*NO* Hades "No Chains Remain"

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Artist Name: moebius

Credits:

Euridice (Vocals): Azmodea (no profile yet)

Orpheus (Vocals): metamoogle (https://ocremix.org/artist/18634/metamoogle)

Drums: Moebius/paradiddlesjosh (https://ocremix.org/artist/18711/paradiddlesjosh)

Mastering: Cyril the Wolf (https://ocremix.org/artist/5473/cyril-the-wolf)

I wanted to give “Good Riddance” a metal twist, so I reharmed the whole thing and basically kept only the sung melodies. I also slipped the title track “No Escape” in as a short intro to lead into the song.

Structurally I added a second chorus between verse 1 and 2, and dropped a solo in before the final verse. Once the arrangement was nailed down I brought in two awesome singers who totally delivered.

Big shoutout to paradiddlesjosh — he helped me sort all the drum kinks and his input was huge, so I gave him co-credits on drums. And Cyril got the mix into mastering shape and absolutely crushed the final master.

Technical Notes:

Guitars (all Shreddage 3.5):

Lead - Serpent

Rhythm L/R - Jupiter / Hydra

Dreamy chords - Archtop

Bass - Abyss

All guitars went through Guitar Rig 7

Drums (all Ugritone):

Kick - FLD Prestige Pearl Session 22 open

Snare - AR Ludwig Supraphonic

Rest of Kit - Ugritone Manik Mercinary House Pearl

Other VSTs:

Scarbee Clavinet

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Games & Sources

Hades - No Escape (only in the Intro)

Hades - Good Riddance

Edited 2 hours ago by Hemophiliac

[prophetik music ⚖️]

opens with a big, heavy approach to No Escape. the lead guitar sounds really not real in this opening section.

verse transition is very sudden, right off the riff in No Escape. vocals come in right away. drums are really slamming, the snare especially sounds huge and meaty which doesn't really fit the backing elements. the mix is a little unbalanced here as well in that it's tough to tell which vocalist is the melody line (it's supposed to be the higher of the two parts, originally Ashley Barrett's voice). the backing elements are not easy to grab onto either - the guitar chords sound like they're on autowah, and the pitches are hard to grok - this is exacerbated by the reharmonization of the chords under it, which don't sound like they support the vocal lines much at all. lastly, the bass line is just arpeggios, which doesn't really provide any basis under the vocalists. i don't think i'm a huge fan of this verse's layout or execution.

the chorus feels more rooted, both because of the less-effected rhythm guitar parts and because the bass is sitting on notes instead of riffing. azmodea's voice is more in front here as well which helps. there's a few pitchy notes in here in the vocal lines. i felt that the changed chords at 1:37 don't do much to support the vocal lines again.

second verse is more rhythmic in the backing elements, which is a good choice to mix it up. drums are still really slamming - no dynamics. around here you really start to notice the lack of space between verses and choruses - a few bars of space after the chorus would have really allowed for some room for the mix to breathe. as it is, we're two plus minutes of constant singing into the track, and it's noticeable. a few of the cutoffs (like at 2:16) aren't in time, which also makes it hard to track the melody line.

2:30 brings back the autowah guitar - i really don't care for that, i think it's just clogging up the background without adding anything. the second chorus is straightforward beyond that and what we'd expect given the previous chorus. there's a solo break at 3:00 that is pretty clearly not a live instrument but is tbh pretty creative in approach - i just think that some more attention could be paid to the pick/hammer-on setting for the attacks of the notes on some of the runs.

there's The Big Chorus after this, starting at 3:47. sounds like double kick, and the background is just staticky mess with all of what's going on back there. the vocalists sound like they're set on top of the background instead of being part of the backing elements. this section is a dealbreaker even without the issues in the other areas - it sounds pretty rough. there's one last sustained note, and the track is done.

i really like the concept here. i'd say that Good Riddance as it is originally is one of my least favorite tracks on the Hades soundtrack, specifically because there's never any breaks in it and it kind of just meanders. reharmonizing it to reinforce the beautiful melody line (when it isn't wandering) is a great idea, and metal fits the genre of the game very well also.

i'd say that the execution is lacking here, however, in a few major places.

• the first would be energy management - you've got constant singing for 2.5 minutes without breaks, you've got the drums going HAM in the middle of a verse where the singers are down low, you've got little dynamics throughout from a macro point of view. giving the track some room to breathe via more intentional, notable dynamics and a break after the first chorus (even 8 bars) would be a huge positive. 
• the reharmonization of the verse especially does not do a lot to support the vocalists. several of the new chords don't actually fit the existing vocal harmonies, and it doesn't sound like the lower vocal line was updated to help with that. separately, especially with the wah guitar and the bass guitar in the first verse, the backing elements don't really clearly delineate the chords being played, so it's hard to map the vocal lines to what's going on underneath them. pads, keys, or more intentionally picked/arpeggiated guitar parts can help with this, so that there's not octaves between a very fast arp in the bass and singers in the middle of their range.
• overall, the track has a big peak at ~100hz regardless of where you look, and you can hear it it - there's a big, oofy feel to a lot of the mix without the foundation in the 30-40hz range i'd expect from metal. i can hardly hear the kick most of the time, and i think that the vocals could really use a lift around their formants (traditionally around 2.5khz for male/3khz for female voices) to help them stick out of the mix better. getting the kick to have less mud and more distinct beater tone will help as well, as will some more intentional EQ on the guitars.

that's a lot of notes! i think this track definitely has legs, and just isn't there yet (similar to when i played the game for my first fifty runs or so). so chasing some of these elements down and addressing them should help craft a more complete whole when it's all said and done.

 

 

NO

[Chimpazilla ⚖️]

I am reading along with proph's vote as I listen through this, and he has nailed it on all counts.  I agree with everything he said but I'll add a few additional thoughts:

The mixing is a mess.  The elements do not sound cohesive, they feel like they are all playing in a separate room from each other.  The balances are off, the vocal is way too loud and up-front, and the drums (even while going absolutely HAM) are mixed too quietly and in-the-back.  There's too much going on with the drums for too much of the time, and there are too many elements/instruments playing at any given time, and what they are playing is usually too busy (the bassline doing arps is a prime example, it's just busy-writing and not foundational when it does that.  The arps are fine, but maybe have a synth doing that, while the bass plays longer, foundational notes).

I love the concept here!  But the mix is just exhausting.  I suggest revisiting this element by element, making sure that everything playing at any given time can be fully heard, and that is going to mean removing some elements from each section, really deciding what you want to hear in each section, give things their time to shine without having to compete (in frequency, soundscape placement and volume), then move on to something else with the same approach.  When you've pared the soundscape down somewhat, use EQ to make sure the instruments aren't stepping on each other's toes, and maybe even widen some things and narrow others, so the whole soundscape is used effectively.  And some of the writing needs to be simplified, the bass and drums most especially.  Having one drumless or very calm breakdown section somewhere in the middle will also help greatly in managing the energy going on in this arrangement.

That solo is wicked good!  I really like that part, even if a faux geetar is used, it sounds excellent.  The concept here is strong and fun, just needs some more mixing and arrangement TLC.

NO

[Hemophiliac ⚖️]

Prophetik did an incredible job articulating the issues on this. So I won't rehash the same points I had as well. I agree with him.

I have to start out by mentioning that I liked the idea of doing a reharmonization. I especially like the changes for the chorus, the bass motion (the walk-up) in particular really works for me. However, the chord choices themselves don't really seem to work and fully support what's going on melodically in the voices.

Solo was creative but needs work on the rigidity of the sequencing to feel more human. It feels fake in performance, but the tone could be considered to be more convincing and real sounding.

When the final chorus starts we get a huge step up in terms of energy in the drums. While I agree this is the right time to step up the energy, the blasting of the kick is not working for me here, and I think that's purely a mixing/production issue (not part writing). The drums are much too loud and forward in the mix here.

The production on this is very messy and does need to be addressed. The parts don't sound like they're in the same room with each other, and the vocalists sound unsupported. Their performances sound ok, but just don't sit in the mix with everything else. When all of the parts are playing together they're fighting with each other for space rather than working together to create a single whole. Decide what should be foreground, middle-ground, and background and use the mix to inform the listener what we should be focusing on.

Some good ideas here, but the execution of the mix and sequencing did not work out.

NO