ReMix:Final Fantasy IX "Birth Under a Blue Light" 5:13

Time to METAL IT UP!! Our Final Fantasy IX: Worlds Apart debut mixflood takes a turn for the shred as Knight of the Round melt faces & burst eardrums with their aggressive metal take on "Zidane's Theme"; Justin Taylor of Knight of the Round writes:

"Justin Wilbanks (from Indiana metal band Betrayer) and I have been wanting to collaborate on a track for a while. So, after realizing there were still a few months left to submit a track for Fishy's FF9 project, we decided to tackle "Zidane's Theme."

I've always enjoyed this track, and since it is a pretty significant track to the OST, choosing it was a no-brainer. We took the backing track to the source and tweaked it a little, and used it as the main melody/riff for the first half of the song. The second half of the song is pretty conservative to the source, but it's such a good part that we didn't dare change it much.

We used an Agile 8-string guitar to record all guitars. For rhythm, we used an ENGL Fireball head, then re-amped through a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Ultra, both going into a VHT Fat Bottom cab. We then also re-amped the guitars into Line 6 POD Farm. For lead guitars, we went straight into the Axe-Fx Ultra into the VHT cab. Drums were programmed with EZdrummer (cymbals) and Steven Slate Drums (kick, snare, toms). Mastered with iZotope Ozone 3.

Random Fun Fact: 4:26-4:35 and 4:48-4:56 features a 13/16 over 4/4 polyrhythm. The guitars/bass/kick drum are playing in 13/16 and are playing the pattern of "1 and 10" while keeping the rhythm notes intact, while the snare drum and cymbals are staying in 4/4. I chose "1 and 10" to represent the I and X in the title of the game. Go polyrhythms!"

Director Fishy writes:

"Knight of the Round (who I understand have at least two guitarists called Justin) are getting really big now, and, from what I've seen, they're a proper force when performing live. I've always liked the way they arrange tracks to be heavy, but also with a lot of space to grow and develop. Definitely also check out their other track from the album which is an absolute monster!"

HUGE sound, inarguably & unapologetically metal, but some very smart writing with an intricate ear for rhythms/patterns, in particular. The theme lends itself well to the abuse, sounding cranky & cantankerous in a powerful, malicious way; great stuff from Justin & KotR that gives Worlds Apart some definite edge!