ReMix:Okami "Into the Ocean, We Walk Peering Way Past the Snake" 5:56

We go from a game about a stray cat to a game about a wolf goddess! From Pixel Mixers' album Sounds of Sunrise, thebitterroost returns with his most cohesive submission yet, a panoramic painting with the music of Okami as folky acoustic lines bleed into and blend with his signature dark metal. TBR detailed the tools, memories, and influences on his musical palette:

"Recorded with drums, mics, acoustic guitars, DI bass, DI electric guitar through freeware amp sims, and a simple Synth1 sine/glass pad. Done for the Pixel Mixers' Okami/Okamiden tribute album. This was one of my favorite songs from the game; I remember jumping and wasting time in the water dragon to let the song loop a few extra times. The melody struck me as "Opethy," so I used their acoustic style as a springboard, leading to my usual wheelhouse of doom metal."

The source tune, a delicate & beautiful Rei Kondoh original, made me think of doing the same thing thebitterroost did while playing Okami, only for me, it was listening to "Aquatic Ambiance" while swimming in Donkey Kong Country! TBR was kind enough to provide us a detailed arrangement breakdown on request:

"Overall, I shifted the tempo up from its original ~175bpm 6/8 to ~189bpm 6/8 to roughly match the feel of Opeth's song "Harvest" (where the pun in the title comes from <-- "into the orchard, I walk peering way past the gate"). The guiding light for me through the whole song is the ghosty/sine-wavey synth that carries the whole way in both versions; I even used a very similar sounding synth sound in mine.

[0:12-0:40] Chords follow the ghostly synth; they don't exactly match source arpeggios in 2nd and 6th bar of the two 8-bar phrases, but stylistically fits better with the Opeth vibes.
[0:41-1:45] Lead acoustic follows source melody with some original-ish rhythm acoustic arpeggios. Dirty gtrs follow the "James Bond" harp progression.
[1:45-2:07] Acoustic guitars follow source harp arps.
[2:07-2:38] Lead guitars follow ghosty synth (+ harmony for 2nd pass).
[2:45-2:52] Pwr-chord walk-down = 1st three notes of the melody (ghosty synth), countermelody/harmony leads on top.
[3:28-3:51] Acoustics follow source melody.
[3:52-4:37] Lead gtrs follow ghosty synth melody, with some different harmonies on top to vary the feel from earlier iterations (e.g. 2:07-2:38).
[4:45-End] Rhythm gtrs follow and play around with harp progression, leads follow ghosty synth melody. For the latter half-time segment, they switch; rhythms now chug chords and the ghosty synth melody is arpeggiated and harmonized.

Hope this provides enough clarification of how I used the source material here. Thanks. \m/"

As thebitterroost mentioned, it was mainly Opeth's melodious style being carried over for the opening minute, with the heavy presentation that arrived at 1:28 then being colored in by TBR, gradually flowing like water into darker and darker tones. Judge DarkSim stood in the gallery, took a look at the canvas, and admired what he saw:

"This is a cracking track. Love the 6/8 time signature and this style works so well with the source tune. Can't say I listen to much 'doom metal', but I was pleasantly surprised! The mixture of acoustic and electric guitars adds depth the the performance, and of course there's the gratuitous bass drumming section in there for good measure.

Great track, and the fadeout ending is actually quite fitting and didn't bother me as much as fadeouts usually do thanks"

Maybe we need an "ending-fadeout" tag around here. :-D As much as there's a very obvious and complete genre transformation, this is a wonderful example of a melodically conservative arrangement still possessing an ultra-strong and distinct stamp of personalization from the arranger. The denser rock instrumentation works so well, the soloing over the top of the source from 2:55-3:28 was a nice change in dynamics while remaining intense, and the subtle doubling of the melody most of the way was sophisticated & effective. If you don't typically swim in the metal lane, the beauty of thebitterroost's acoustic guitar work might pull you in to test those waters. Aggressive yet serene? Serene yet aggressive? I still can't wrap my head around how TBR pulled this shade off for Okami, but you owe it to yourself to bask in the artistry of his powerful metal mural!