Fieari

This song is amazingly beautiful. It's haunting, creepy, emotive, and very effective. The dissonance works as well as the harmony. I can picture something like Boondock Saints set to this, easily. Chilling and sad. I've listened to this piece a dozen times so far, and it gets better every time, and I liked it to start with. Just listen to the difference tones made by the different voices. Hear how rhythms are created with only the voice. The high pitched piano tones merely emphasize the etherealness of it all. The different voices, though all made by the same man, each have a distinct and specific personality to them, and this comes out in the song. Different flavors and varieties of mourning, from wailing agony to simple low-key despair. It groans with feeling. This is awesome.

<sarcasm>OMG!DIS ROCX0RZ 2MCH 2BEEN MAED bY A GRL!!!111eleven!!oneone!!!!</sarcasm> Well, aside from the bit of thirteen-thirty seven, at least the first part of that sentence is true. This really does rock hardcore. REALLY rocks. The guitar work is brilliant. All the transitions were PERFECT. The genre mixup in the middle was particularly fine. The drums, an instrument I'm admittably not a fan of due to the "wall of sound" effect they usually provide, drowning out the actual song (which I usually feel should be able to be rythmic on the merits of the main instruments alone)... they worked to heighten the overall effect. The riffs were beautiful. There's no other way to put it. Just... just gorgeous. Hammering some of those sections out worked incredibly well. The use of pauses worked perfectly for dramatic effect. The more "tender moments" of solos were framed by rage in a perfect manner. The bass combined with the treble in a way very pleasing to the ears. There are parts of this song that make me just want to get up and dance. The FF7 battle theme feels EPIC when you put it in. Rocking out from start to finish. What more could I ask for? That long prolonged note right before blasting into the victory theme? Niiiiiice. And then the victory theme itself? Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. I don't like medleys normally... but this isn't a medley (other than in the technical sense). It's a coherant song with twists, turns, surprises, reprises, and five thousand pounds of awesome.

After reading the write up, I was expecting something a LOT more close to the original tracks; expecting something nearly note for note, for instance. This definitely isn't that. There's a lot of playing around with pauses, rhythms... there's some replaced notes here and there, and of course the harmony is a lot more indepth than the original, with quite a bit of ornementation. A couple of the transitions were a little jarring to me, but mostly everything flowed. Pretty cool. I definitely enjoyed this... a little past the five minute mark, the musical rendition of the death sound was particularly interesting. I wouldn't have thought you could make that sound effect sound so good. Not generally a rock listener here, so I can't really compare it to the genre, but over all, I give this a thumbs up. Not two thumbs up... it does start sounding a little homogenous after a while, and of course, I'm not really a medly fan either, but a solid thumbs up anyway.

I've definitely been a Pixietricks fan ever since "Prayer". A fantastic voice that just fits with the music so well... It does have an etherial feeling to it. I can definitely see the "backstory" to this song clearly in my head. The idea of it being a call and responce is very wistful. Really, the vocals make this piece. Loving it, loving it!

This is one of the better renditions of Gerudo Valley I've heard, right up there with djpretz's version. There's just something about guitars that fit with this theme, although the full string section version I have (not sure who it's by) also works wonderfully. But enough of that. About this peice. It does have a bit of a carefree feeling, and I think the xylophone-sounding thingy at the beginning convey a hint of a creepy childishness that is emphasized a bit by the synnthstrings that follow. I like the staccattoness of this section, it's an interesting take on the intro to the melody. The instrument choices are very interesting throughout the work. The calmer sections are some of my favorite bits. The high-strung acoustic gives a very nice western feel, and the percussion instrument that sounds like someone scraping a plastic comb fits right into the picture in a surprisingly good way, making the main motif sound like it's a continuation of that percussion, except somehow with tone and life. I like this a lot. It can be hard covering a track that has been done so often, but when you have a breath of fresh air to add to the mix as you clearly do here, it's definitely worth it. Good job. Good job.

Dude. This rocks. I love overly dramatic peices like this. It does begin very much like a sunrise. And I can catch the similarity to Requium in the background at least. I don't think there are any dynamic issues... it starts soft and then builds, exactly like it was meant to do. And while later on the volume might technically be stagnant, it doesn't sound stagnant, since all the build up emphasizes things in your mind later on without needing to, proverbially, "Go to 11". And as djpretz mentions, then everything backs down again. So yeah, there's definitely dynamics going on around here. And wooeee... good stuff!

This is perfect, exactly what the original wanted to be. What more can be said about it than that? I mean, it has the SEEEEGAAAAAA at the beginning for crying out loud! Beautiful man, just beautiful.

I may or may not have reviewed this piece before, but I need to come back and do it again. I have been listening to this a LOT recently. The segment at 4:24... brilliance. Mixing the two patterns together like that, each instrument REALLY repeating without changing anything, and yet on each repeat there's a different emphasis due to the way they layer and combine... Brilliant. I wish I heard that kind of pattern used more often. It's so neat!

Totally sweet. I'm really digging this. The abrupt jarring transitions really work well. This is a song that has some real POWER behind those chords. Too many guitar mixes that try to rock just don't rock hard enough. This rocks hard. Parts of it are definitely Air Guitar worthy. Woo! The softer piano section was cool, and the perfect break in the middle of all that rocking hard. I too would love a mix just of that, but whatver. It works here. I must say that you've given me the most frightening rendition of "Where Angels Fear to Tread" I've ever heard. And I mean that in a good way! It's simultaneously soft, gentle, and REALLY CREEPY! Good work there, kudos. I'm not sure it was the best place to end the mix though. I always like music that comes full circle, starting and ending on the same note or theme or key or whatever. To do otherwise makes it hang there in the air, uncomfortably. But then, that too is a mood to convey, a feeling that is worthwhile to put into music, and I think that here it was deliberate. Ballsy of you, but it was pulled off. That last note is definitely going to echo in my ears for a while... Neat mix. Very neat. I like.

Groovy. Funky. Awesome. I couldn't help but groove in my chair as I'm listening to this. So catchy! Infective rhythm. Grinding synths that just add to the whole texture of the thing. Totally sweet. All the motifs work together so well! This is a composition of wonder. I'm digging this so hard... love it love it love it!

This might actually qualify as more sleepy than the original source, but that's okay, I think. I think it fits the ending Crysta theme better than the opening Crysta, even if in game the two tracks are the same. Emotionally, the ending Crysta theme feels a bit different, which I think this piece captures quite well. I love your interpretation on the little guitar parts, specifically at 2:20ish. The OSV implied what you delivered. Love how you handled the brief bit of up tempo, and how it goes into the higher pitched section (which I didn't really like in the source material, but enjoy quite a bit here). You did the material proud, I must say. This is fantastically good stuff. The ending is particularly good, I think. Well done. Well done.

Yes! I'm so glad to see this made it onto the site. I was one of the people suggesting little tweaks here and there while this was still a work in progress. The last WIP version of this I have still had a tiny little... coherance problem at the very end, in which I told you that I thought the peice needed to return to the beginning a bit more in order to suggest completion, and while you didn't do that exactly as I suggested, by layering it behind the final verse, you achieved that completion perfectly without unduely extending the mix. Awesome! As I've said numerous times in your WIP thread, your voice is beautiful, the lyrics sublime. The alternating sections between lovely and creepy are fantastic. The beginning in particular works wonderfully well, with the non-lyrical vocals. I particularly love the way that your voice placed over top the creepy little motif latter on in the piece gives it a little... playful feeling. Making light of something that was intended for darkness. It's a wonderful little feeling for me. I love it. Wonderful stuff. I'm thrilled to have seen this make it. Well done indeed!

Ooh, now THIS is a good flashman. I've heard a lot of megaman mixes, as I'm sure many of you have, and to be honest, I don't like a lot of the flashman mixes I've heard. This is an exception. It's good stuff. I approve. The horrifying distortion guitar somehow works as well, which is certainly interesting because there's not many places such an instrument CAN work. I mean, usually you get that sound when you want to creep people out, but not here. Here, it's just good. Bubbleman also gets some love. We've already got two worthwhile bubbleman mixes on the site, each good for different reasons, and now a third can be added to that list, with its own little charm. Fascinating. Good stuff, I like I like I like.

Oddity, could you mark more clearly where you're being sarcastic and where not? Text doesn't come complete with vocal intonations. Anyway, the mix. The mix is good. You took a minimal riff and turned it into something big, powerful, long, and LISTENABLE. For that, you get kudos for certain. I'm not sure my own imagination could come up with something this good in my head from that limited source. Good work!

Glad to see this make it! Definitely a huge improvement over your first WIP of this so long ago. Beautiful stuff. My favorite bit has got to be the soaring section at around 3:13 or so. That's POWERFUL there. Good job. Only crit, listening to it now, is that the sustained flute notes at the beginning seem to cut off a little choppy to me. Later on, with more wind instruments, the "chop" is masked very well, but at the beginning, no so good. Could have prolonged the note right into the next phrase, I think. It's a minor concern. I'm definitely enjoying the quite a bit.