ReMix: The Legend of the Mystical Ninja 'From Ghosts Emerge Beasts'

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The Legend of the Mystical Ninja

The first of May, 2004, will not be known as a day of subtlety for OCR :) Both this mix and the next that will be posted are in genres that aren't about subtlety; in fact, they eschew subtlety. They mock it. They'll have no part in it. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the mood you're in. I've always found that any sort of speed metal/hard industrial works better when you've got a lot of energy and/or angst to release. That doesn't describe my own circumstances too often these days, I s'pose, but I can still dig something rudely aggressive every once in awhile. And rudely aggressive would, I would say, accurately describe this speed metal mix from newcomer Eradicate from Legend of the Mystical Ninja. The ReMixer writes:

"It is a thrash/black metal remix of the "Cat Kurobei" theme from Legend of the Mystical Ninja, on the Super Nintendo. I have titled it "From Ghosts Emerge Beasts." The thrash metal elements from the piece stem from how the guitar parts are executed, including the drumming. The soloing is also "thrashy," and the distortion used on the guitars (ran through a Laney amplifier) was created to mimic the sound of 80's metal thrash groups. The black metal parts of the piece come out in execution as well, with lots of tremelo picking, double-bass, keyboard parts, and also the way the melody is presented throughout the piece. The final, acoustic closing section is also based on black metal ideas (jazz guitar over acoustics, for example), though I took creative liberties in making it sound more Japanese-like at that part, for a little added texture."

First off, let me applaud the artist for a very strong mix title. If you spend time on a piece of music, visual art, writing, what have you, it seems to me effort should also be directed towards its christening. To paraphrase The Princess Bride: "We are men of action. Bad mix titles do not become us." Now, this mix won't be to everyone's liking. More specifically, if you're not a fan of thrash metal/death metal or things that are very loud, distorted, and fast in general, this may not be your cup of tea. BUT, but, there is definitely craft here. As with most any genre outside of "70's television theme covers using only kazoo and bongo," there is always room for creativity and talent to set certain works apart. To that end, Eradicate has taken the original melody and certainly turned it into breakneck, shredding metal, but there's some cool transitions, the mixing involves a calibrated chaos and never gets truly sloppy, timing is improved from the initial version the ReMixer sent us, and the rapid-fire drum blasts and grating, swift guitar arpeggios do have form and substance to them. As Israfel is leaving our judges panel due to time constraints and moving more into other arenas, I'll give him the last word:

"Nice Euro-speed metal thing going on here. Production is a bit lacking, but overall it's a fun mix in a style that we really don't see here often. Not perfect, but good enough - and besides, I'm partial to the genre."

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 12 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
This is interesting. It's fast paced, in your face (whoo unintentional rhyme), but sounds...fake. I have to say the qualities of the sounds overall are really bringing the track down for me. This isn't a genre I'm really a fan of either, so that doesn't help, but the artificial feeling is really unfortunate. Would be nice to hear this live sometime.

- DragonAvenger on October 27, 2009
Some pretty cool parts, but the production hurts, and im not diggin the hihat sound. It's way to piercing and doesn't seem to be meshing with the rest of the mix. Arrangement is pretty insane,and very creative. This would have been awesome recorded with real guitars. Overall some issues, but in the end, the arrangement wins me over.

- OA on May 2, 2007
To me its reminiscent of DragonForce and a bit of Slayer, which is a good thing. It's simply amazing, I almost wish it had some vocals go with the whole speed metal thing. Though like a others said, I wish the mastering were better, but the song itself is great.

- Ceiling90 on August 12, 2006
Hi Eradicate,
Thanks man, that was great!
Only metal remix so far that I've heard that I thought kicked ass.
--NeOmega

- NeOmega on March 4, 2005
Well, I came across the mp3s of the various wips there were of this on my hard drive and wondered what ever became of this song.....oh, duh, it slipped onto ocremix without me even noticing...doh!
Sorry, I'm late. I'm glad your song made it on. Great stuff. Good luck on Incal...incan...that one I can neither spell nor pronounce :wink: . And good luck on that as yet unnamed project you spoke of on Soundclick :D
-----edit:
Incalescence :lol:

- aimless nomad on June 28, 2004
Ha, this would be amazing if it was done by a real group. The musical ideas abound from this piece. I would really love this piece if it was higher quality. As it stands, it's awesome, but I probably wouldn't listen to it in the car.

- Kamikaze Noodle on May 12, 2004
This is interesting. Not exactly the style of music I normally listen to, but it definite is worth a listen. Like TCK said, this would be a lot nicer to listen to if it was higher quality, but all in all it's a solid piece ( a little weird though...but ain't nothin wrong with that).

- tgfoo on May 3, 2004
One word: Outstanding! Very well done. Keep up the excellent work. It rocks and I happen to own the game as well.

- jwhyrock on May 3, 2004
I'm so glad to finally see this peice on the main page. I always knew it would be there some day. Months ago, i heard this peice on the WIP board, and i've been in love with both this particular song, and Eradicate as well.
It was like a fairy tale of sorts, the original version of the song caught some criticism, but it was not defeated. Like the phoenix, it was reborn, and reborn again and again. This peice being accepted and posted is just the denoument to the fairy tale story.
I'm happy for you Eradicate, let me know when you have more peices in the work, i for one would be happy to hear them.
Good luck man.
-Whiteknight

- whiteknight on May 2, 2004
I expect this to get a lot of negative reviews because of the "poor" (read: not quite professional) mastering (and who the hell can consider production more important than arrangement/composition in the first place, anyway?) and the style in general, but as an avid fan of the crazier styles of metal out there I can say with confidence that this truly is a great song.
It's got a damned BLASTBEAT at 2:22. Tremolos from hell. Excessive (in a good way) cymbals and double bass work, using damn good samples. The only real flaw in this mix is the production, which as I noted isn't all that catastrophic of a flaw. Sure, it would be NICE if the guitars had a beefy, Nuclear Blast sound to them, but it would be NICE if I had a million dollars and a pony, too.

- Paragon on May 1, 2004
There are ideas in this, but to be honest lo-fi is an understatement for this mix. The drums rival Retentions Of Conflict. It'd be nice if Eradicate could resubmit this in higher quality, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

- TCK on May 1, 2004
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

- djpretzel on May 1, 2004

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