ReMix:Final Fantasy IX "Eternal Rain" 7:16

After a previous stop in Pandemonium, Black SeeD presents another pair of themes for their second metal foray into Final Fantasy IX from the album, Farplane of Memories! According to the ReMixer, highly contrasting guitar sections set the stage for a duality of moods in the realm of eternal rain:

"Here's another song from my album of remixed video game tracks in an atmospheric black metal way, Farplane of Memories (2021)!

This one contains two tracks in one, although they are really close to each other from the start.

Long guitar intro, to set the mood and impose the acoustic guitar as a core instrument of this song. The theme is repeated, the goal was in the context of the album to already get the listener comfortable with the theme (and take a break of the more brutal BM stuff), while getting more and more tension into the back guitars.

The other goal of this track is to alternate between more peaceful (acoustic) parts and getting back into more brutal stuff, while keeping the acoustic guitar in the loop as rhythm guitars, mixing with the electric ones, which gives a bouncy feeling and adds a more weird atmosphere.

The second part of the song is the "Kingdom of Burmecia" part, with a transition from Freya's theme by keeping the theme for a bit.

I hope you'll like it! Thanks a lot!"

This kicks off beautifully with Freya's theme delicately performed on acoustic guitar, which was combined perfectly with the rain SFX, so no matter your stance on black metal, this is an excellent gateway to it worth exploring. I don't think of prophetik music as a black metal disciple, yet just like for Black SeeD's "Terranian Faith", proph provided astute analysis of the developments, a track where each section has plenty of runway to work with:

"freya's theme is recognizable right away, and the rain is a nice touch given her character development and the iconic shot of her in the rain. this is a patient approach which is expected given the context of this remix. there's some slow elements added at the ~1:55 mark, which is nice since at that point the track had been roughly the same thing for that entire time.

there's one last repetition of the melodic content, and then the expected brickwall slam happens at 2:35. this isn't near as heavy as i expected given the artist, and sounds great. right after this is the shift into the Burmecia theme. the arrangement elements chosen show how related the two themes are, which again is a neat compositional element given that freya is burmecian. this one doesn't have much melodic material simply because the original doesn't, but there's still enough for it to be recognizable through another brickwall transition at 4:28. the audible acoustic guitar through this heavier section is great and gives some variation from some of the heavier stuff you've done on other tracks.

the freya theme returns at about 5:15 in the lead as this continues to get heavier and more post-rock-ish, and some nice higher sustained pads come in to brighten and intensify the tone around 5:45. the choice to drop the electric guitar lead in this area and instead just have the keys handling the recap of the burmecia theme did make it harder to hear the direction, but the intensity there and the recognizable chords kept it moving forward. [...] this is yet another great track from your album."

You could argue the more laid back acoustic guitar sections are like a Trojan horse for lashing out with black metal fury, yet there's no subterfuge here, just a genuine dichomoty where both styles get ample time to shine. Or, well, since it's eternally raining, maybe they don't "shine" per se, but they brood!