ReMix: Castlevania 'Wicked Six'
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- Game: Castlevania (Konami, 1986, NES)
- ReMixer(s): Sixto Sounds
- Composer(s): Club Kukeiha, Shinya Sakamoto
- Song(s): Wicked Child
- Posted: 2005-09-25, evaluated by the judges
The primary issue with newcomer Sixto Sounds' ReMix of Castlevania's Wicked Child is that, on the scales of production and arrangement, it's a bit lopsided towards the former. There's definitely a slick, produced rock/metal vibe going on, with punch on the geets and drums and solid integration of organ and other keys for the timbral variety angle, and I think the overall sound has the type of energy with musical control that a lot of people should dig. However, the judges were unanimous in citing similiarity to the source material as the dominant concern, and in true largely-symbolic-Vice-Presidential style, I stepped in to tiebreak, after a fashion. It wasn't an easy call, but there were several important factors to consider: when we talk about arrangement, as stated before, that can take the form of genre-shifting, tempo-shifting, instrumentation, altering the original melody/rhythm/etc., adding new stuffs - the list goes on. The operative question was whether there was enough here to constitute arrangement that could be weighed in combination with the contrastingly solid production to meet our standards. There's plenty of people out there who think we should just post whatever sounds good, and I can understand that perspective, even if I don't share it; they're free to say what they will of our process, policies, and panel. I feel like all three have been working fairly well, however. So, back on track: when I considered the drum track, which refactors the original rhythm into something more appropriate for rock, the minimal-but-still-important changes made to the lead melody to optimize it for electric guitar, and most importantly the last minute or so, which does eventually get around to adding some soloing and original bits in, I agreed with the majority of the panel that this was an example of a mix that, lopsided though it may be, could be posted. SS could have made all our lives easier had some of the soloing been dispersed more evenly throughout the song, and a couple more conspicuous changes made to avoid following the original structure for so long. But he didn't, we were left with a judgment call, and we made it. My guess is that many won't care how the mix got evaluated and will simply be happy to download it, some others will feel that the panel should have been stricter, some looser, and that perhaps (?) a handful might see the inherent difficulty in these types of calls and be thankful there's people willing to spend hours discussing them ;) That's a whole lot of rambling from me, and Jesse managed to get straight to the point in a couple sentences, so here's the reader's digest version:
"the arrangement is somewhat straightforward, but the instrumentation is very cleverly thought-out, making it sound like more than a cover. would be on the line due to the conservative arrangement if not for the solos, which push it over the edge. what can i say? those solos werent in the original."
Pretty much. Apologies to Sixto for littering this writeup with judging esoterica, but it was key in why the mix took a bit longer to post, and key to how we look at mixes of this nature in general, so I thought it was pertinent. All you really need to know, in the end, in addition to what Jesse said, is that this is a kickin' rock/metal ReMix of Wicked Child, an already-badass original, that Sixto Sounds has added some serious beef to, and even thrown in a small helping of tatos, precious (PO-TA-TOS). So, regardless of the context, this is some fun shredding and verve-tastic Castlevania work from Sixto.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the - KyleJCrb on June 18, 2009
It turned out that I didn't liked it that much and I still prefer MegaDriver's version, but it's a great song anyway. It's Sixto's after all, you can't go wrong with him.
- moonra on June 18, 2009
The organ surprises me, but it works. I love hardcore, loud organ stuff and I love hard guitars. It's like putting chocolate and mint together in an ice cream that blows your head off with a sawed-off shotgun as you hurtle to the canyon floor from the highest heavens. But it's a holy shotgun and the solo at 3:21 breathes life back into you, causing a new head with WINGS to sprout from your necky stump and you go flying off into the setting sun where your body is vaporized but your essence becomes part of the universe.
Yeah, I like this mix.
- LuckyXIII on February 21, 2009
Adamantium Dude;310620 wrote: Damn, am I the only one that really digs the organ sound on this?
Nope... Me too!! Even more than the guitar... Major paradox, because I'm a big fan of Sixto as a guitarrist.
- DramaNoMore on June 12, 2008
- Adamantium Dude on August 25, 2007
Just a little exposure.
- Escariot on August 17, 2007
- your the man now dog on April 28, 2007
I also agree with DJP that perhaps you shouldn't have waited until the very end to display the significant arrangement modifications.
This theme has been done so many times (especially in this genre) that it takes something real "new" in order to avoid simply being "old hat."
- IndyCovaHart on April 19, 2006
Good job playing off that power and making an energetic, rock-out-with-your-cock-out remix.
- PumaJones on March 22, 2006
- RandomDragoonKain on March 17, 2006
- Bladewind on November 28, 2005
- jimkatai on October 4, 2005
- meccaneer on October 2, 2005
- Ionyze on October 1, 2005
RandLan wrote:Dectilon wrote: More lyrics! Considering what metal lyrics is usually about I don't think the challege is that great :)
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NO MORE SINGING!
Anytime I hear a new mix start off fine, only to find that it has vocals in it, I just think 'Why? Why did you ruin this promising piece with vocals?' And I immediately stop listening and never listen to it again.
"Good" singing already sounds terrible enough. Don't encourage people with even less training to ruin their songs.
Uh...thank goodness you're in the minority.
- Dhsu on September 29, 2005
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