ReMix: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest 'Monkeys Disarm Their Kremlings'

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Donkey Kong Country 2: Serious Monkey BusinessDonkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Gratuitous warning for those who care: EXPLICIT lyrics!

I'll confess, I'm not a huge fan of "grunting man vocals" common to certain forms of metal; in general, I find the over-the-topness of them to cross the line from being evil/angry/angsty into simply being kind of... goofy. I guess I'm just not angry enough, or filled with enough rage, to relate to someone screaming or grunting - it's generally not something I look for in music... at least most of the time. I'm pretty open-minded, or at least like to think so, and I'm not gonna knock those are into it, it's just not my thing personally.

Now, all that being said, this track is actually a big exception for me because it DOES have a sense of humor, with lyrics that - quite frankly - border on genius. From the opening refrain of "BANANAS!" to lines like "He'll be the bait for my trap / let's see him try to fling his crap," Justin's pen coupled with Brandon's voice form a potent one-two combo of contextual primate poetry. To clarify, I'm not being sarcastic - the lyrics really are damn good, and I'm just really happy someone worked the word "potassium" into a metal song. More than once, even. Somehow, in a more comedic context, the whole aesthetic works much better for me, and I really dig the end result. Neko writes:

"<nathan explosion> for this remix i had to reach deep down into the black pit of my soul and puke forth the putridness that dwelled within. brutal. </nathan explosion> whomever gets the reference in the song title gets a free banana."

Brandon adds:

"I am a metalhead and I like metal. So I did metal vocals for this awesome metal song. I'm happy with how metal it turned out. METAL!"

How... metallic. Serious Monkey co-director Bahamut weighs in with some background:

"Justin went through a lot of revisions to get this track to its final incarnation for the album, but the final product is quite enjoyable, maintaining an aggressive angle throughout that is fitting for a final battle. Brandon's vocal contributions are also solid, fitting in line with aggression & growls enunciated well enough so that they can be understood clearly, a typical failing in many black/death metal songs out there. They both did a great job here with this death metal song."

It's pretty epic, and as Wes says, aggressive, but it works for me personally because of the humor & craft of the lyrics. Krool appears to be a fairly offensive misogynist, which is an interesting twist, but it's all cool since he gets what's coming to him in the end. This probably won't be everyone's cup of tea, even WITH the wordsmithing, but it's a vision, and a well-executed one in my opinion, serving as an excellent final battle before Mr. Wise, Mr. Kirkhope, and Mr. Beanland close out the album.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
For all the work poured into the track, I feel like this is well done - the vocals & lyrics help push it over the top. The lyrics in particular are amusing and even better, have clarity, a bit of a rarity for death metal growls. Justin and Brandon combined for a good team here, bringing some good music to the table to help round out Serious Monkey Business.

- Bahamut on July 4, 2012
I'm really surprised by how well this works. Normally I don't care for death metal because it's too formless and cacophonous. While the verses and bridge unfortunately fit the bill, the chorus and effing incredible outro more than make up for it. It also certainly helps that the lyrics are funny and (unlike most lyrics of the genre) largely intelligible.

- Hydrargyria on April 1, 2011
Of all the vocal songs on Serious Monkey Business (and man there were a lot of them) this is probably the most divisive. Admittedly I'm not a death metal fan but I'm not averse to the genre either so I tried to approach this with an open mind, keeping in mind the context from the game and the parody nature of the remix, and ultimately it was really enjoyable. Humorous if you're listening to the lyrics, but a pretty solid remix on its own. Production isn't as good as Neko's newer remixes but it's not without its charm. Everything was well-performed, particularly the vocals from Brandon :nicework: And personally, I actually liked the flute at the end - it was highly unexpected but a welcome changeup.
Not bad.

- Emunator on December 17, 2010
the lyrics of this song are fun as hell.
Thanks to the summary by DJP, all I could hear was Nathan Explosion doing this song. :wink:

- Elex Synn on November 15, 2010
I've been meaning to register here for awhile now and did just now to see if I could beat someone to "Goliaths Disarm Their Davids" thing, but I noticed there was definitely at least one person before me to post it.
Anyways, the song is totally awesome, hilariously hardcore, though much like prior critiques have commented I have to say that I don't understand the choice for the sendoff, which really does come out of nowhere. Incorporating a more recognizable DKC2 theme into the ending isn't completely out of left field, but the pause and the addition of the wind instrument just seem haphazard.
That said, I've been listening to this song off and on ever since Serious Monkey Business was released. Kongrats (see what I did there) on the top notch metal mayhem and truly epic lyrics!

- Superhacker75mil on October 30, 2010
Why would anyone hate this? It's brilliant.

- Holy Land on October 25, 2010
I thought the flute at the end kind of ruined the song. I know of metal bands that use celtic instruments and such in their music but this was straight up metal and not something like Eluveitie

- kwkurono on October 22, 2010
I was surprised by the lack of h8 towards the vocals here, but I appreciate it, folks. Then I looked on Youtube, where opinions are less biased. EGAD. What a thrashing. Hahaha. Anyway, it was an honor working on this and I look forward to ruining a lot more songs in the future.

- Brandon Strader on October 22, 2010
I knew the instant I decided to make a death metal spoof song with full death metal vocals that it would be an extremely divisive track, and it's proved to be just that. People either love it or they hate it (and those that hate it generally love the vocal-less version). That's why criticism against it doesn't really bother me, because it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
Hell, death metal isn't even my cup of tea. But branching out and trying new things is always good.

- Nekofrog on October 18, 2010
Pretty brutal. \m/

- OA on October 18, 2010
This is awesome. It deserves 2 horns up.
\m/ \m/
"We found out you can psychological validation." <- Dethklok learns that they can buy banana stickers
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxxQS5LJi9w&feature=related"][U]Banana Stickers[/U][/URL]

- Obtuse on October 17, 2010
I was amused to see Nekofrog channeling Nathan Explosion in the write-up, because this song reminded me of something from Dethklok's repertoire from the very first time I heard it. I'm not usually much of a fan of growly death-metal lyrics myself, but with comedic writing this good, how can you not love it? ("Yum yum yum, potassium!" has to be one of the best death metal lyrics ever penned.) The guitar work is fantastic, Brandon's singing is spot-on, and the whole song just screams epic boss fight madness. Very excellent stuff.

- Top Gun on October 16, 2010
I want to reiterate just how brilliant some of these lyrics are. I've seen a lot of criticism elsewhere for this song, but I don't they get just how clever it is as satire - mocking both death metal and video game villains. This song rocks. The flute in the end is the cherry on top, I'm not sure if it's meant to be another friendly jab at death metal, but it works.
BANANAS

- Geneson on October 16, 2010
When I first listened to the DKC2 album, I did not expect this song. :D It's clever, though, and I enjoy the humorous references to K. Rool's pathetic plans and failures. Explicit lyrics aren't my thing, but it's still a solid effort

- SubNormal J3 on October 15, 2010
Oh, here we go. I can't wait to see how many people lash out against either the metal or the vocals. Admittedly, I'm not a screamo/man-growl kind of guy, but with lyrics like this, based on a game I love, with a voice that sounds decent, this is an damn good exception. The guitar work is fantastic and it really has the rough, dirty, and frantically angry sound that a final battle should have. And to be fair, without the lyrics page, I could make out about 95% of the words to Brandon's "man-growls" more than regular metal singers, so good job for doing what I thought was impossible: Growling a song hard enough to be metal, yet light enough to be heard. DKC metal!

- Crulex on October 15, 2010