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OCR02110 - Donkey Kong Country 2 "Monkeys Disarm Their Kremlings"


djpretzel
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Ah I remember this when it was just a wittle baby WIP. Turned out better than I had hoped. One of this things that's so much fun about Nekofrog is that although he is quite the skilled metal musician, he has a sense of humor about it really separates him from the pack and makes his material all the more enjoyable.

I'm not normally into the grunty vocals myself, but I have to admit they were well done. Normally my biggest grievence with them is that you can't understand the words underneath the growling. That is not an issue here whatsoever.

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Okay, seriously OCR. What is going on here?

I can understand wanting to give a project as much exposure as possible, and DKC2 was pretty awesome, but does every third or fourth mix posted have to be from this project? I'm so tired of looking for new music and just getting recycled project mixes. This is worse than when VOTL came out. Or at least feels worse.

Okay, rant over. This mix isn't bad, but it's not really that standout. The lyrics really do kill it for me, they hardly ever work against the backdrop of neko's killer guitar work. I much prefer the vocal-less bonus track from the album to this, and that makes me sad, for how much I make a point of going for mixes that include vocals.

It wasn't a problem with the vocals themselves, they just didn't mesh nicely. It felt like there was a completed track with guitar and such done, and then someone went and pasted over top of it. Regardless if that is what actually happened or not, I would want collabs to feel like an actual collab, not just a [New Mix+].

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Okay, seriously OCR. What is going on here?

I can understand wanting to give a project as much exposure as possible, and DKC2 was pretty awesome, but does every third or fourth mix posted have to be from this project? I'm so tired of looking for new music and just getting recycled project mixes. This is worse than when VOTL came out. Or at least feels worse.

They were submitted by the artists and are being posted in chronological order. I can sort of see where you're coming from, but in my opinion it would be pretty damn unfair if we didn't allow project mixes to be submitted or evaluated them differently from other mixes, no?

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They were submitted by the artists and are being posted in chronological order. I can sort of see where you're coming from, but in my opinion it would be pretty damn unfair if we didn't allow project mixes to be submitted or evaluated them differently from other mixes, no?

Oh, I totally agree that having project mixes fall under a double standard would be incredibly rough and tumble, but maybe there is a better way of doing it? Maybe, stock them up and have mini-floods? Sort of a "We interrupt our regular mix posting cycle to give you MORE AWESOME MUSIC from this project which TOTALLY ROCKS." Because, really, that's what's sort of happening now, but it just feels like a bit of a cheat when I am looking to find new artists, genres, and game soundtracks to groove to and it feels like 1/4 (I didn't do the actual math) of the front page is from a project that gets repeatated quite often on my iPod.

*Edit* Also, not to sandbag, but I notice that the recently posted DKC2 mixes that are from the project aren't getting much in the way of comments. Maybe I'm not the only one that feels this way, but that's a bit of a disservice to the artists. All I'm saying, is there might be a better way. That's a different topic altogether, sorry for going offtopic in this thread.

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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!

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

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.

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  • 3 months later...

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.

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  • 1 year later...

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.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...
  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR02110 - Donkey Kong Country 2 "Monkeys Disarm Their Kremlings"

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