ReMix:Sonic & Knuckles "Airborne" 3:03

Devastus (Jani Syrjänen) follows up his Wild Arms debut earlier this year with a kickin' rock/metal arrangement of the same S&K theme that Jivemaster & Beatdrop covered electronica-style back in 2001 & 2005, respectively:

"The original song is one of the better remembered game soundtrack songs from my childhood, and certainly one of my favourites. Even then I imagined what it would sound like in a more hard rock / metal esque setting, so as I was scouring through game osts one day and came over this one, I decided to try my hand at making one myself. The result is a lot of needless guitar wankery with a pretty balanced mix on it, plus an extra 10 second ballad for every girl to wet themselves to!"

OKAY! While I'm not exactly sure how much wetting is going to transpire - regardless of gender - there's certainly a lot to like about this energetic, hard-hitting, aggressive mix, starting with the guitar wankery that I'd actually argue WAS needed - or at the very least, is not unwelcome. Drums start right off the bat as processed guitars foreshadow the mayhem to follow; mixing is really discrete, with a kick that rides up in your skull and toms that got you surrounded. Lead guitar is with us for almost the whole trip, doubling up at times and then mellowing out towards the end, and that COULD have been a little exhausting if it were mishandled in any way. Fortunately, Jani's not only got the chops, but the arrangement skills to make sure that things change up often enough to keep things hot. OA writes:

"The modulation section at 1:45 was pretty, though I managed to lose the tonal center a few times. The shift to a clean breakdown, and then super harmonized head was great, and throughout this whole track is a lot of great detail with a punchy ending. I think this was really well executed, and I'm hoping you submit more similar quality material to the site."

DarkeSword adds:

"Nice performance, and the arrangement sufficiently rocks out. Modulation around 1:40ish is risky, but I think it works. Love the texture change at 2:18; pieces that rock out need sections like this to break things up and keep things fresh."

3+ minutes of solid carnage, in a tight package with drums that might be a little loud but sound awesome, plus more guitar than you can throw a stick at. Works for me, and makes for a badass follow-up mix from Devastus, who I'm hoping we'll see even more of in 2013!