Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow "The Heart of Atlantis" 3:42

Cool opening; you just know this is gonna rock. Pretty good for the lead arranger hating the source games, Lucas. :-P OH, hey there, I didn't see you... I'm Larry Oji. A couple of people call me Liontamer, and I'm the community manager here at OverClocked ReMix. Ya know, I've been listening to these here video game music arrangements for a long time, and I've heard a lot of fun ones made by the fans. But what if I were to tell you that sometimes amidst that fun comes headaches, hurdles, and heartburn? Welp, we've got a good one for that scenario now that indeed rocks. But our boy Lucas Guimaraes sure got put through the paces just to make this CV: Aria of Sorrow/Metroid Fusion piece during the Game Set Mash!! 2 compo. No, he wasn't dealing with rebellious collaborators, no sir...

• Lucas Guimaraes - arrangement, chiptune sounds
• Ridley Snipes - drums, keys, mix
• ZackParrish - guitars, bass
• JSABlixer - chiptune sounds

...he was dealing with an otherwise uncooperative universe. Maybe I'm making it sound too dramatic. I mean, after all, PTSD aside, Lucas still had a blast, as he tells it:

"I've blocked this track from my memory because of COVID and my dislike for Metroid Fusion and Aria of Sorrow's soundtrack [...]

Ever heard of the phrase "A monkey could write Shakespeare?" Well, what if your arrangement happened midway through by throwing water at your keyboard? Or accidentally setting your computer on fire before saving your next version? So, uh, funny story about this one.

I joined GSM2 as an endeavor to practice my strong and weak points with music-making, and hoh golly. The first week of doing this, I got COVID with coming back from MAGFest. So, that wasn't a great start. To make things worse, Matt (Xaleph) and Wes (Emunator) hopped on the tracks they wanted QUICKLY. So, I got stuck with these... sources. I was swapping out a lot of different arrangements. At some point, Trevor (Ridley Snipes) suggested lowering the tempo and ZackParrish agreed. I gave it a shot but wanted to leave the MIDI around for everyone to fudge with so they could see what sections they had an issue with it. I sent out two MIDI versions, one at 190 BPM and an updated one at 170 BPM.

...and then it happened. The first time ever in one of my arrangements.

Zack already started recording at 190 BPM. I didn't realize he'd opened the older MIDI until it was too late. We were on limited time, so we stuck to that. So, yeah, that's how my keyboard got water thrown at it midway. And what we ended up with was an absolute assault on the ears. Complete (controlled) chaos just ensued past that point. This arrangement goes balls to the walls all over the place. Taking influence from Yes, Tool, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Avenged Sevenfold, and Deep Purple. Hoh my god. But that's part of what's been making VGM so much fun for me; taking music I love listening to and mashing it up with the games I love. Learning from my favorite artists on both aisles.

I'll be sure to kill Zack's fingers again another time - just not on accident. Haha.

P.S. Hey, Shariq (DarkeSword)? I still hate Metroid Fusion. There ain't even a Kraid theme in there. Like what? Get outta here!"

As an overall story, an overall tale of woe, I've love the level of antagonism Lucas has for the soundtracks, for how he caught COVID, for the way the compo shook out leaving him with tough themes to work with, how he mixed up Zack with the wrong MIDI, how he splashed his own fuckin' gear, its creation is just a massive comedy of errors, and yet look how good this turned out ANYWAY. A living, breathing example of just trudging through. WHY? Because trudging through means standing atop the hill -- standing atop the MOUNTAIN -- and declaring victory. :-)