ReMix:Sword of Vermilion "Treacherous Road" 4:04

about:blank (Chris Bouchard) continues his (triumphant) return to OCR with his 4th featured mix, a cinematic/industrial trap & EDM genre-mashing take on Sword of Vermilion (GEN):

"Here's a resub of my Sword of Vermillion remix. I fixed the limiter issue right away, which I really should've checked before sending the first mix through. I also tweaked the distorted synth arp and all of the bass synths, applied a gate to the snare at the end, and added some much needed sidechaining throughout.

With the original track being about a minute long, I tried to take this in a few different directions to keep things interesting.

I took the most liberties in the first half of the song, and, in those softer sections, the arpeggio is based on the original's bass part and the melody is based on the original's arpeggio. Aside from that and a few new lead melodies, the rest of the song stays fairly faithful to the source material -- at least in terms of composition.

As for production, I tried to emphasize the original song's intensity by writing mellow sections in an effort to give those grittier sections a greater impact."

So in 7th grade I had the most feared math teacher at my school, and if you dared to fall asleep in his class, he would drop a book on your desk for the sudden-wakeup-shock effect. Never happened to me, but I had front-row seats a few times, and the impact at 1'35" on this track brought back memories, as it hits hard & could be similarly employed. Chris packs some awesome sound design into this mix, with warm, searing distortion, a sub bass from the Mariana Trench, & some gritty, compelling textures throughout. The beat (eventually) hits with a trap/step style groove, making this a neat cinematic hybrid. Very glad he revised the mastering & enhanced the piece based on panel feedback - it did wonders, and since Sword of Vermilion was a game I actually played & beat, and we only have one existing featured mix, it would have been a bummer if we couldn't post. Rexy writes:

"I dug the arrangement aspect a lot when I paneled the original submission, and I like it even more now with those bass writing tweaks. The source made its introduction at 0:49 and started straight-forward, then branched into some interesting parts at 2:21 and 3:17 where the backing remained in place, and new melodies appeared over the top. The structure is solid as well - an ominous opening with pads and pitched percussion, the meat of the groove at 1:42 and 3:18, plus the chance to squeeze in some involving bass LFO work in the breakdown at 2:21. It's a robust framework and a great example of how to handle something relatively brief."

Liontamer adds:

"Pretty sinister take. I loved the dynamics and constant instrumentation changes; they never felt like a gimmick or changing/evolving just for the sake of... small thing, but props too for making a seemingly sudden ending also fade out properly. Very creative take on the source tune, Chris!"

Chris has some distinct musical concepts going on in each of his mixes, incorporates bits & pieces from different genres, and delivers something new and, in this case, very edgy & downright evil. This road is TREACHEROUS, people... not just talking one or two potholes. I thought the integration of trap elements in particular combined really effectively with the ravaged, post-apocalyptic soundscape. Awesome work!