ReMix: Final Fantasy VII 'The Omen of Jenova'

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Final Fantasy VII

Mr. Nekofrog writes:

"I’ve never been the biggest fan of FF7, but I don’t outright hate it. I love its soundtrack and appreciate what it did for gaming, but otherwise I’m not a fanboy. Xenogears, however, I love everything about (okay, I lie, disc 2 sucks). One of the most inspirational soundtracks I’ve heard in forever. Initially this started out as simply a Jenova remix, but upon random jamming I found that it merged with “Omen” from Xenogears almost flawlessly, and ran with it. Unlike all of my previous submissions (save for the audix collab), this one fully features the extended range of the 7 string guitar; it employs the low B constantly, the high E, and everything in between."

Gotta love theme mashups, when done right, and you gotta know Mr. Jones is gonna do it right. We'll have quite a bit of Xenogears coming up shortly, so this can whet your appetite; heavy metal guit chugging, classic descending arpeggios, thrashing drums, and a lengthy, substantive arrangement that hits heavy but also backs away for some calmer moments here and there. It's metal, it's XG, it's FF7, and it's Nekofrog, so you've got a perfect storm. The intertwining of the two themes is completely natural, and the end result is a mix of both games that pays excellent homage to both classic soundtracks and their respective, legendary composers.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
When this started up, I was like "Oh here we go. Jenova done in metal. Already not the most inpsired of choices." But it actually really surprised me in what it brings to the table. In a lot of ways, this goes against the grain of my expectations and totally blasts the cliched rock/metal style implementation.
I really love the support of orchestral and electronic in with the main backbone of metal. It adds a lot, and makes it stand out among a growing crowd of mixes with only heavy guitar. Obviously, the arrangement reflects the strengths of the guitar work, and yet the exemplary support from the minor details and variation in sound are what make this mix.
Final Fantasy 7 is a game soundtrack that doesn't respond too well to overexposure, so I was surprised and more than delighted to hear the infused energy in this one. A really stellar heavy guitar showpiece with a fantastic arrangement to boot.

- Marmiduke on August 23, 2010
Ah, good ol JENOVA. Justin kicks into this one full force with very little intro, which I actually really enjoyed! As this is one source tune that I'm fairly familiar with, the opening section is very similar to the original, but hell if I mind. I really like it. This is something you'd hear from the Black Mages live at one of their concerts. It almost goes without saying at this point that the performance of the guitar is near flawless. I love the brief moments of orchestral percussion in there. I always have ear gasms when I hear orch in with metal. This is how Metallica would do FF7. The strings in the middle breakdown were a bit thin and could have been layered on top of one another to make them a little bigger. The idea was great, but the implementation just felt thin and a little out of place with the samples that were used. Being an orch guy, I'm pickier than most, and I have no problem admitting that :). However, those VERY minor gripes aside, Justin has really come a long way in the 1-2 years.

- tweek on August 9, 2010
Darn you, I seriuosly NEED more of this. HA

- Yugoslak on November 18, 2009
My style is pretty much unique.
At least, in this remix.

- Nekofrog on November 17, 2009
Can someone point me in the direction of more remixes similar to this? I love these metal/industrial styles, or whatever you wanna call it.
This one though, is one of the best remixes I've heard, and I've heard quite a few.

- Yugoslak on November 17, 2009
its remarkably well done! to me it would fit well when your manage to get to the crater and are fighting it

- jcbq on November 8, 2009
This is one of my favorite tracks from the game so this remix makes me happy. Very, very well done.

- Flare4War on October 26, 2009
As usual, Neko wastes no time and gets to the meat almost immediately, i.e. rocks out from the very beginning.
I used to have some issues with the sound of the guitar in Nekofrog's remixes, but in this one, at least for the most part, it sounds fine to me. The part starting at ~2:40 is the only one where the guitar grates on my nerves.

- Martin Penwald on October 25, 2009
Cool song, but I felt like there were some really cool stuff in there - I could swear there's timpanis in there - that are just swallowed up by the chunky distorted guitars. Bells, pianos, strings, acoustic guitars... they're a little hard to pick up. Now, I'd say that the chunky distorted guitars are essential to the mood, but they're too far in the foreground; they don't need to be brought so far forward for us to pick up on them, but the other stuff is more subtle, and could use some help in being made apparent. If that makes sense.

- Nobbynob Littlun on October 23, 2009
well duh
i only have about a bajillion things in the queue

- Nekofrog on October 20, 2009
Great mix :) . I love the Jenova theme and really enjoy your guitar work in this mix. Hopefully we will hear more from you!

- jintoreedwine on October 20, 2009
This was amazing.

- Scrap McNapps on October 19, 2009
This is AWESOME!

- yosefu on October 11, 2009
Tensei-San;600897 wrote: Why is this softer than the [URL="http://www.tindeck.com/listen/vreb"]WIP version that I did the drums for[/URL], yet it sounds way more compressed/squashed? Lern2production
(jk I <3 this)

Probably used multi-band compression? The guitar itself is also given plenty of space in the mix and has a 'soft' sound too, so that helps from the off...

- dariunas on October 8, 2009
Pretty much what I've come to expect from Neko - this doesn't break any new ground like his original work did for me, but it's still solid and highly enjoyable.
I agree with OA that a few transitions threw me off, especially the one near the beginning where everything except the muted guitar completely fell out - that would have been better if you boosted the guitar volume just a tad. The segment right before the end really felt like it was leading up to an insane solo and, unfortunately, this didn't deliver. All in all, though, this is still very enjoyable and a great take on a classic theme!

- Emunator on October 7, 2009