ReMix: Castlevania 'Wicked Six'

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Scion Artistic Intersection Contest
Castlevania

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.

djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
The new version of this track that Sixto did is much better than this (though this is still awesome, of course). Too bad he doesn't have it posted up anymore...

- KyleJCrb on June 18, 2009
When I saw this one on Sixto's list of remixes, I thought "Wow, this song's awesome, Sixto's a hell of a guitar player, so it's probably be one of his best works"
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
How did I miss this before? I've had it, but I haven't really listened to it. I have iTunes on random right now and that opening drumhit woke me up. The guitars sounded familiar, I ctrl+tabbed over and it's WICKED SIX! Sixto Sounds! Here I thought I had heard all his stuff and "random" hits me over the head with this piece of sonic awesomeness.
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
Damn, am I the only one that really digs the organ sound on this? I've always thought that kind of an organ went really with distorted guitars, and big scale runs sound so fucking slick on it, but maybe that's just me. Either way, this is a really cool mix that's a lot of fun to listen to. It's not particularly heavy, and is more in the realm of 80's metal like was said before (like 2 years ago or whenever), but it sounds good. I'm sure every Castlevania song ever written before the PS1 came out has been covered as a rock/metal song, but what the hell, it sounds cool and vampires totally listen to metal when they're not eating people.

- Adamantium Dude on August 25, 2007
Wicked Six cover on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qsHkrbtY5M
Just a little exposure.

- Escariot on August 17, 2007
never played castlevania but hot damn this is a diamond in the rough. this song is sex about 2:50 onward. im all for a judge panel but if awesome songs like this don't see the light of OC, something's wrong. im happy it was posted and hope to see more from you sixto.

- your the man now dog on April 28, 2007
Just as I expected, Sixto. Almost pristine production. I do agree that the organ was a little too weak and drowned out in most parts, though.
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
I never get tired of this particular melody. It's just got power.
Good job playing off that power and making an energetic, rock-out-with-your-cock-out remix.

- PumaJones on March 22, 2006
This sounds like it belongs in a Castlevania anime. I'm serious, awesome stuff.

- RandomDragoonKain on March 17, 2006
Well sixto, you've done it again. Rocking me till my socks are off and my feet are bloody. This song is very good. Not the best I've heard, and you really should have used a more powerful, less electric organ, but you have shown the world you are the master of guitar solos. I bow before you now and your wicked guitar skills in this song "Wicked Six"

- Bladewind on November 28, 2005
I never played much castlevania (I dabbled. Just never found it worth my money) so I might not notice the obvious similarities to it's original but I like it... sort of. It has a nice eighties hair-metal feel to it with a creeper dracula thing going but I've heard this too many times to listen to it a lot. Final verdict? Shuffle- yes, Mix CD- no.

- jimkatai on October 4, 2005
I'm not sure why Castlevania turns so easily into rock-ballad... This one is solid, of course. Though, it's a bit too much like the original. The end has some interesting organ and guitar wailin' but, there should be more throughout. And where's the vocals? I wanna hear some guy screaming in there to fill it out.

- meccaneer on October 2, 2005
I love remixes that don't water down the melody of the original material. And what a sin that would be with Castlevania! This remix deserves its praise for tight arrangement, for a great new presentation of a memorable CV melody.

- 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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