ReMix:Castlevania: Symphony of the Night "The Witching Hour" 4:55

OceansAndrew (Andrew Luers) hits us with a catchy EDM/dance take on Symphony of the Night, as Alucard throws down some moves:

"This starts out with the moody intro of "Castle Center" and then transitions into the more driving melody of "Dracula's Castle." I tried to make it feel like you were approaching the castle itself, and then entered in all its evil majesty.

Suddenly, monsters surround you from all sides and it's time to DANCE!

Is your footwork strong enough to SLAY and take you all the way to the top of the castle to finally face Disco Dracula?"

First, gotta say that this is one heck of an intro - wonderful, enveloping sound design, and I particularly like the repeating filtered crushed noise riser. Once things get going, it becomes a little more predictabe, but still delivers the goods with an infectious, four-on-the-floor EDM take on SotN's most iconic theme. Mastering is a touch hot, and I actually weighed in on this one and commented on the drums being a bit abrasive/mono, but was still in favor, as was Emunator:

"Gotta co-sign with the judges above - this gets by on the strength of its charismatic melody writing and energetic groove. However, I'm definitely picking up on a number of issues here - most severely, the mastering sounds REALLY loud and heavily compressed. This is super noticeable in the drums, which DJP did a great job of identifying the issues with. I'm definitely feeling ear fatigue from 1:27 on, and there's really no letting up from there til the end, especially since this mix relies heavily on bright, abrasive synths and drums throughout. The copy-paste to extend the arrangement was a bit cheap, but the sources were pretty smoothly integrated together, all things considered.

I dunno though - with all my gripes laid out above, the good parts of this still feel like enough to win out in the end."

Indeed! This was written for a compo, probably on a more aggressive deadline, so I think there's a touch less polish than what we're used to from Andrew, but it's still a load of fun - the intro completely sells me, and the ensuing groove capitalizes on that hella-catchy minor key hook to great effect. Perfect for the Castlevania & DDR crossover that could (and should!) have been, enjoyable stuff from OceansAndrew!