Super Smash Bros. Brawl "It All Ends Here" 7:57

Last night on DoD's Twitch was the listening party for TheManPF's phunky fresh arrangement compilation album, Prime Cuts! Hosted by DoD head evilsonic with special guest Zach Chapman, TheManPF walked folks through several of his personal favorite VGM arrangements, several of which were further optimized for the new release, including this one right here! TheManPF joins forces once again with Zach Chapman and item traders Dog Food for Bananas for their epic version of the grandest stage of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, "Final Destination"!

• TheManPF - arrangement, sequencing, mix, electric guitars, vocals
• Zach Chapman - bass, vocals
• Dog Food for Bananas is:
  • angrypolarbear (Chris Doughty) - piano, synth, organ, vocals
  • Ronin Op F - violin
  • Jake Helland - acoustic guitar, classical guitar

Full of praise for friends as always, TheManPF walks us through the construction of his competitive DoD swan song, which in turn is his 20th (!) OCR mixpost:

"This is a progressive metal arrangement of the "Final Destination" theme from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This arrangement was originally released through Dwelling of Duels in December 2024, in a competition where it came 2nd place out of 28 total tracks.

Last month on DoD, we had what a lot of people called a pseudo-Free Month due to the source choice freedom, Super Smash Bros. month. I personally picked that theme last year because I believed it was way overdue for one of those, right? It's a celebration of video game franchises and we're celebrating that celebration with more video game music, neat!

It's very rare for me to cover the same game twice, let alone the same theme!! But that's basically what this is. It's technically a different song, but "Final Destination" takes heavily from Brawl's main theme and it wouldn't exist without it. It's also a track that I always adored and, like I said in my last Smash Bros. submission, I always wanted to cover but didn't know how. This time, instead of going outside of my comfort zone, I did the opposite. I've became a lot more confident with my metal sound lately and I wanted to embrace it, and did an arrangement that stays somewhat conservative but takes it to the next level, with some help from my friends, of course.

Chris "angrypolarbear" Doughty is someone who I never collabed with on a main track in DoD before and that's a blasphemy. It's also someone who I can't find in the OCR database, how come???? Here he is in keyboard duty, playing all of the pianos, synths (including improvised solos!) and also helping with the choir. He's a beast, and everything he does he does it with a lot of passion and love, and I'm glad I could have him on my side for this one.

Ronin Op F is my go-to violinist. He absolutely shreds on his thing and delivers his parts with a lot of finesse and even does his own solos. Please give him more praise! He deserves so much more spotlight than he gets.

Jake Helland helps with the acoustic guitars in this one, in a middle break taken straight from "wily theme", where I have him shred on steel and nylon strings for a few measures. He's the final piece of the puzzle in the Dog Food for Bananas group, which I thought would be super-awesome to have all three of for this collab.

Zach is delivering the basslines and he, of course, as always, absolutely kills it. He also recorded a few vocals for the choir along with Chris and I.

I did some guitars, choir, arranging, mix, etc., whatever. That's not important tho.

This is the first time in what feels like forever that I get a medal in DoD (2nd place!!). I purposefully tried to go out with a bang since, like the title implies, this is the end for me (for now), and I want to drop DoD mains for a while, while I focus on other fun things that may be coming in the future. Look forward to it!"

Props to TheManPF for making an indelible mark on Dwelling of Duels; as evilsonic ran down during the Prime Cuts release party, TheManPF's had nearly 150 DoD entries since arriving there in 2021, both exemplary dedication AND insanity. :-) Beyond another shining instance of the partnership/friendship between TheMan and Zach Chapman -- who PF hailed last night as his closest collaborator -- this piece has so many highlights: angrypolarbear's piano frenzy at 2:37 is a thing of beauty, Jake's acoustic work at 4:17 was ultra-classy, and Ronin Op F's violin spotlight at 4:39 added yet another sophisticated touch of refinement before things shifted back to rocking out. The energy of the bro choir singing the source's Latin lyrics, particularly the isolated part at 5:15, raised the banner for battle. Judge and fellow Dweller... Duelist... Dueler... jnWake, who knows all about leveling up musically through regular DoD entries, went extra thorough with his play-by-play for TheMan:

"Definitely remember this one from DoD!

Begins with the string intro from the original, but it's slightly modified and a bit more epic (I dig the brass). We quickly move into metal territory at 0:16, with some heavy guitar and percussion over the classic choir from the source. [...] at 0:39 we move into the next section, with a fun guitar lead that's followed by Ronin's violin. [...] A guitar solo kicks in at 1:12, nice! [...] Choir returns at 1:36 for a new section, which sounds great. apb's synth joins in around 1:48 [...] Synth solo around 2:01 marks the first big departure of the arrangement from the source [...] There's another guitar solo and even a piano one later. I really like the piano sample and playing here. At 3:08 a section from earlier returns, now with a synth harmony [...] Zach's turn comes at 3:31 with a fun bass solo before a violin lead. There's a big break at 3:54 with a piano/guitar duet. [...] An unexpected acoustic guitar solo with some fun percussion comes around 4:17, super cool. Ronin gets his own solo around 4:45 as well. At 5:15 there's another break, featuring a choir solo, which is awesome. There's a transition into a percussion heavy section later (similar to how the source does the loop). Some melodies get a reprise around 6:01 and then at 6:25 the choir riff from 0:16 returns, now with guitar and synth noodling over it for what's arguably the track's climax. The Final Destination take on the main Brawl theme gets a couple reprises on guitar/synth harmony until 7:35, where a phaser effect moves us into some game footage and SFX. Quite a creative ending!

On the arrangement side, this is fantastic. It starts very similar to the source in structure, with the main change being the metal approach. However, things change around the 2 minute mark and slowly, but surely, you make the track your own, adding all sorts of variations, genre shifts and solos. In a way, it's like a lite version of your Wily remix. The entire section from the choir solo at 5:15 until the end is particularly fantastic. [...]

Overall, this is a fantastic arrangement that's definitely worthy of the silver medal you got. [...] Awesome job!"

A triumphant source tune choice and equally triumphant approach to it, this was a heck of way for PF to -- for now -- retire from DoD competition! For the pretty fun Prime Cuts release party, Mega Mixtape's Naop put together a heartfelt video package for TheManPF featuring collab partners & family extolling his virtues, and I was particularly impressed by his wife citing his patience, something we could all use in greater doses. :-) He's not just A man, he's THEMan(PF), and if it all ends here for TheMan's regular DoD activity, it's proudly finished on a high note surrounded yet again by amazing collaboraters! Enjoy this piece and nine more arrangements across a myriad of game soundtracks from TheManPF's Prime Cuts!