Dark Souls "Lord Gwyn's Age of Fire" 2:42

Newcomer com_poser (Tyson Wernli) debuts and gets right to showing off what he's named after and what he can do, with Wernli's excellent orchestral rework of Gwyn's theme from Dark Souls! Claiming formative inspiration from Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, and Koji Kondo, Wernli's no stranger to game composing himself thanks to his scores for Cris Tales and God of Rock, but we'll overview things for the gearheads first:

"The composition was made entirely with the following VST plugins:

• Spitfire Audio - BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional
• Spitfire Audio - Albion ONE
• EW Pianos Gold Bösendorfer
• EW Hollywood Fantasy Voices

• DAW - Studio One
• Audio Mixing - iZotope: Ozone 10, Neutron 4, Stratus 3D Reverb
• Waves: SSL G-Master Buss Compressor"

I wish it would be... ahem... "Judge Liontamer's Age of Fire (Music)" just by obtaining com_poser's tools, but we know it ain't that simple. :-D That said, the arrows point in that there direction (/points up at the rundown) if shaping strong orchestral music's on your to-do list. com_poser expounded on his decision to go the route of a film score-worthy approach:

""Lord Gwyn's Age of Fire" is an orchestral arrangement that completely reimagines the noted piano work of Motoi Sakuraba. While effectively a bar-for-bar translation, the meter has been shifted from 3/4 to 7/8 time. The result is a far more energetic and cinematic remix, embellished with new harmonies and countermelodies.

The title infers a programmatic retelling of Gwyn's Age of Fire from the perspective of the primordial serpents Frampt and Kaathe. While otherwise maintaining the original formatting of Sakuraba's work, each section has been augmented in some way by the various colors of the orchestra to convey the theoretical high and low points of Gwyn's reign."

Judge Emunator commended com_poser's pro demeanor, successfully sounding like this could be dropped into a Dark Souls sequel or even spinoff media:

"Your arrangement has a distinctly Yoko Shimomura style, thanks to the energetic piano writing, but the orchestra is programmed extremely tightly and professionally and pairs super well with that. It's clear that you approached this with a composer's mindset, as if you were rewriting this theme for a completely different context but still squarely within the Dark Souls universe. [...] I think you accomplished exactly what you intended to do!"

Fellow panelist prophetik music praised the piano sample and com_poser's overall execution for its distinct flavor compared to Sakuraba's source:

"the bosendorfer's a great choice for this kind of music, given that it's so warm and rich without giving up the ability to cut through big orchestral stacks.

this is a fun romp through one of the better Dark Souls themes. i particularly liked the swells into drops - you did a good job subverting what could have been otherwise a very bog-standard cinematic orchestral adaptation. excellent work."

Beautiful and ornate, com_poser did an amazing job showcasing his tools and weaving a delicate yet forceful tapestry of textures. The time signature change and ongoing moments of dynamic contrast were tasteful and delightful. Strong debut from com_poser and a treat to listen to!