ReMix: Tales of Symphonia 'Strike of the Devil's Axes'

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Summoning of Spirits: An Arrangement of Music from Tales of Phantasia and Tales of SymphoniaTales of Symphonia

If your face was only PARTIALLY melted off by the previous Sixto mix, LuIzA and CarboHydroM are here to finish the job. This is fortuitous, because a partially melted face is asymmetrical and aesthetically unpleasing. Ms. Carvalho lays out the who-did-whats:

"me (LuIzA) - left lead guitar, right rhythm guitar, wah guitar, phased guitar(bridge), bass. mixing/mastering. Carbo - right lead guitar, left rhythm guitar, ambient guitar(bridge), drum sequencing."

That's a lot of guitar. This one's from the OTHER primary Tales on the album, Symphonia, and is our first posted arrangement from its score. Oh yes, before I forget, please help us spread the news about SoS by digging our announcement - it takes a second if you're already registered and only 30 or so if you're not. We wouldn't ask if we didn't actually need everyone to chip in; it really helps! This one's earthier and more barebones compared to Juan's synth-laden 80's style rock... almost punkish, which isn't surprising given Luiza's submission comments:

"we changed lead guitar places on the bridge, btw, there's a change up on how(ambient/phased) rhythm guitars worked there, so just to add a little more taste hehe. this song was amazingly fun to do, the arrangement came out nice and varied, both fitting our styles very well. we're both punk rock fans, so I figured we just had to work together for this song hehe.(interestingly too, it's the second time he's worked with a brazilian in a remix.. only with a girl, this time)"

Particularly with the drums, which are less meaty and more about rapid attacks, this track's got a thinner, leaner, but still very aggressive sound to it. Judges actually took a brief look at this wayyyy back in 2006, but aside from some minor panning comments, everyone was down with the sickness. Andy wrote:

"Solid stuff; the production is good, the performance is great, arrangement is well-done. I like the drums a lot, and the mixing between the different parts is excellent. The variation during and after the middle section is welcome. I really don't have any complaints here..."

Larry added that it was "great to see LuIzA finally make her OCR debut" - little he did he know the track would be held for safekeeping another three years before seeing the light of day, and that she would actually debut with her rather legendary non-collab FF 'Fire Cross' mix. You'll really wanna check that one out if for some highly suspicious reason you haven't yet, as it's got the same combination of raw power merged with technique. Original track being arranged is 'Fatalize,' but damn if 'Strike of the Devil's Axes' doesn't sound particularly baller as a mix title. As the children say. Awesome energy, awesome arrangement, and another great guitar-centric collab from Summoning of Spirits. There's more where these came from, guitar and otherwise, so Digg, seed, discuss, and enjoy.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Fantastic guitar, and I'd say that there are few tracks that needed it more than this one. I've always thought that Fatalize was the best battle theme of ToS and I was disappointed that it wasn't played more in the game itself; suddenly, this remix appears and it's fresh and new again, and I want to play it on a loop all day! :)

- CNash on April 21, 2009
WOOOOooooT!! That guitar solo just totally melted my face off ;)

- Mtlbro on April 11, 2009
This track was one of the reasons I finally decided to strap down and make an account here on OCR (along with the whole OCR album "Summoning of Spirits"). This track is definitely one of the highlights in music for Tales of Symphonia, so I was glad to see it got the OCR treatment, and it didn't disappoint. Although the direction the track goes from 3:10-3:31 raised an eyebrow for me, the rest of it is pure gold. Great job LuIzA and CarboHydroM.

- HeavyHorse on March 27, 2009
Nice guitar playing on both counts, but what is up with that wimpy snare?
The arrangement was pretty nice, and there were a lot of good textures. :-)

- OA on March 11, 2009
I'm enjoying this. It's got the right amount of weight and drive. Love the drop-out part around 2:30, makes for a nice change it what otherwise gets a little repetitive in tone and soundscape. After that, it keeps changing from one thing to another, keeping it from getting boring. the firsttwo and a half minutes took their good time to get through, but the other half of the track went by all too soon. Awesome stuff.

- Rozovian on March 10, 2009
ROCK ON!!!
This song is excellent!

- BlackPhantom on March 9, 2009
:-P Hehehe, i liiiiiiike! I like it a lot! Very punk indeed. Like Kyle said: With the way Fatalize was done, it was just begging to be rocked out like this. Solid work by both Carbo and LuIzA and congrats to everyone for the album!

- Sir_Downunder on March 8, 2009
I was lucky enough to listen to this track beforehand thanks to LuIzA. Oddly enough, the old version of this remix kicked ass...but the new version is much, much, much better. Indeed, both LuIzA and CHM did a great job in improving on what's already good. Even though I haven't listened to the full album yet, I can confidently say that this remix is one of the highlights, if not my favorite track already. The performances blend so well with each other it's hard to differentiate who did what...until that end bit when LuIzA goes all ska on us.

- SwordBreaker on March 8, 2009
I must really be in a rock mood today, because while I'm not usually so keen on such heavy guitar work as this, this piece is amazing. Excellent job, I really love all of the energy put into this.

- Lucentas on March 7, 2009
I have waited for something like this since I first played ToS in 2004. [i]Fatalize[/i] is my absolute favorite battle track in the Tales series (my favorite RPG series), and this ReMix does it justice. More than I could have hoped for; excellent work!

- XZero on March 7, 2009
This rooooooooooooooooooocks!

- Sixto on March 7, 2009
great work! ive been listening alot to carbohydrom on teh walkmanphones .. this will definitly add up there

- Platonist on March 7, 2009
Jeebus
FINALLY
I decided to revive my long forgotten OCR account just to say that haha. I didn't find a project thread, so it had to be here.
well, first off, thank you all for the kind words. much appreaciated =)
I noticed my comments on the song page here were outdated haha. Chris and I redid the song a year after it was first finished, which I'm guessing is when I submitted it. The main difference is just the little bridge section. The wah guitar was replaced for a clean guitar and I changed my solo there.
god it has been awhile haha. This is one fine project. congrats to all!
PS: do check out Myth´s Zelos mix, it´s an awesome track and it has my wah guitar there... I guess that´s where it went haha.

- LuIzA on March 7, 2009
This is OLDE.
But seriously, still one of my favorites. Fatalize was begging to be rocked, and Luiza and Chris delivered!

- KyleJCrb on March 7, 2009
Stuck on repeat! Argh the words to describe my appreciation of the sheer brilliance of this mix, I really enjoyed the guitar work. Great job guys, you've created another great reason to download this remix project, downloading now :).
I hope to see more from you pair, you work so swiftly smooth together :D.

- MichaelTheCrow on March 7, 2009