and with just a few changes, I really think he can blow it up. On to the next!

- tweek on August 24, 2010

Not really my genre, but I can see the effort that went into this. There is a solid wall of sound throughout, and stuff still sounds pretty decent after all this time. Nothing I can really critique, but again, I'm way out of my league for this one. Good work, but it's not staying in my library.

- DragonAvenger on October 26, 2009

OA;284974 wrote: When everything is fast and heavy, none of it is.
And I think a little more melody would be nice.

Heh. You change any one of these factors, and it's pretty much no longer death metal.
I definitely agree with you, though. That was always my beef with death metal (and that's coming from a metal-head).
P.S.- When it's all Cookie Monster vocals, "none of it is." Ha ha.

- IndyCovaHart on March 22, 2008

A little heavy on the blastbeats for me, I think it needs more tempo variation and a shift in tone colors for some sections. When everything is fast and heavy, none of it is.
And I think a little more melody would be nice. Production is decent, and I think you captured a good, super-old school death metal vibe, but there's a reason this style of music didn't really get big until the Gothenburg era, and the aforementioned suggestions are all part of that.

- OA on June 19, 2007

I remember the days of Steve Pordon hanging out on IRC.. Those days are long gone, as are recently ReMixes by him! :( This is some fasthardcore metal here; not everyone's cup of tea, but this is nice executed. =] metal fans, listen now.

- DarkCecil13 on December 25, 2006

Paragon wrote: And the vocal sample is cool, where'd you get that from?

My microphone. :P
-steve

- Legion303 on July 2, 2003

While black metal in and of itself is pretty limiting, this is a very good mix. The blastbeats are definitely cool, but go on for too long. . .maybe alternating them with a double bass roll with the snare hitting on every first beat, and a ride/crash every other beat. . .
And the vocal sample is cool, where'd you get that from?

- Paragon on June 30, 2003

Finally! 8)
I had heard an earlier version of this song, because I requested for demon's crest remix earlier, and yay! finally we have one in the overclocked archive. :D
I like it, it differs from many other remixes out there. It starts of with in-game music and go over to a hard-rock-metal thing with pantera like drums.
I think this is a great remix, original compared to alot of remixes out there. The game itself is great just as well, with plenty of good remixing possibilities. (If you can take a hint :wink: )
I give it a 4 out of 5.

- Illaminus on September 14, 2002

ive been following this remix for close to a year now, i guess. And I really dont see how you can even come close to comparing this to that crap music manson puts out. It did get better and better though over time.

- EdgeCrusher on September 13, 2002

Max Damage wrote:
Not this, which seems to be the Marilyin (sp?) Manson school of goth. Now, I have eclectic musical taste. I have Rammstein side by side with Ayumi Hamasaki in my playlist, so you can be sure I'll listen to just about anything, but.. Well, I just don't like this much.

Ugh. Manson just plain sucks these days. My influences for this were death metal bands. The chord structures come right from Pestilence.
As I just mentioned in another post, I'm doing a Demon's Crest medley in a black metal style that may be more to your liking--still fast, but it will also have choir and orchestral parts.
-steve

- Legion303 on September 13, 2002

I like it. What's wrong with it? It's my kinda tunage. Hard-ish style stuff-ish stuff. :?

- NSR::Neko on September 13, 2002

I really don't like this remix much. Yes, while it does do something very different with the music to what the original track was.. I feel it kind of loses the essence of the Demons Crest soundtrack. Yes, the original music was dark and gothic, but it was slow, epic, organ and strings-heavy goth.. Beautiful goth, in other words.
Not this, which seems to be the Marilyin (sp?) Manson school of goth. Now, I have eclectic musical taste. I have Rammstein side by side with Ayumi Hamasaki in my playlist, so you can be sure I'll listen to just about anything, but.. Well, I just don't like this much.
Okay, this is shameless self-pimping, but I'm hoping someone can do another Demons Crest track, in the spirit of the original version. My request lies on this thread. Read and beware, mortals!

- Max Damage on September 13, 2002

Demon's Crest 'Phalanx (Possessed by Humans)'
Well, this really ain't my thing. I've heard various incarnations of this mix, and djpretzel's right - it *has* vastly improved, and there's definitely quality here that some will appreciate. Just not me.

- orkybash on September 13, 2002