ReMix: Doom II: Hell on Earth 'No Man Is an Island'

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Doom II: Hell on Earth

So, I've been waiting to officially announce this long enough; many of you have already noticed, but we've got two new judges on board, plus Shariq's back on the panel as well. Vinnie Prabhu, aka Palpable, already has a few great mixes on the site, including a take on Legend of Mystical Ninja that's more addictive than crack cocaine. He also happens to live like two miles away from me, which we discovered by sheer chance when karaokeing with our significant others at a nearby bar. True story! He'll be performing with Amy at Anime USA this Saturday as part of our panel - very cool. Caleb Ka'iliahimakamae Butterfield, who goes by an extraordinarily truncated version of his middle name - "'Ili" - is "a pal of a gal who knows a thing about swing"... JJT told me to write that, I don't know why. You've probably seen him on our forums or on #ocremix; he knows much about game music and should be a valuable asset to the panel when it comes to hunting down esoteric source material. Both judges were selected by the rest of the panel, and I'm confident both will do an excellent job as we work to get back on top of the judging queue. Games like BioShock and Super Mario Galaxy make it damn easy to get distracted, but with great queue comes... great responsibility. Please join me in welcoming them to the panel!

Speaking of judges, BGC was involved in this DooM II mix, along with LuIzA and The Joker. It was originally made for TO's upcoming project, but it didn't seem to fit with the overall feel of the album, so it's being subbed separately. Jimmy actually jumped on this one later in the game - The Joker (David L. Puga) started the whole thing off, with the intention of it being a collab with Luiza:

"I started this song with the intention of getting Luiza to sign on. She was my first and only choice for the track. I sent her the old beta I made, she signed on, and long story short, we made this awesomeness! Long story kinda long, I did the Synth/orchestral/drumworks, while Luiza did the Guitar/Electric Bass/Guitar FX, each of us having input on the others work (I was pretty much happy from the get go with Lu's work). Anyway, I've taken up enough time. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the mix! P.S. The name as well as the tone of the mix was inspired by the John Donne's poem of the same name!"

I don't know about you, but I find that mixes inspired by Jacobean metaphysical poets are always tops... this one's certainly no exception. BGC mainly joined in following some EQ comments from the judges panel; he made some minor tweaks, but it's mostly David and Luiza's baby. Still, cool of him to throw in an assist - definitely an activist role as judge - and for them to be okay with that as well. Even after bringing the bass up, this is still a pretty mid/top-heavy mix, due mostly to the unorthodox drum track; the rest of the elements are pretty heavy metal, or at least heavy, but the drums are really unobtrusive and more electronica, the toms being one obvious (and nice) exception. It's an interesting juxtaposition; it feels very strange, on one hand, but on the other, it lets a lot of the lower midrange detail come through, as it doesn't have to compete. The attention to detail in the stereo field, with numerous panning FX very adeptly applied, is particularly worth noting - fantastic work here. Luiza's guitars are all over this puppy - leads and rhythm and backwards fx, she does it all - and it sounds great. weed mentioned some of the EQ issues - a couple of which probably remain unaddressed - but YES'd this baby anyways:

"the actual writing of it is fantastic... there is all sorts of emotive dynamic even despite it being essentially one gear through out once it gets going. the intro was badass. the guitar playing is off the charts cool... you rock, girl. the stuff behind her guitar is magnificent, joker - great writing and instrumental balance. i cannot ramp up any more than this without having a conniption"

I'll leave it at that - two new judges, Vinnie and 'Ili, and one great DooM II mix from David and Luiza, with an alley-oop assist from Jimmy. Perhaps no man is an island, or even an isthmus, but if one was stranded ON an island, or just thinking about Jacobean metaphysical poetry, one could certainly do worse for theme music. Rockin'.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Very cool track indeed in my book.

- yosefu on May 27, 2009
I'm really diggin' this mix. :-D

- Sir_Downunder on May 10, 2009
Pretty cool track, I have to agree that the thin guitar tone works (sounds great really), though I think that a fuller tone should have been used as punctuation in a few sections for specific rhythmic hits.
Synths were nice, and the bass synth at the end was especially great. Loved that slide down!
The track arrangement has some really nice builds and breakdowns, and though the shredding at the end alternated between pretty sweet and pretty sloppy, it was an overall good performance.
Nice work homies, this is good stuff.

- OA on April 2, 2008
I actually think the thin guitar fits the mood nicely, better than something with lots of thump and crunch would anyway. I'm not so sure about the pinch harmonics at 2:04 and 2:07 though. They aren't in key and sound like they're there just for the sake of being there. Gotta compliment the slick drums. Interesting work as a whole guys.
Lyrics for the non-instrumental version:
Some people stand in the darkness,
afraid to step into the light.
Some people need to help somebody
when the edge of surrender's in sight.
Don't you worry!
It's gonna be alright.
'cause I'm always ready,
I won't let you out of my sight.

- Harmony on December 4, 2007
This song sets up a very "nice" atmosphere; dark and gloomy. However, despite the guitar playing being pretty awesome, I wish there was less guitar in this one. Especially the soloing in the end rubbed me the wrong way; maybe because the guitar there sounds kinda thin compared to the rest of the soundscape.

- Martin Penwald on December 3, 2007
But hey, Baywatch beats Evanescence ANY DAY! So it's all good!

- EvilHorde on November 22, 2007
And here I was trying to emulate one of the earlier Evanescence tracks with the toms.
Baywatch FTW! (slow-mo Hasselhoff)

- The Joker on November 20, 2007
The intro reminds me of Baywatch...
How's THAT for constructive criticism?

- EvilHorde on November 20, 2007
Loved the title on this one, 'No Man is an Island'. Very clever.
Aside from that it's a great arrangement. I was shocked how proportionate the various instruments/sound effects were. They seemed very well placed and set at the appropriate levels disallowing them to drown out the piano and other tunes.
Great job guys.

- Flare4War on November 20, 2007
Amazing remix, love the guitar work from Luiza. I do wish the guitar was stood out more / was louder during the latter half of the song, though.

- badhabit on November 19, 2007
Thanks for all the reviews so far. I just want to thank BGC, & Luiza again for the great work they did, & throw up the \m/, ROCK!

- The Joker on November 17, 2007
As quoted the writing in the song alone is fantastic. It tries to move away for the original arrangement but keeps coming back which gives it most of the points from me.

Great guitar work, excellent reverse effects, and you get top points for how it's written.
10/10

PS And just for the record and a shout out to Reece Riley (Terminator):
DOOOOM 2 REEEEEEEMIIIIIIIIIIIIX!

- A-RoN on November 17, 2007
A lot of the time, it feels too chaotic. There seems to be too many melodies playing at once, and... well, dischord. Also, a lot of the time, the drums lacked flow; they just felt like samples pasted in a little here and there, with little or no connection to each other. Obviously, others like this song, so these are just my personal problems with it and can be ignored as you see fit.

- Dafydd on November 17, 2007
For the record, I didn't really do all that much to the track. There were some concerns about the balance of the EQ mainly, and being a fan of both David and Luiza's work, I opted to help them with the mastering. So David hooked me up with the rendered track waves, and I touched them up a little. I added some bassline towards the end, and inserted that one dirty filtered loop, but this is still like, 90% their baby.
I was really honored that they let me contribute in the small way I did.

- big giant circles on November 16, 2007
Hmm, certainly a different take on the material. Less of a "relentless driving machine" like the original, and more ethereal, more spaced out. I dig the special effects (all the cool reversed noises and such), and the guitar work is excellent.
I wasn't a huge fan of the weird arc the song seemed to take though. Lots of swelling and dimming without an overall feel of things growing and building. Didn't really seem to climax... kinda like it got loud, it got soft, it got loud, it got soft, it got loud again, then it ended.
Nice job with the notes on the pizzicato though; ya stayed a little truer to the tonality of the middle section than I did with my version. :) And I'm pleased to see other people tackle Doom 2 at long last.
- Mazedude

- Mazedude on November 15, 2007