ReMix: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 'Hell March to the Apocalypse'
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- Game: Command & Conquer: Red Alert (Westwood, 1996, WIN)
- ReMixer(s): Prince of Darkness
- Composer(s): Frank Klepacki
- Song(s): 'Hell March'
- Posted: 2009-07-29, evaluated by the judges
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.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the 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
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
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
Anyway my opinion on it is still the same *thumbs up*
- abg on August 25, 2009
abg;577897 wrote: This remix kicks ass! Just thought I'd let you know that some people started a thread about it at the official Red Alert message boards: http://forums.commandandconquer.com/jforum/posts/list/19742.page
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.
- Prince Of Darkness on August 14, 2009
Throughout the whole mix, however, there is a lot of variation and a whole bunch of original ideas, so my initial assessment of the remix was not really fair. All in all, it's a really nice and powerful remix.
- Martin Penwald on August 13, 2009
- BorgMan on August 11, 2009
- abg on August 9, 2009
- Gario on August 9, 2009
Good tone and playing, and tasteful orchestra, this is a track so good that even the incomprehensible vocal clip can't bring it down.
One of the best rock tracks i've heard on the site in awhile.
- OA on August 9, 2009
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