Terranigma "Destiny's Spire" 4:58

Paths Less Travelled: Terranigma has a TON of great tracks, and here's more proof, as Manji (Christopher Mole) follows up his Metroid Prime debut from back in 2016 with this monstrous, shifting, dungeoness heavy metal take on "The Trials":

• Manji - arrangement, guitars, bass, drums, samples, mixing
• Nadzilla - additional mixing/mastering

"Terranigma is a great game with a lot of distinctive dungeons, but the Towers that you have to conquer right at the start of the game are my favourites -- each one "awakens" a continent on the Earth, and they're suitably mysterious and ominous while also easing you into the game's battle system. They're also the first place where you hear one of Terranigma's multiple excellent dungeon themes, and as soon as I listened back to the theme upon getting involved with the Paths Less Travelled album, I could hear the makings of an extremely heavy-metal guitar ReMix inspired by bands like Atheist and especially Mithras. I wanted to throw in as many blastbeats and guitar solos as I could get away with while still building a little bit of a story through the song -- the ambience at the start is intended to evoke Ark trudging up to the looming Tower through the fallen underworld ash, before throwing open the doors and launching himself into battle."

I dig the chromaticism & frantic (but never sloppy) shifting of the beat/emphasis - feels like turning multiple corners in a subterranean labyrinth, with each new corridor introducing a new enemy & groove. Album director Jorito writes:

"The Towers of Trial are the first dungeons in the game and they are, in fact, your first trials. Since these towers are in the underworld, it only makes sense to pay tribute to that with some balls-to-the-walls unapologetic metal. It's probably the heaviest track on the entire album, and I think Manji did a great job of evoking the darker and scary feelings of the underworld and its challenges. \m/ on!"

Co-director Trism adds:

"You can't go wrong with some classic heavy metal and this source could easily have been written with that genre in mind. Manji does a fantastic job in evoking the dark, forbidding nature of the towers themselves while simultaneously upping the pace with double-kick drums and guitar solos. The breakdown halfway through gives you a moment to breath before kicking you right back into action again and provides some lovely variation to the pace of the piece."

I concur; this was a very natural fit for metal, the moving structure keeps things interesting (almost to the point where you could label it "prog metal"), the vibe is intense, dark, & aggressive (as befits a dungeon!), and the production is crisp, present, & packs the requisite punch. Great to see Manji back on the OCR homepage with this project contribution, which added some edge/angst & shreddage to the album!