ReMix:Red Zone "The Broken Front" 3:58

From newcomer DusK (Dustin Branscum) comes our first ReMix from Jesper Kyd's soundtrack to helicopter action game Red Zone, not to be confused with Red Zone Cuba, a particularly painful cold war era MST3K'd film. Kyd's upcoming score to Darksiders II should be awesome, and it's cool to see a ReMix of something from his earlier, pre-Hitman years. Dustin revised this track several times before the panel passed it; in his original submission, he wrote:

"I did this mix for two reasons. Firstly, to pay homage to the game composer who not only made, in my opinion, the best soundtracks ever to grace the Sega Genesis, but also had such a major influence on how I write music and play guitar. I grew up playing songs from Red Zone, Sub-Terrania, and The Adventures of Batman and Robin, and it's safe to say that Jesper's work has had more of an impact on my guitar style than even my favorite bands, if only slightly. The remix was done to fit the metalcore genre, which is the style of music I am most familiar with playing. I was on a really big August Burns Red kick before writing this mix, so it ended up influencing the final product a lot.

The other reason for making the mix is I'd like to submit the track for OverClocked ReMix, a video game music arrangement community that I have been a huge fan of since '04. To get a remix accepted by the judge's panel is one of my highest musical goals."

Achievement Unlocked!! I'm actually not as familiar with Kyd's Genesis work, so this was a good excuse to check some of it out, and yeah... I always thought of him as a more of a modern game composer, but he's definitely got some old gold that needs exploring, and I'm glad DusK was up to the task. Metalcore isn't a genre I'm particularly familiar with, but what's distinct here to me is some rugged, aggressive production & PLENTY of triplets on that kick drum. OA writes:

"I definitely remember this one the first time around, and I am really happy you are resubbing it. Right from the beginning, the snare feels a lot better, and more natural, and the balance overall is much better; The arrangement works well, and the incorporation of the 2 sources is pretty solid. Some of the guitar playing and drumming is a touch on the loose side for a few sections, but overall I was feeling this. The subtle use of synths added a nice contrast and helped the sections feel unique. The drum writing overall was nice and varied, and I feel that though it could be tightened up a bit overall, the strengths easily outnumber the nitpicks. Nice resub."

Indeed; I'm glad Dustin stuck with this mix because, while there's still room for improvement, I think it's an energetic, aggressive take on some source tunes that definitely deserved the attention. The stuttering kick adds some nice flavor and the guitars have a raw, undiluted power to them that suits the military, action-oriented style of the game itself. Solid debut from DusK that pays homage to a game composer who's been writing great tunes for a LONG time!