Download (MP3)
Download (End card acoustic short: Land of Sorrow)
The #1 most requested song from the 2020 GaMetal Song Ballot has finally revealed itself: the epic God Shattering Star from Fire Emblem: Three Houses!
I wanted to get this one done earlier this year, but I kept having to push it back to get to other things, till it eventually got to the point where I figured it’d be best just to make it the 2020 finale, like I did with last year’s #1 request, Void Termina.
Earlier this year, Nicolas Daoust (alongside Marie-Ève Ermel) joined us for the Smash Bros Brawl Main Theme remake. I thought he’d make a great fit for this remix, so I asked if he was interested in being a part. He was totally game, so we both took some time to do some research on the song and got it together just in time to close out the year.
My first obstacle was how I’d go about combining Rain (the vocal version) with Thunder (the instrumental version). Thunder is generally the same as Rain, but replaces the ‘softer’ sections to be more similar with surrounding sections of the composition. My ideas for options were: mesh the two together, expanding each section where first the vocal is present followed by the instrumental form, which I didn’t like at all because it’d ruin the flow of everything. Option 2 was to do 2 seperate tracks, one vocal only and one instrumental only, similar to Brawl, City Escape, and a couple of other past GaMetal remixes with 2 versions, which was an idea I didn’t hate but wasn’t crazy about. Then I had a wild idea for option 3:
4 minute Guitar solo over the Thunder version
It may seem like overkill… but this song was already over the top, and this is the 2020 Finale, so we have no choice than to go the extreme route. Thus, the Thunder half of this remix features my longest Guitar solo to date. Also, so we didn’t complete drop the vocals halfway into the song, the penultimate section of the Rain half is instead covered by the guitars while Nicolas drinks tea. He’s then brought back at the very end of the Thunder section to sing the final part of the song.
A lot of you were curious about the lyrics, and trust me, so were we. Our research (and I’m certain Nicolas did far more than I did) had shown that no one has yet been able to decipher what language the lyrics are in, or even if it’s anything more than pseudo-Latin sounding gibberish with ‘Shattering Star’ thrown in (this is my favored theory, as it seems like pseudo-Latin has been showing up in more and more game songs recently), everything is simply theory and speculation at the moment. So Nicolas did the best he could approximating the lyrics as closely as possible, while also trying to make sense phonetically.
The lyrics for this remix (which you can also view by turning on Closed Captioning in the video) are as follows:
Vu zarruith pa, sa boosh
Ladh’vi, cadath ingrang
Va, chavas ful, bil hurith
Va, thibaath
A ria sio va, dhahkoh
Ladh’va, yurki fo ya rihan
Ladh’a dhavi ya tha drahanvi
A dolawa, cathi, hidia
A ria thvartoh Fodra
Ven, haling “shattering star”
Il dra, ben haya
Ath’va, vooka, vohl, vi yurida
Ash vi yurida
Im pahkenti
Dhagi cran th’va
Va, rihermash Fodra
Shirbash ragi honla
Pohuir dathlur kath blatha fo harida, vi
Iyuru odh’va adh’va luith, a ya jishara
Coduwa tharichi hilpo cotra
A riva delth, cathi bi, ha! ha! ha!
Vi hali ha!
Dum, pu lahi, du lahi, thvartoh
Ihija, il prathu, ihu fali raf prashari ha!
Someday we may know the truth behind the original lyrics, but till then, these should do!
Thank you all for all of your love and support through the insane year that was 2020. As always, I’m expecting the new year to be even better, I’ll see you in 2021!
And final shoutout to Nicolas Daoust for his outstanding vocal performance, please be sure to show him some love over at his channel!