OCR01356 - Final Fantasy VI "Seized with Fury"

[Selgeron]

I've been waiting for a good guitar atma mix for a while, this one has made me happy.

[SnappleMan]

House my friend! It's about time you showed up on OCR.

Congrats on making it in here!

As for the song, I think it's scrumtralescent! Excellent fusion of styles and sounds. Your guitar playing is furious!

Many people here don't really realise how good this man really is. I mean, you hear the track, and you say "Man, that sounds alot like the original." we'll, the only reason alot of the other arrangements of this song sound different, is cuz the players can't play the original at full speed. There's some complicated shit here. house just makes it all look (and sound) completely natural.

As for beefs I got, I still say the rain soundeffects sound strange and make the back of my head feel funny.

I also think the rhythm guitar tone could have been crunchier. But aside from that, this is pure housethegrate. Every element gives off your style, from the way you play your leads (excellent, by the way), to the lightly processed dfh1...

I enjoy this daily, it's great!

Now let me go get a towel to clean all this shit off my nose.

[TromboneSamurai]

Hands down the BEST FF6 remix I've heard yet. The diversity in the peice's contour was really spectacular, and the pace is always driving. Really gets the adrenaline going. The bid hit at the beginning was sweet to hear, like plunging into a swimming pool. Very Phantom of the Opera-esque.

Hands down, my favorite part is when the accompaniment fades into the string picky-plucky thing...bah, what'dya call it? Picazzano? (<<Brass Player) Whatever it's called, it totally rocked.

I, for one, welcome our electric guitar orchestral overlords.

Only thing I somewhat didn't like was the tone of the guitar in some parts; seemed a little thin. But other than that, swell!

[Raz Takasha]

Hmm.. Very powerful, to say the least. I definitely give credit to the mixer, and I can't wait to see some more of your work.

As for the mix itself. I won't get all technical on you, but the overall feel is just a rush! I love every second of it. Strong guitar with moving orchestral backdrop. Pump me out some Chrono Trigger like this if you would I couldn't find too much wrong with this mix, so we'll leave it at that. Excellent performance!

[A-RoN]

If Nobou decided to ask someone to sup up the Decisive Battle Themes, this right here is exactly what it would sound like.

10/10 hands down, pressed, and shaken together!

[Eshu Wolf]

FF6 has long been one of my favorite musical sources, and this mix is, in my opinion, fantastic.

Actually, I really enjoy the more receded parts. It gives the impression of two opponents circling one another, or throwing some "Your mom" jokes back and forth.

As if the Decissive Battle weren't enough....Atma.

Big thumbs up on this one.

[Fyrewave]

I was ready to crap myself at how quickly it went from "okay cover" to "holy shit, this is awesome."

This song will melt speakers in my Freightliner for many weeks. Well done!

This is exactly the kind of mix I love too, the multi theme, guitar lead, dancable, FF track. Good for keeping awake =^,^=

[quoda]

I love it. It starts out as this great metal take on the theme and then mellows way down and rebuilds. I love the building back up from that 1:30ish point up to 2:50 when the main melody starts to come back in and then it's like the whole piece jumps right back out at you. The whole changing from "The Decisive Battle" to the wicked ferocity of "The Fierce Battle" is awesome. Need to go put this on the MP3 player.

[Nobbynob Littlun]

Creepy intro with that rattling, and then RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (triangle tinging) I couldn't ask for a better intro.

The first section, what I think makes it really snazzy, is that it sounds much like something you'd find on The Black Mages album.

The next section has a really sweet bassline that complements the string ensembles perfectly (around 1'55).

And the next section, around 3'00 or so, reminds me much of Tragic Prince from the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night soundtrack because of the way the guitar is not a seperate entity from the rest of the instruments, but an integral part of the symphony.

I REALLY like the bit towards the end, with acoustic guitar and pizzicato strings. I have a suggestion for this part. When it leads into the next part and you've got the cymbals at 5'13, perhaps try using tambourines in tandem with (or in some cases in place of) the cymbals. I recommend this because for some reason my mind expected them to be there, perhaps because it would work well!

[Rexy]

I've been meaning to see this sooner

But yeah, it's great to see that House has been able to adapt to the site with what he has done here. Personally I didn't see it to be that conservative, although given the course of the mix I understand where the judges are coming from.

But yeah, I was still able to enjoy this, and it's good to see him came forth with his debut. I might as well quote in the review I wrote for it at VGMix for a more detailed emphasis.

Production techniques

This incarnation is shown to be an orchestrated/rock crossbreed mix - often is something that the listener would associate with virt, but House has managed to come through and pull the effort off in a tense curveball to his usual laid-back contributions. Panning has been well emphasized through the space of the orchestration and SFX, as well as the noted drum textures to match on top of it. As is expected the samples are of a strong processing quality, and with elements of sustain, compression and some strong EQ work to match, the audience is in for a very sharp provision when it comes to the overall sound quality. Much of the sound levels are very brash and well balanced for what they are, easily aiding towards the feel of the source material itself; if there's something I ended up noting it’ll be that the kicks were shown to be that sharp they almost seemed to sound like they're clipping (most noted from 2:11). So naturally speaking, they could have been softened by a very, very slight notch. But as a whole I found this to be an enjoyable setting to be able to take on cue and - this may be my honest opinion speaking this - one of House's best yet.

Compositional structure

The track started off with some rainstorm effects, where if you listen closely you'd also recognize a faint honky-tonk piano providing the Haunted Train music within it. It wasn't long until a few moments of suspense-based background noise soon roped the listener through to a brash interpretation of the theme at 0:17 - complete with the full instrument textures as shown throughout here. This has managed to show the brash and majestic intensions he has gone for with the crossbreed connections of genre. There's barely much I could find to fault in the intro aside from some light areas of dynamics to spread upon the guitar, but other than that this is a very, VERY powerful intro.

1:24 then brought the listener into a climatic orchestrated fill, all before bringing the moods down for a steady creative build at 1:33. I don't know what House meant when he said there were no guitar solos, but I thought the original provisions here have made this particular area count. Throughout, the instruments were shown to be of a strong energetic quality as time has managed to draw on, although given the light volume problems with the kicks (as stated in the production techniques paragraph) this could make this a bit difficult to take down in its technical nature. But hopefully, the audience shouldn't take it as too much of a hindrance.

Then there came a light and quieter proportion of the theme at 2:50, which in turn develops into full focus by the 3 minute mark. The creative tendencies for the accompaniment progressions have managed to roll on and continue to develop the enthusiastic motions of the piece throughout that moment in time, in a very powerful sense at that moment in time. While I was hoping for some further time for this area to develop and flesh out, the moods as shown on the previous section and the next have easily made up for it.

And it's then at 3:40 that the mix breaks into a rendition of "The Fierce Battle", also from the same game. I found that to be a surprise link given what has been shown with the lead straight into the section via the tempo dip and rise once more. But it's within the basic structures of this area that I felt the orchestrated arranging was where the piece's complex scoring really managed to come into its own, even with the steady-then-softening lead-out at the end of this proportion. There were some instances that I was hoping for some broader scopes on the theme, but it has still worked well to maintain a high level of interest throughout.

And then by 4:50 the listener is brought into an interesting plucked string and light acoustic guitar combination - definitely a bubbly experience and an interesting way to integrate the theme through via a thoughtful and almost tense proportion. The melody is then continued on from 5:16 onwards - not much variance on the source material though, but the fleshed out dynamics and creative arrangement within the orchestrated sets by 5:40 have easily done well to broaden out from it. That speaking, the closing segments - and the following rainstorm sounds once more - have easily worked out to create a very climatic end for the audience to be able to take on cue. So as a whole, I have been amazed by what has been gestured here.

Long story short, out of all the mixes I've heard from House I found this to be one of his better ones. In fact the one thing that irked me more than anything were some qualms relating to light drum imbalance, but that can be looked away from easily.

So yeah, this is very powerful stuff from House, and it'll be interesting to see him keeping on contributing towards the site in the future!

[Zipp]

Friggin awesome. As in, I am in awe of how awe insprining awesome this piece is. Honestly, I can't praise this enough. It's got everything a listener could desire, even switching genres (cleanly, I might add) during the piece several times. This is what a remix is all about. Pure briliance from a guy who's name is housethegrate (does that even make sense?), which makes it all the more brilliant. Any song I listen to fifteen times in a row gets special points, extra notice, and another cookie.

Oh and that piece in the begining, that's the Phantom Train, no? Yeah, you even put another song in here. House, I love you, let's go to Alabama and get married.

I'm not sure what the above sentence means, but it just goes to show how much your brilliant song has messed my shit up.

~Zipp

[Solin]

To: housethegrate

Thank you.

[TaintMasterMitch]

This song makes me want to head bang so hard. Wow wow wow wow! This is one of the best remixes I've ever heard. Keeps the material recognizable, but holy shit, man. So sweet I can't even believe it.

[Epic1044]

This piece has great personality, and you can thank the excellent solo guitar work for that. The percussion is also very professionally done. Sometimes those beats sound like an afterthought to the "real" music, but every high-hat note seems chosen with care here.

And I love the Vampire Killer easter egg.

[Vexxon]

Great song, great song. The theme of desisive battle is heaven, and this remix brings out its true character. Looking forward to more from housethegrate.

[Kyoshin]

This remix is great. The first time I heard it was a few days ago on my birthday (6-12-05). After hearing it, I couldn't believe I hadn't heard it before or found it sooner. Another great remix from house. Keep up the good work.

[Blacksword]

This is an amazing remix, one of the best ive heard in a while. The Decicive Battle from FF6 is my favorate "boss" music of any RPG ive played to date, and this is an awesome variation on it.

Excellent job on this. I hope to ehar more from you soon!

[Atomos]

The remix makes me want to brandish a huge sword and fight a large fire/ice/acid breathing monstrosity for a crapload of EXP and GP.

Seriously though, the source material was incredible to begin with. To one-up it is extraordinary.

Keep up the good work man!

[GerBear]

Wonderful, I've been waiting forever for somebody to remix this song. It was stuck in my head when I bought the game on release day, and it just never left. Also, the Vampire Killer riff thrown in there is great. The guitars in that section were castlevania-esque to start with.. I started humming Vampire Killer in my head, and then you went and really did it Also, the roar at the beginning.. and that weird rattling sound brings to mind the battle in Umaro's den, the bones on the floor jittering around as he stomps in to deal with intruders.

Just great =)

[Dunnowhathuh]

I honestly have no idea how I managed to miss this mix on the main page. I usually download Final Fantasy mixes on impulse. Only knew about it when I was listening to VGDJ this morning. This piece has been done really well. The change from the Decisive Battle and the Fierce Battle themes is done quite nicely and it's all put together really well. housethegrate, good job man.

[Lord_Syruss_Khalai]

Hmmm....

I've been listening to this song for a while now, and it's beyond me as to how I've missed commenting on it's greatness.

I may be the only one who feels this was, but as an avid listener to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I felt that this song really reminded me of their style. Just the way it was put together, with guitar, and then parts that seems more orchestral. But they went together well, since the orchestral was always heavy, very strong, so, while you do notice that it's accompanied my a metal guitar sound, it doesn't strike you as out of place in any way. Also, the way it ended strongly reminded me of TSO's style for ending music (or in some cases when they are just going to change tempo).

Excellent job. I'm always up for music like this. 10 out of 10.

~Lord Syruss Khalai

[Bummer]

This is definitly my favorite rockremix on this site.

It got calm beginning, followed by a jamming guitarsolo and then follows by a more calm moment. Then the cycle repeats a two times more, but it´s still totally awesome. Chosing the boss music for a rockremix was a great idea, and how the guitar builds up before they unleashes in a trembling guitarsolo, now that´s pure Rock and Roll. And let´s not forget the monster that was happy to participate with his(or hers) roar in the beginning.

Thank you all, but mostly the remixer.

You really are housethegrate.

[Red_Raven]

This is my first comment on these forums since I started viewing this site 4 years ago. Hell, I actually registered just to make this post. I have not played FF6, and yet I love this piece more than all other that I have downloaded (everything from Toejam and Earl through to Castlevania:SOTN.) It conjures up images in my mind of a desperate final battle between a character and a not quite defeated antagonist with whom the character must fight to give their legend closure. Fantastic work, thankyou.

Red Raven.

[Terium]

One of the better mixes on this site, easily.

Certainly nice work here. Lots of emotion, and lots of musicality. They have a heck load of overall talent and an ear for good music.

Thoroughly impressed with this one.

[SakakiAzu]

My god... Absolutely amazing... One of the best ever I've heard.... I like the.. everything.

11/10

EDIT: Ok after hearing a few mundred more times.....

THIS THE ABSOLUTELY BEST!!!!!!! I can listen to it I don't know how many times in a row, but I'm pushing 450 now....... Arrgh.... Its is absolutely amazing.......