ReMix: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 'Hell March to the Apocalypse'

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Command & Conquer: Red Alert

We last saw Mr. of Darkness make his OCR debut in collab form with Shnabubula on a classic Final Fantasy VI joint; now he's back and flying solo for some heavier C&C:RA action:

"The original inspiration behind this song came from watching the Youtube video of Frank Klepacki play Hell March and Hell March 2 with Video Games Live. Instantly I thought, "Wow, that's an awesome idea!". At that time I finally had a new computer which could handle the immense power of several instances of Symphonic Orchestra at once. I preserved many of the riffs and drum parts that came originally, and pretty much wrote an entire orchestra score to compliment the riffs."

Judges had but one beef: The initial sub had a weaksauce snare. Tony was awesome and sent us a version with the snare appropriately strongsauced, and the rest was history. This mix is face... as in, in yours: ambient sounds of warfare set the stage for an epic blend of majestic, forceful orchestral and metal that, quite simply, has its way with you. The way the bass foreshadows the mayhem that's about to ensue before the wave actually hits is great, everything's VERY well blended considering the dense EQ range all these components chew up, and most importantly, ass is kicked. You can't really have ANYTHING with the phrase "Hell March" involved be all puppies and flowers and pleasantries, now, can you? Mr. Butterfield says:

"Awesome expansive take on the Hell Marches, still maintains the throat-gripping intensity of the originals. The switching of focus between the guitars and orchestra works really well."

I'm lucky I got that much to quote, since this was essentially golden to begin with, although the snare tweaks only made a great mix better. We don't get a lot of C&C, so when we do it's nice to see Klepacki's iconic score done great justice and launched every zig; Tony's absolutely hit the sweet spot here, capturing everything that made the original(s) amazing while taking them in his own twisted, testosterone-packed direction. If anyone, anyone at all, was thinking "Who's this Prince of Darkness fellow collaborating with the likes of Shnabubula?" back on their collab, this solo mix is all the answer one could ever need. The changeup at 3'12" essentially means two-mixes-for-the-price of one, but there's no jarring medleyitis symptoms since instrumentation and tone remain consistent. Judges were concise for a reason - this one's a bona-fide humdinger that should make fans of C&C, metal, marches, AND hell all very, very happy.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
WOW! So many memories with come flooding back hearing this. The year that Red Alert came out was one Christmas that could not have arrived any slower for me. At the time there was a trailer for the game and Hell March was the music that accompanied it. I remember it giving me goosebumps then but yes. So good. Such a fantastic update to a fantastic source-tune. The mix of orchestral and metal here is just delicious. While the arrangement here is what conveys a lot of the power and grandioisity, the production minutely misses the opportunity to emphasize this.

- Magellanic on December 6, 2011
I'm not familiar with the source but this ReMix is awesome! Great job! :nicework:

- Chernabogue on August 22, 2010
wow, here's a pack of nostalgia thrown on my face, followed by attack dogs. awesome remix

- UnveiledOsiris on July 20, 2010
Wow. This is amazingly great! I love the bass line, I love the orchestra and the guitars, I pretty much love everything. Keep up the great work!

- Mockingbird on May 28, 2010
I've been listening to this one since DoD days, but for some reason it doesn't feel quite as epic or intense as I remember it (I don't have the DoD version anymore, so maybe this is a cut-down version from that :? ) There's a lot of neat ideas here and they're executed well, though, and it's a great expansion on the original (which I just checked out a couple of days ago because of this song.) Not one of PoD's most amazing mixes but I definitely like the mood the song was created in, and some of the guitar riffs in particular are quite good in this context.
It's refreshing to see such a talented artist branching out and doing all sorts of styles like this, from blues to jazz to metal... Keep it up PoD :-D

- Emunator on December 21, 2009
This arrangement reminded me of the music from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which is a very good thing.

- Kaleb.G on December 3, 2009
If anyone's interested, I made a video of myself playing a 2-guitar arrangement on this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zng-7AV4WFg
I decided I needed a better way to push the song than having an mp3 to a synchronized MAMplayer visual.

- Prince Of Darkness on October 24, 2009
Hey PoD,
Sent you a PM if you didn't see it. Essentially said "yes plz will do."

- Inimitable on September 5, 2009
Prince Of Darkness;587112 wrote: I guess, save for this comment: "Awful. The orchestra did not fit the main melody really well, and generally sounded like a cheap knock-off cover (Which it was). Reminds me of SnM by Metallica, except that SnM worked, but this did not at all"
(which, by the way, is a very, very funny comment)

Haha, I used to think S&M was pretty good until I heard the orchestral rock fusions from this community and how much more cohesively they could work together (especially goat's stuff), so I don't really believe that guy has any idea what he's talking about. I'd just ignore him.
Gario: Keep up with [URL="http://dod.vgmix.com"]Dwelling of Duels[/URL] for more PoD.

- KyleJCrb on September 5, 2009
I guess, save for this comment: "Awful. The orchestra did not fit the main melody really well, and generally sounded like a cheap knock-off cover (Which it was). Reminds me of SnM by Metallica, except that SnM worked, but this did not at all"

I lol'd at that comment (mainly because he called SnM a success, but also because of how wildly wrong he was about the track). Most of the audience there basically don't like orchestra (who doesn't like orchestra in music?! :neutral:) Ah well, you can't please everyone. Your song was great, no doubt about it - now make another :)!!.

- Gario on September 5, 2009
OA;586725 wrote: hey dude, those responses are far from wildly negative. :-)
kickass track still/

I guess, save for this comment: "Awful. The orchestra did not fit the main melody really well, and generally sounded like a cheap knock-off cover (Which it was). Reminds me of SnM by Metallica, except that SnM worked, but this did not at all"
(which, by the way, is a very, very funny comment)
The comments I guess are mostly split 50/50 between "Hey, cool!" and "Ho-hum"/"This sucks"
I'm tempted to register and ask them to elaborate on their opinions but I figure that there's probably no use in arguing with fanboys.

- Prince Of Darkness on September 4, 2009
Prince Of Darkness;579511 wrote: Just checked out this page. The response is wildly negative. No one seems to like it there. But that's ok, at least actual musicians seem to like it :D
And at least Frank, the original composer, liked it.

hey dude, those responses are far from wildly negative. :-)
kickass track still/

- OA on September 3, 2009
Inimitable;586641 wrote: Good sir, I have transformed your incredible track into something that even someone as musically retarded as I can perform:
Guitar/Bass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAo5IO7FP4E
Drums:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lamBW8Szw9c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lamBW8Szw9c
[/URL]
Luckily, I am not plastic-ally retarded as well. <3 Hell March.

Christ man. I love you. Can you read tabs? I can send you tabs of the parts for you to make the song more accurate. I would send you separated tracks but my laptop is out of commission right now.
EDIT: Turns out I already have separated tracks on an external Hard Drive.

- Prince Of Darkness on September 3, 2009
Good sir, I have transformed your incredible track into something that even someone as musically retarded as I can perform:
Guitar/Bass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAo5IO7FP4E
Drums:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lamBW8Szw9c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lamBW8Szw9c
[/URL]
Luckily, I am not plastic-ally retarded as well. <3 Hell March.

- Inimitable on September 3, 2009
Yeah I noticed the negative comments but the positive ones were great too :) Considering some people were saying it was better than the original, and that it should be patched into the actual game, I would be pretty flattered!
Anyway my opinion on it is still the same *thumbs up*

- abg on August 25, 2009