ReMix:Final Fantasy VII "Harmony of Destruction" 4:25

By ellywu2

Arranging the music of 2 songs from 2 games ( view all )...

"Norfair - Ancient Ruins Area", "Those Chosen by the Planet"

Primary Game: Final Fantasy VII (Sony , 1997, PS1), music by Nobuo Uematsu

Posted 2008-04-20, evaluated by the judges panel


With an FF7/Super Metroid combo ReMix that's titled like an entry into the Castlevania franchise comes Ellywu2, aka Chris Elliott. Chris has been around a good while and put out some good stuff during that while, but this is the first submission (actually resubbed after panel feedback) that's made it past those pesky purveyors of production & arrangement, our very own judges panel :) Perhaps Larry can chime in with some background on the review thread, but for whatever reason, this one has has an above-average gestation period before being posted, so apologies there. I know we did want a louder version at one point, and we got one, but it's all so... 2007... and thus rather fuzzy in my head.

Whatever; we're here now, and so's the mix, and it's good. In his original submission email way back when, Chris wrote:

"This is an orchestral remix of the two themes, done in the style of Hans Zimmer (a thousand composers and remixers just cried out in terror!), which means brass, drums etc. Basically these two themes are by far the most badass evil themes in videogame history, and i wanted to combine them."

The film composer influence should be obvious from the very first seconds of the piece; whether you attribute influence to Zimmer, Goldsmith, or even Shore could depend on which bits you're listening to, but it's definitely got that big-budget Hollywood bombast going on, as well as menacing builds and nice breaks. Dig the solo xylophone ending, too - good call, in my opinion, and memorable. You've also got brass that, while at times bordering on blatty, carries a lot of oomph and power. Judges all agreed on the volume issue, which I believe has now been adressed, but some were split on the development of the piece and the nature of film score style submissions. zyko didn't waiver in his stance that the arrangement was fine, but did - without shame - pull a WoW geekout on us, right in his decision:

"really, really dig it still. funny thing: while we're all mentioning how much it is reminiscent of zimmer's work, nobody brought up that this is basically Orc Music from World of Warcraft. hahaha. i can totally picture myself running through ogrimaar right now. with an axe"

Your mileage may of course vary in terms of experiencing similar visions, but if you're into cinematic style arrangements, in this case of two great themes, then you should definitely hear for yourself. Solid stuff from Ellywu2, who after several iterations and a considerable delay on our side finally has something on the site. Be sure to also check out his "Sexy Boy" mix from Radical Dreamers: Thieves of Fate, which is a totally different vibe, but also quite good.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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phillbato
on 2009-05-31 03:54:59

A very interesting juxtaposition of two very sinister pieces. Personally I'm more partial to the Norfair aspect of it but the fusion of the two pieces together with the artist's incredible talent makes for a very intense adrenaline rush. A death march even Darth Vader would be proud to march to :D

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Lucentas
on 2008-12-06 17:25:15

This is an amazing, intense piece, very moody and atmospheric.

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Catharsis
on 2008-09-10 23:47:35

I hardly EVER post on this site, but this one I love. I was hooked in the first 5 seconds. Authoritative, powerful... Combining two songs that are powerful and darkly forboding, yet the way you did it was not so despairing that the song can't be enjoyed.

Actually, come to think of it, I like all of ellywu2's stuff like this, especially the Masamune theme from Chrono Trigger. THAT was amazing.

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Liontamer
on 2008-05-09 11:27:08
Is it just me or are parts of this straight out of Super Metroid? Parts of it (2:00~) sound like the music from Ridley's hideout.

I like this mix, and I loved that music, and I had to check to see if this was really a FF7 mix and not Super Metroid whlie listening to it!

Of course there's Super Metroid in there. How did you download this without reading the writeup? Read the writeup! :lol:

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DaBubba
on 2008-05-09 05:07:00

Is it just me or are parts of this straight out of Super Metroid? Parts of it (2:00~) sound like the music from Ridley's hideout.

I like this mix, and I loved that music, and I had to check to see if this was really a FF7 mix and not Super Metroid whlie listening to it!

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Martin Penwald
on 2008-05-07 16:57:41

Hmmm, yes, strong atmosphere and all, but somehow, it seems to me that this song is meandering. I don't hear any real climax; it just goes on. I guess that works if you look at it as some background piece for a movie, but as a stand-alone song, I think it would need more oomph at some point.

But a well done remix nonetheless.

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SuperFly
on 2008-04-29 19:35:05

Even with my bad headphones this mix sounded REALLY cool. It was very reminiscent of N64's Jet Force Gemini, which had similar instrumentation. Good job!

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LionheartAce
on 2008-04-23 08:28:27

I would never have thought to combine those two themes. Holy crap it's great!

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OA
on 2008-04-22 13:01:49

Big and stompy, the percussion on this one is fantastic. It is really a strong atmosphere piece, rather than something specifically melodic, making it slightly harder for me to get into. Despite my personal preference, it is very well done, and there are some fantastic textures throughout, and great progression. It also sounds completely badass; this is the type of mix that steals the other mixes' lunch money.

Great transition of the theme, the whole thing was seamless.

The low brass was a bit blatty for my tastes, but that's the only real complaint I have with the mix.

Well played. :-)

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artemisjaeger
on 2008-04-22 12:30:04

You'll probably never hear this from me again, but I actually kind of enjoyed this arrangement. I am so opposed to dramatic, over the top, super epic Hans Zimmer/Jerry Goldsmith arrangements that it's ridiculous, but you somehow pulled it off.

The ending didn't work as well as the rest, but that's fine. The rest of it makes up for that.

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John Revoredo
on 2008-04-22 00:24:19

Bud, you got it.

Congrats on your first OcRemix, you've been deserving it for very long.

I guess i'll hear it once i get some headphones.... agh..

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evktalo
on 2008-04-21 05:11:32

Are my headphones broken, or does a fart cushion feature prominently on this track?

--Eino

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Kulaman
on 2008-04-21 01:02:30

Definitely epic, and some really strong imagery for me. listening to it feels almost like climbing a tower battling the orcs mentioned by zyko. then you get to the top around 3:05 and you think you've won... then the FF7 source shows up along with the evil overlord. i couldn't decide whether i had won or lost at the end though... moar plez!

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Platonist
on 2008-04-20 13:27:41

Great stuff! as a fan of Ellywu's other remixes (retrieved from VGMix sites etc) i've been looking forward to this

awesome piece! wanna hear more ellywu2 .. NOW :razz:

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Liontamer
on 2008-04-20 13:18:45

Yeah, there ended up being a lot of back and forth between myself and Chris trying to obtain the source files! The first time I got them from him, I uploaded his WAV to the judges FTP, but I'm sure my shitty connection messed it up, because after uploading a clean WAV, the uploaded version that BGC mastered ended up having 2 really bad clicks/pops, so we couldn't post it after he had worked on it.

After letting Chris know the situation, and him having no problems, he hoped to instead give us the song broken down into 3 layers (strings, brass and percussion) so that mastering it could be done more easily. Chris kind of dropped off the face of the earth after that, so I'd periodically mail him or PM him with "where da files? :'-(" But he was laid back and wasn't in any rush, so once he got those files to me months later, zircon was able to master it and this was finally ready!

H00-ray!

Sources Arranged (2 Songs, 2 Games)


Primary Game:
Final Fantasy VII (Sony , 1997, PS1)
Music by Nobuo Uematsu
Songs:
"Those Chosen by the Planet"
Additional Game:
Super Metroid (Nintendo , 1994, SNES)
Music by Kenji Yamamoto (I),Minako Hamano
Songs:
"Norfair - Ancient Ruins Area"

Tags (3)


Genre:
Cinematic
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Orchestral
Additional:
Origin > Resubmission

File Information


Name:
Final_Fantasy_7_Harmony_of_Destruction_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
5,123,000 bytes
MD5:
10ac657563a0a489c428617901e7098b
Bitrate:
151Kbps
Duration:
4:25

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