ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "Firewalker" 4:46

Newcomer mikeHEARTu (Michael Macasiano) offers up a tasty, aggressive metal take on "Bolero of Fire" from Ocarina of Time, but first, a mea culpa from Larry "Liontamer" Oji:

NOTE: Larry is very sorry to Mike for misplacing his track, that is 100% his fault, but alongside this great rock arrangement of "Bolero of Fire," Larry's got 3 more long-lost Zelda: OoT pieces that we're also going to highlight in the coming days. The version originally subbed in 2015 is linked where it first says "Firewalker," but Mike massively improved the production of it before learning what he sent in was passed, so the judges comments defnitely don't reflect the full power and professionalism in the presentation.

Judges had *some* reservations on the initially-submitted version, but it was *still* unanimous - this revision's even better, so you're in for a treat :) The artist writes:

"Whoa, okay, more metal.

Much like "Bewitcher," I like "Firewalker" because it is in a style that I like a would really like to grow off of. I think this EP really went for it in a few different directions but I most enjoy the direction "Firewalker" goes in. The fact that it's so slow and almost like a marching theme makes this really stand out to me. I originally had an idea for this that was much faster but in an attempt to make it more bolero-like, I slowed it down significantly.

Like with other stuff, I tried to take the melody of the song and kind of do my own spin on it. I think "Bolero of Fire" is much stronger on its own compared to the other stuff I did, but I still just kind of took the melody and some of the vibe. I get that it's super different and not JUST a cover so that might throw some people off but sorry. D: For what it's worth, I do love the song as it is, but I think tossing things around a bit is a lot of fun! I'm very happy I took the time to really flesh out this song. I re-tracked the song with some new stuff I've been using in the year since submitting."

I love the "but sorry. D:," since that's more-or-less our ethos here at OCR - creative, transformative arrangements rock! More conservative, "coverish" mixes can also be amazing, too! I feel like our standards that encourage artists to "make it your own" while keeping the source recognizable have resulted in a pretty diverse range of submissions, and we're all the better for that. Our apologies to Mike for this getting lost in the cracks, but the revision in the interim means it's even better, and yeah... let's talk about the mix a bit :) Clean, crunchy distortion + isolated staccato chugs combine for a bold, assertive metal sound... but slowed down, with a cadence less common for the genre, as the artist notes. Way back in 2016, Emunator opined:

"Mike has clearly gone to great lengths to expand on a short, but very memorable source tune and really personalize it. Could he have shaved a minute or so off the arrangement, or tweaked the drums to include a bit more variation? Sure. But the melodic treatment of Bolero and the tight guitar performance are definitely the highlights of the track - the solo at 3:11 provides a much-needed changeup that I quite enjoyed. Truthfully, neither of the aforementioned issues really have that much impact on my overall enjoyment here.

I like what I'm hearing here!"

Me too; creative idea for transforming one of OoT's shorter pieces into something familiar, yet different, and delivering a tight, satisfying metal package with punch & impact. It's been (too) many years, but I'd love to hear more; excellent stuff!