Emunator Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 Hello OCRemix, After my last submission getting approved (A Scent of Lavender), I decided to submit another song from my album, because reading about the judge's opinion was really interesting for me. I think I'll submit my other songs as well (in two weeks, that's the rule !). Contact Information ReMixer name : Black SeeD Email : Website : https://blackseedbm.bandcamp.com/releases Userid : 37884 Submission Information Game arranged : Final Fantasy 9 Name of arrangement : Terranian Faith Song arranged : Pandemonium, The Castle Frozen In Time and Master Of Time/Garland's Theme Comments : Hello again everyone ! This is the first track of my album of remixed video game tracks in an atmospheric black metal way (you can find the whole album here : Black SeeD - Farplane of Memories (2021)). The goal of this track and the album in general was to work with songs on which I felt that I could emphasize melancholic themes with my favorite music genre. This time, my goal was to play around with the theme and the chords without giving in the full melody until the end, to enjoy it more when it's finally closing, while avoiding frustration by moving around the arrangement.I also threw in the Janitor of Time (this track has so many name) as a kind of bridge, again putting off the closing of the melody. As this song was first thought of as an album intro, the intro takes its sweet time before blasting, but I feel it makes sense for this song. In my album I simply named it Pandemonium, as it's the first song, giving the album theme. For the submission, I've named it "Terranian faith" I hope you'll like it ! Thanks a lot ! Black SeeD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 3, 2023 Author Share Posted February 3, 2023 This was going to be a direct post candidate from me, but I know that the black metal production during the heavy parts could be contentious and it's a very long arrangement, so I'm paneling for second opinions. Will vote on this myself later with a more critical ear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 two similar sources. intro with pads and guitars is nice. the chords have a lot of complexity and passing tones naturally, so it's nice hearing the dissonances highlighted. the arpeggiated guitar parts starting at 0:54 are nice also, continuing to outline the chord structure from the original. the use of pads with a vocal component is also nice since it reflects the organ in the original (and the overall Renaissance music concepts shown throughout the game). at about 2 minutes in, i still have only really heard the melodic content once, which is great patience. the first big hit at 2:17 is just as fulfilling as expected. it's very heavy down low, as expected from the style, with a big push on the the 100-200hz band which is probably why it feels a little more oppressive than i'd expect. the kick especially is extra boomy, sounds like there's more verb on the entire kit than you may want given the technicality of what the kit's doing. as one does, we get like a minute straight of blastbeat under the lead guitars playing melodic content. there's a break at 3:41 for some arpeggiated lead parts. this builds back up to 'just' 16th-note double kick but ultimately does start to scale back into a break that lasts until the 5 minute mark - again, impressive patience with the arrangement. the break at 4:35 has a real post-rock feel to it. at 5:01, we get Garland's theme coming in and the unique chord progression that is that track's hallmark at 5:20. this bangs its way through the chord structure a few times at varying levels of intensity before another break at about 6:24. the instrumentation here is a clear callback to the second minute of the piece, and is a good setup for the last ~1:30 which is intense in parts even considering the rest of the track. there's a real post-rock vibe here especially at about 7:20, with the lead guitar's tone sounding like it's doubled by the earlier synth lead. i didn't find the overall mastering to be problematic. honestly, i thought this did a great job keeping melodic material clear and able to be recognized, and didn't have the drums so overwhelming that it took over the soundscape. it's certainly noisy and low-mid dominant but not enough for me to vote against it. i notably didn't feel fatigued at the end of 8 minutes of track, of which probably five are audio sausage, so that's pretty impressive all told. i think that you absolutely achieved your goal here. you wanted a melancholy, broody, intense track, and you accomplished that. nice work. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted April 3, 2023 Share Posted April 3, 2023 Really nice melancholic black metal here. A really long arrangement, but it's not even remotely repetitive. Mixing blastbeat (thanks for the vocab word, proph) is extremely difficult; I don't care for it at baseline, but this is done as well as it reasonably can be. The rest of it is mastered better than most black metal. Since it's so long, timestamping source material is tricky, but subjectively it seems like there's enough. Really strong work here overall. I wouldn't have objected to this being a DP. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSim Posted May 23, 2023 Share Posted May 23, 2023 While black metal isn't my thing, I do appreciate the work here. In fact, if it weren't for the (almost comically) intense bass drumming, I'd enjoy this one a lot more. The long intro really teases - we get some lovely acoustic guitar with melancholic pads and beautiful chords, and there's a nice bell synth in there as well to augment the melody. The hit and few notes at 2:17 briefly brought to mind "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", but then all thoughts of that slow rock jam were obliterated at 2:45 when the blasting begins! Mixing is excellent throughout, even during those hard bass drum workouts. Ankles of steel right there. The feel of the track overall is melancholic, urgent, and desperate. It's a pretty intense listen, and at over 8 minutes long, it does require being in the mood for it. If you are, though, you're gonna love it. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted May 24, 2023 Share Posted May 24, 2023 Some quick source usage timestamping for myself showed me the source tune was in play for well over half the duration of the arrangement, so we're in business there. 2:44-3:39 & 3:53-4:07 was just a bunch of noise; the machine gun drums steamrolled all of the other parts, and nearly everything sounded distant and lossy. Even from 4:07-4:27 without the busy drums, the guitar chugs just created white noise until 4:34. 5:22-6:23 was crowded as well, but tolerable. The soundscape at 6:23 for a brief time was a nice exception, and most of the final few minutes was a lot less difficult to distinguish the various parts. Maybe the wall of noise is supposed to make the semi-wall of noise stuff sound better by comparison. 2:44-3:39 & 3:53-4:07 were dealbreakers for me; it's just too much when it comes to mixing that hampers the track, intentional or not. I appreciate the track otherwise, even if the mixing hinders the listening experience for too long. If it could be adjusted, great. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted July 26, 2023 Author Share Posted July 26, 2023 As expected, Larry is a hater and this track is gorgeous. The macro dynamics across the entire arrangement are incredible, and the blastbeat sections are well sequenced and appropriately massive. The clean sections provide some much-needed contrast. This all sounds exactly like it should for the genre. I think there's an element of this that feels a little less organic than I would like because everything is presumably sequenced, so the drums don't quite have the organic variation in timing that you'd get from a live performer, but it's certainly above my personal bar. YES (quit hating, Larry!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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