ReMix:Final Fantasy VIII "Set the Stage on Fire" 4:22

Arguably the most epic glow-up from the Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora album, ZackParrish transformed Nobuo Uematsu's "The Stage is Set" into something from a film score and made it look easy. When in doubt, Zack throws the kitchen sink at it:

"The album needed more tracks to be done after the final deadline had passed, and this became available. I originally was going to try and just go hard using nothing but synth... but it wasn't hard enough, so I just threw everything at it. Of course, now instead of it sounding like the original where you are preparing for battle... sounds more like you are already in one..."

The battle was joined by the judges, who collectively had this sail through. The movie soundtrack vibe quickly received a stamp of approval from MindWanderer:

"This is a great cinematic arrangement. Engaging dynamic progression. Seems like it would work well in a sci-fi epic."

Truly a great adaptation of this theme into something that sounds like a stress-filled cinematic cue; this is maybe the part where things look bleak, immediately followed by the hero sucking it up and trudging on, so I got some good imagery here. Loved the padding from 1:15-1:47 that added a nice warmth and contemplative tension to this section. There's also some sadness in the strings from 1:48-2:19, which I appreciated. They sounded similar to a favorite of mine from OCR's FF7 album Voices of the Lifestream, The Orichalcon & bustatunez' "Rare Square". Judge Chimpazilla also checked the box on this being ready for the big screen:

"This arrangement is full of varied textures and instruments. And Damage drums! They sound great. [...] I love the music box when it appears. This does sound like a cinematic cue and tells its story well."

Speaking of the great instrumentation here, I loved the synth and vox-like line doubling the melody from 2:36-2:45. Awesome dropoff section at 3:12; strong lead sound, as well as the all of the industrial & electronic sounds underneath; nice screeching sound from 3:21-3:28 also, some good sound design there. Loads of twists and turns throughout, with mercurial yet measured musicianship, echoed by album co-director Darkflamewolf:

"I like the restraint shown on this track. It's momentous and powerful, yet it does not go overboard with its theme or motif. It gives off a certain gravitas to the track, like the fate of the world hangs in the balance while you're listening to it and that secures it as my favorite.

Cinematic and powerful. This track has it all. It sets expectations for the remainder of the album left to come. The interesting music box-like tone that begins and ends this track definitely pique the ear's interest."

I'm sure DFW and Jorito would fully agree, SeeDs of Pandora was ZackParrish's coming out party in the OCR community, a project where he stepped up in both huge creative and huge leadership roles. It's difficult to imagine the album without the contributions of someone who punched way, way above their weight and delivered in so many impactful ways. As a microcosm of that impact, everyone quoted here invoked the word "cinematic" for very good reason. This is probably Zack's best example from SeeDs of Pandora of why he deserves film scoring gigs. Tremendous arrangement ideas, really fleshing out & ratcheting up the energy level of the theme. The stage is set for a high-octane thrill ride! ;-)