ReMix:Final Fantasy VIII "Make Them Bleed" 4:51

Greetings once again from MAGFest! Even though bad winter weather prevented us from having a full crew, the panel went great with Hemophiliac, Xaleph, and me sharing the stage and opining on the greatness of video game music! I've met up and caught up with so many ReMixers, and finally crossed Nando’s PERi-PERi off the bucket list! But the combination of winter weather and talking too much (especially over loud music) is drying out my throat. ZackParrish, you may not be at MAGFest, but I'm blaming YOU, because this track HAS to be the reason my throat's bleeding, not my bushleague lack of cough drops! A track so powerful, it'll put you on the shelf, we've got ZackParrish's oppressive FF8 orchestral rock opus featuring both Zack and Viking Guitar on axes, and Earth Kid's sunny disposition on full display with her bright, bubbly, and cheerful take on Ultimecia! I think I've got that last part correct, right, Zack? ;-)

"This was the first track that I took up when I hopped on the SeeDs of Pandora train. I had no intentions of doing anything beyond this first track and didn't even consider collabing with anyone up to this point. Darkflamewolf and Jorito both were embracing a culture of collaboration on all fronts and had suggested it, though, as I was producing it and doing all the guitar parts myself, I hadn't thought much of it until at some point I decided... Ultimecia is a raving lunatic and I need to encapsulate that somehow. Enter... Earth Kid. Her name sounds gentle but... after getting her VA stuff for this track, I believe she might just be insane. That or she was having a bad morning, because she brought down the house with her contributions. She also sings in a small interlude of sorts... which wasn't originally there but Jorito and DFW didn't like that the track was balls to the wall for 5 minutes and asked for a "breather". Anyway... I'm no lead guitarist by any stretch, so, I eventually tapped Viking Guitar on the shoulder to track a guitar solo at the end befitting of the yell that EK makes at the end of her going insane."

Did I say Earth Kid was bright and cheerful? I meant, "Hey, WTF? I've met you in real life, how can you sound this manaical?!?" Zack's arrangement is so comprehensive that it doesn't feel unfinished without voice acting, yet we have an unbelievable vocal transformation from the normally sunny Earth Kid recreating FF8 dialogue and adding that important extra dimension with Ultimecia's unsettling grunts, cackles, and screams. SeeDs of Pandora co-director Darkflamewolf was happy to see this theme finally represented on OCR, which I would have sworn up and down wasn't a gap we had (a hex on me, then!):

"Of the three final boss themes, this was the one I wanted to see remixed the most and it was finished first much to my delight, instantly making it my favorite! The sheer malice oozing from this track has to be heard to be believed. Earth Kid's Ultimecia impression is spot on and very chilling. A track that doesn't get remixed often, if at all, but one that I feel is one of the stronger battle themes of the game."

Fellow album co-director Jorito also summarized this well -- a track with driving intensity accomplished without the need for speed:

"One of the big end battle tracks in FF8, Zack's take on "The Legendary Beast" (or "Legbeast" as it was called during pre-production, not sure if that's an epic gym workout or a big beast to battle) is rather an intense ride. Despite the slower pace, it has its fair share of epicness and creates a big wall of sound, yet it retains plenty of movement and dynamics too and manages to ooze intensity and malice. Some great VA by Earth Kid as a malevolent Ultimecia takes things up an extra notch, making this a rather adrenaline-inducing track fit for an epic battle."

We're now waiting for someone to formally arrange this source tune and call the track "Legbeast", which sounds like the next great gimmick workout, but I digress. :-) Zack's copious lead-switching throughout keeps everything fresh and dynamic, and I loved the dropoff from 2:23-2:46; call it executive meddling if you want, DFW & Jorito's steering toward collabs and their rec that this piece needed a "let me up" segment were great macro and micro judgement calls, so I'm glad Zack was receptive to that feedback. The dynamic contrast of the afforementioned dropoff flows perfectly as a set-up to Ultimecia cutting loose with laughter, then rebuilding the intensity with those awesome French horn rips and their call-and-response with the guitar at 3:01, a faithful and forceful sound upgrade from the original theme. Go forth and unleash your inner boss with Ultimecia's mad declarations! And if anyone stands in your way of becoming a living god...

MAKE. THEM. BLEED.