ReMix:Final Fantasy VIII "Voces Maledictionis et Spei: Children Fated to Lead" 5:05

HeavenWraith (Antanas Palaitis) returns with his most massive undertaking yet, bolstering things with 5 (count 'em, FIVE) vocalists, in Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora's triumphant rock opera rendition of main event-level theme "Liberi Fatali"!

• HeavenWraith: arrangement, piano, vocals, guitar, production, mixing
• JoyDreamer: vocals
• Bonnie Bogovich: vocals
• The Vodoú Queen: vocals
• Ian Martyn: vocals
• colorado weeks: vocals

Anthony was able to cite a pair of FF soundtrack stylings in this piece, but even he couldn't articulate every nook and cranny of inspiration for this liberal, fatalistic transformation. As he describes it, this was the culmination of numerous untold influences:

"It's been increasingly hard to describe what is the inspiration of my works, as eventually it just becomes an amalgamation of various artists I appreciated over time and music production experience I accumulated. One of the more easy to define influences are those of the first minute of the track - "The Colossus" and "Nightmare in the Den" from Final Fantasy X-2."

José the Bronx Rican elected to cap off the album trailer with this piece, and it's obvious why. I'm sure djp's throwing an "epic" tag on here, and SeeDs' director Darkflamewolf explains why they threw a "favorite" tag on their personal tag cloud for the album, notwithstanding the fact that no one dared claim this theme until one man finally arrived:

"Ever since coming back to Final Fantasy when playing Final Fantasy VIII on the PC, this song and the accompanying intro cinematic was burned into my mind. This was and is such an iconic track that it needed an equally kick-ass rendition to do it justice. It was almost funny, over half a year went by with no one even touching or claiming the song until HeavenWraith rolled in to take charge and give us my favorite song on the album. My memories come alive when I listen to this track. It's "Liberi Fatali", need I say more? However, to further ice the awesome cake with this track, real vocals were used for everything and that just elevates this track far beyond what it'd be originally. A perfect start to the final [main] disc and one that leaves you breathless once it's over."

Hey, I can't be left breathless over here like this, HeavenWraith, I've got a writeup to provide for the people! Anthony's no stranger to going for the musical jugular, a trait that was top of mind for SeeDs' co-director Jorito. He stayed connected with Anthony after he and DFW took over the creative reigns of the project, making sure HeavenWraith knew his particular set of skills were critical to the project's success, and linking him up with Joy, Bonnie, Vodoú Queen, Ian & colorado weeks as choir vocalists (so clutch for the first chorus at 1:49 and the track's peaks at 3:46 & 4:28):

"Ahh... "Liberi Fatali", the memorable opening track of FF8. HeavenWraith was also one of the artists who joined the original album attempt, but couldn't commit to the restart for a good while. I'm glad that I kept checking in with him every now and then to see if we could get him on board again, because it's a difficult track to remix and I knew he would do it justice. And, boy, did he deliver! It's one of his signature crazy tracks again, in a bombastic mix of heavy guitars, crazy guitar solos, orchestra, and epic choirs that is sure to get you pumped. In his first WIP, he used a sample library for the vocals, so I suggested to use real vocals, if necessary layered with the samples, to give the choir that little extra oomph. I'm glad he was open to the idea, and that I got to help with recruiting some performers, because it did bring the track to the next level. Definitely a great opener for the Pandora disc!"

Huge praise to HeavenWraith for building a big-time, pulse-pounding, epic sound! Together with pulling in the choir vocalists, Antanas himself truly stretched his personal arrangement & production skills to achieve a level-up of polish, and it's not overlooked by a long shot. Much like FF7 & FF9, FF8 has a number of key source tunes that demand excellence, so kudos to HeavenWraith & co. for dialing it WAY up for "Liberi Fatali", a crown jewel on an amazing album in Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora!