ReMix:Final Fantasy VI "Monument of Non-Existence" 8:36

By Lashmush

Arranging the music of one song...

"Dancing Mad"

Primary Game: Final Fantasy VI (Square , 1994, SNES), music by Nobuo Uematsu

Posted 2016-03-08, evaluated by djpretzel


We close out our BadAss: Boss Themes: Volume III mixflood with - who else? - Kefka. While not a man's man per se and not visually threatening in an overwhelming sense, unless you've got coulrophobia, Kefka still meets & fully exceeds BadAss criteria by being WICKED with a capital W. Lashmush (Rasmus Sorber) follows up his 2013 SMW2 debut from BadAss II & closes us out with an appropriately epic, extended metal arrangement:

"This was a big project, but a labor of love for sure. I'm a huge fan of FF6 and "Dancing Mad," so inspiration was overflowing! I tried to get the track into really heavy and extreme metal while still representing the original. Tier 3 got shaved down as I wanted the mood to stay dark and brutal, which was just hard for me to do if I kept it all in. All in all, I'm very happy with this track and, thanks to some healthy back and forth in the project forum, it turned into quite a beast."

Indeed; director Pieter "pu_freak" Van Os writes:

"To quote another evil clown bent on destruction: "And here... we... go!" Remember when BadAss 1 gave you a relatively calm track to get into the album? We give you seven seconds... After that, all hell breaks loose. Lashmush gives you almost nine minutes of epic, bombastic, orchestral rock that turns "Dancing Mad" into the "Imperial March" of one of Final Fantasy's best known villains. Perhaps with a bit more crazy guitar shredding and deafening blast beats, but those are never a bad thing.

Lashmush actually finished a version of this mix for BadAss 2, but you wouldn't recognize it as the same song anymore. Despite this being the first song to be finished for this album, Lashmush put many hours of work on this to make this the ideal opening of our album - one that will make you feel like an evil mastermind from the very start. And remember, this is only the beginning of BadAss 3..."

Yes, we're ending our flood with the FIRST track off the album, but it DOES pack quite a punch! Co-director Chernabogue adds:

"This track was chosen as the album opener so you don't forget our theme was "epic remixes." And Lashmush made sure his first symphonic metal behemoth would hit the listeners right in their faces. You have seven seconds before we launch into a brutal maelstrom of madness, filled with blast beats, guitar solos, and majestic orchestral melodies. Hold your breath..."

Just to clarify, we do NOT advise holding your breath for the full 8'36" duration of this ReMix, but you SHOULD prepare your mind for being blown and ready your face for considerable meltage. I'll skip the play-by-play and just say this: it's long, it's good, and it gives "Dancing Mad" the brutal & masochistic energies it deserves. Props to Lashmush, and congratulations to Pieter, Alex, and the entire BadAss III entourage for brilliantly trilogizing a musical ode to VGM evil with a fantastic third album!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 5 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
avatar
moosegg3
on 2017-06-28 09:05:35

Usually I have a policy of listening through any song all the way through, sometimes multiple times before committing it to my downloaded playlist.

By the 5 minute mark I had already downloaded this one it was so impressive it blew me away. The only reason why I didn't download it earlier on in the piece was that I was still in stunned immobility from the sheer awesomeness.

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Venom Fighter X
on 2016-03-18 10:43:30

Very Cool.

The lead guitar in the beginning sounds fake? could be wrong

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Crono3of3time
on 2016-03-17 01:10:08

I love the music, as FF6 is one of my mainstays, and I often resort to.. well.. Dancing Madly.

The only downside I can hear is the drums (I pay more attention to drums cause I play em I guess). I love the variety, but in some portions the drums kind of start ratcheting in reverse from the beat line (the bass etc at 1:20 and similar segments), and you have to have headphones on in order to hear it properly. Without them, it kind of seems to slide around like those Christmas lights that kind of blink in rhythm, then de-sync, then eventually blink back in rhythm after going completely around their cycles, or how a wheel cap on a car appears to roll in reverse after it reaches a certain speed.

It's a natural hazard of high-speed drums, not physically there, but the effect can be noted.

Everything else is flowing very neatly, and the mood is held quite well. I'll probably be returning to this song a few times in the future.... few hundred times dunno.. could be.

Now I've got myself wondering how many times I've heard certain songs in my life... oh boy. Uh.. I better stop here before I ponder myself to deaf.

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DimeTower
on 2016-03-09 23:37:16

This is unapologetic metal. Wow. I loved hearing Dancing Mad taken into this kind of realm. This is like some kind of cross between an evil rave and a ritual sacrifice.

- Holy clowns, the load up at 1:10!

- I loved the break at 2:15 with the slow tick of the clock?

- Really major props to keeping in some of the choral and piano elements, particularly the wonderful evil piano section starting at 4:15 that you somehow got to mesh with the metal, and later strings and metal?!? That might be the best section of the whole song, the juxtaposition is so wonderfully handled.

- 5:55-6:30 is reality-destroying, which is perfect for the song and its context. Serious thrash.

Overall, this thing isn't a beast; it's a behemoth, with absurd strength and a backup call of Meteor. If the album is anything like this, I'm grabbing it first and asking questions later. Awesome!!

avatar
Liontamer
on 2016-03-08 02:31:42

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Final Fantasy VI (Square , 1994, SNES)
Music by Nobuo Uematsu
Songs:
"Dancing Mad"

Tags (1)


Genre:
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Additional:
Time > Duration: Long

File Information


Name:
Final_Fantasy_6_Monument_of_Non-Existence_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
15,084,133 bytes
MD5:
36ab0d37c867c85db3de6e66f701951a
Bitrate:
232Kbps
Duration:
8:36

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