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Another year, another Pursuit theme! This time from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies.

Like Pursuit ~ Lying Coldly, this one wasn’t exactly my among my favorite Pursuit themes, but it grew on me a lot while I was working on it. I think I said exactly this sentence in the post for that song, haha.

Ok for real, next time I’m gonna try really hard to not do a Pursuit theme for the next Ace Attorney arrangement!

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At long last we’re returning to the Etrian Odyssey series, this time for a remake of The End of the Raging Waves from Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City!

So a quick primer on the name of this song: most people call it End of Raging Waves, or The End of Raging Waves… or The End of the Raging Waves, but it’s officially titled Crest of the Violent Wave, which no one has requested under that title, go figure. 😛

Anyway, this song, as with most Etrian Odyssey music, is awesome. I put it up against a different EO song in a recent GaMetal Discord Request Battle, where it barely edged out a victory.

There are a few different official arrangements of this song, this remix is based off the original arrangement from Etrian Odyssey 3.

Doing this one makes me want to do another EO song sometime in the near future. Till then!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Conveying My Feelings)

I can’t lie to ya, I’m not super familiar with this game, so much so that I’m going to use an unrelated classic GaMetal bard image for the thingy here.

This song comes from the visual novel game Sorcery Jokers. Numerous folks from the GaMetal fanbase that have played this game and other visual novels say it’s a pretty good one, so if you’re a fan of VN games, definitely check it out!

But wait! Even if you have never heard of Sorcery Jokers, you should still check out the song, because it’s really good. I promise. 🙂

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Download (End card acoustic short: The Playroom)

Revenge from Everhood is a really, really awesome song. I’d go as far as to say it’s the best new game song I’ve heard in quite a long time.

The game has a few other standout tunes as well like The Final Battle, Feisty Flowers, and more, but Revenge takes the cake as my favorite (and several other people’s favorite) from the soundtrack.

This song first showed up on my radar from the 2021 GaMetal Song Ballot results, where it placed #5 overall. The first time I listened to it was during the ballot results Patreon stream, and I was immediately blown away.

I didn’t really do a whole lot of alteration to this song, it was already insanely good. So I just threw in some lead guitar during the organ-sounding section that comes in after the first part of the intro and after the first chorus, and added an acoustic guitar outro to make the original outro less abrupt sounding, which works perfectly in the context of the game, but outside of it on it’s own can come rather suddenly.

I’d definitely like to do another song from this game sometime in the future!

Also, this game is still new as of the posting of this remix, so for those of you who are considering picking it up, I do recommend playing it when you can, it’s a really fun game! I bought it solely because I liked Revenge so much, and I definitely do not regret my decision. 🙂

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Download (End card acoustic short: To the Gateway)

Bowser’s back and he means business!

…as is the feel with all Final Bowser themes.

Originally, this was only going to be the final Bowser theme from the first Super Mario Galaxy, but I decided to go ahead and throw the second SMG Final Bowser theme (“Fated Battle”) into the mix as well. Fated Battle retains the intro from the original (with a few small alterations), but bumps the intensity up some afterwards.

I also threw in the normal Bowser battle theme to back up the solo section.

Having three different parts reminded me a lot of last year’s MegaDragonBowser cover, so if you’re a fan of this one, be sure to check that one out.

This can be considered a continuation of our quest to eventually cover every Bowser battle theme. I know a lot of people are waiting for Bowser’s Fury. In time, in time. There’s still a lot more Bowser for us to get to!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Waltz of the Troupple King)

Shovel Knight has returned to GaMetal! It’s been almost 4 years since our last track (The Fateful Return), so it was nice to get back to some Jake Kaufman chiptune insanity.

There are two different versions of this song, the original “A Thousand Leagues Below” which was composed by Manami Matsumae, and “The Price of Doing Business”, which is a rearranged version of A.T.L.B. by Jake Kaufman. This arrangement is based on the latter. I was going to attempt to fit in a variation of the original version, but the two have such different feels that it would’ve felt forced in, so I decided against it.

This is probably my favorite SK arrangement to date. I think I might be getting a little better at this whole ‘music’ thing.

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We’re once again joined by a special guest on a song for a second consecutive time, this time featuring the awesome pop-punk vocal stylings of StudioNicktendo!

Remember this song? REMEMBER?? I did a version of Reach for the Stars in the first Sonic Fan Medley way back in 2013. I had quite a few requests for a full and possibly vocal version, but I never quite got around to it.

About a month prior to this remix, Sonic Colors Ultimate was announced (or a little before that, leaked), and I knew at that very moment when I saw the leak announcement that now was the perfect time to give this song a full rendition.

I learned about StudioNicktendo from his City Escape cover, and I loved how well his style fit the song, so I just had to reach out to him to see if he’d be interested in joining me on this Reach for the Stars cover. I was looking for a more aggressive vocal sound than the original, and he was able to encapsulate that feeling perfectly. It was exactly what I felt this song needed!

Be sure to check out, subscribe, and show some love over at Studio Nicktendo’s channel!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Crash Team Racing Main Menu)

Whenever I tally up songs from the GaMetal Song Ballots, I make a few different categories, one being ‘most requested new series’, to see what series we haven’t covered yet that people want to hear. Crash Bandicoot has shown up in the top 10 of that list every year since I started doing the ballot. It’s about time we remove it from ‘new series’ contention!

The Marimba is such a staple instrument to Crash Bandicoot music that I thought it’d be cool to feature an actual Marimba rather than just keyboarding it. So I called upon the amazing percussionist DrumUltimA to help me out on this one.

Ever heard a Marimba shred? Well, now you will!

DrumUltimA absolutely slayed it on this one, be sure to show him some love over at his Twitch and Youtube channels!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Kirby’s Block Ball Stage 1)

After a year and a half long hiatus, we’re FINALLY back in the world of Kirby to take on the mighty Drawcia Sorceress / Drawcia Soul!

This was the #1 most requested Kirby song from comment requests and both the 2020 and 2021 GaMetal Song Ballots (it was #6 overall in the 2020 ballot, but took a bit of a fall from last year’s lack of a full Kirby remix), so I know this is one a lot of you have been waiting on for a while.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t too big of a fan of Drawcia’s battle themes at first, but I’ve been listening to them for a while and they finally grew on me. The originals might come off as a bit… grating… to some, but I heard a lot of potential to make them into something really cool.

There was another Kirby song that tied with Drawcia in the 2021 ballot, perhaps we’ll get to that one later this year. Till then!

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Download (End card Piano short: Battle to Pay the Debt)

We’re taking an unexpected detour to the game Resonance of Fate / End of Eternity to cover a very under-appreciated Motoi Sakuraba battle theme: Battle to Pay the Debt!

For this arrangement, I had the lead guitar play along with most of the string melody. In the original, it’s strings only. I kept everything else, including those cool organ solos.

For those unfamiliar with RoF/EoE, this song plays during battles when protagonist Zephyr and friends travel to the student loan office.

Shoutout to GaMetal community member Omegpha for providing some animations for the video!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Slam Shuffle)

A common question I get asked from the GaMetal community is: what songs do I want to cover purely for my own enjoyment, without regards to requests and such?

The answer is: at this point in time, I’ve pretty much covered almost all of my favorite game songs, so there’s no 1 particular tune that sticks out. But when one does come back to mind… in comes the Birthday Special!

Once a year, to celebrate my birthday on July 1st, I make a completely biased song selection to make into a GaMetal arrangement. Occasionally these might be inspired by current events (such as the release of Dragon Quest 3’s Adventure theme after the Hero  Smash reveal), but most of the time it’s stuff that isn’t necessarily requested… at all, but they’re favorites of mine (like the Bridge / City / Sewers medley from Darkwing Duck NES).

This year I’ve once again chosen a song from my favorite game soundtrack, Final Fantasy VI, but this time I’ve gone with a song I’ve always loved but does not get a whole lot of love in the remix world: Metamorphosis.

It lacks the popularity of songs like Dancing Mad or Terra’s Theme (and let’s face it, with this entire soundtrack, it’s got nothing but stiff competition), and is on the short side clocking in at around 35 seconds originally, but it’s a damn effective song that plays during a few of the games ‘all hell has broken loose’ moments, mainly when Kefka is doing some crazy s-.

I was actually working on a version of this song way back in 2013, but never got around to finishing it. Unfortunately I lost all of my pre-late-2014 files in The Great Hard Drive Crash of 2014, so I can’t dig it back up to comparison… but I’m sure this version here is way better than that one.

Since this song is practically a Kefka song, and the tempos are similar, I also threw a bit of Kefka’s Theme into the mix to provide some length and keep things interesting.

I’m glad I was finally able to get this one done! When I was trying to decide on what this year’s birthday song would be, I was having trouble finding the right one. I was scrolling through some of my favorite game OSTs when I came across Metamorphosis and was immediately like ‘yeah… this is the one.’

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Download (End card acoustic short: Ooh, Wilfre!)

Here’s one I’ve been considering for a little while: Shadow Showdown from Drawn to Life.

This song has always received a solid amount of requests from the GaMetal Song Ballots over the years. Not quite enough to break into the top 10, but usually just within reach of it, and enough for me to take notice. In this year’s ballot, it placed #15 overall.

There are two versions of this song: the original from the first game, Drawn to Life, and another version from the DtL sequel The Next Chapter. The DtL:TNC version is almost the same as the first version, but up in key by a whole step and the use of a different soundfont.

This arrangement is based on the second version from The Next Chapter, but again, it’s practically the same as the first.

It’s also a pretty long song originally, so I didn’t feel the need to add any brand new sections, but I did extend the final part and try to make an acknowledgement to the original version by lowering the key a whole step during the guitar solo.

Cool song! I also really dug the bass in the original, so I made it a bit more prominent than usual in this arrangement. 🙂

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Download (End card acoustic short: Bonus Time)

We’ve reached the checkpoint: closing out this year’s May Madness (in June, as is tradition) is the last remake of the year (for now), and the #1 most requested remake for the year: Stickerbush Symphony from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest!

This one managed to place first in the 2021 May Madness ballot by a single vote, barely edging out FF6 Decisive Battle.

I first covered this song way back in 2010. It was the first ‘soft’ arrangement I made, and I used a Drum & Bass sound for most of the song. Despite the drastically different feel, this happened to be one of my more popular arrangements from the 2010 year of GaMetal.

I’ve arranged this one a bit differently from my 2010 version. The biggest change would be moving the metal section to the end of the song, rather than the middle.

That was probably the biggest complaint I had about my old version, that the metal part came in too abruptly and ruined the flow… and I agree, listening to it now, everyone was right.

I considered leaving the rock part out completely, but didn’t want to leave the people who liked that section hangin’, so I decided to move it to the end instead, sort of like how I did Eternal Wind.

In order to make the rock part a bit more acceptable of a changeup, I extended the soft part of this song with a synth-centric section from 3:08 to 3:47, and a new guitar solo after that part. In early drafts of this arrangement, I didn’t have the synth-centric section at all, but I didn’t care to have 2 back to back guitar solos without getting back to the main melody in some way.

Having almost 5 minutes straight of soft Stickerbush (rather than 2 minutes in the old version) makes the rock changeup a lot easier to accept once it finally hits, imo.

This song has had a lot of requests for a remake these last few years, but I’ve always been a bit reluctant to do so because I knew it’d be a somewhat difficult task. But with it taking the #1 spot in the May Madness ballot this year, you all left me no choice, but I’m glad you did, because I really like how this one turned out.

And of course, I hope you do too!

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Download (End card acoustic short: The Amazon)

Ah yes, The Moon, one of classic game music’s legendary gems.

I first covered this back in 2014 in the second ever GaMetal NES Medley, where it was the closing song. A lot has happened since then: DuckTales had a reboot, lasted 3 seasons, and was cancelled. A remastered version of the DuckTales NES game, DuckTales Remastered, was made. I think it’s about time we give this song it’s own time in the spotlight.

I’ve been considering a full version the past few years for the May Madness remake events, but there were always medley songs that had more requests. So this year, I made an exception and did two former GaMetal medley songs: Armored Armadillo a few weeks ago, and, of course, The Moon.

This arrangement is based on Jake Kaufman’s awesome version from DuckTales: Remastered, which adds a few new sections.

So off we go, to the moon!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Phantom Train)

Our 5th GaMetal May Madness remake is a song I first covered in 2014, and is one of my favorite songs from my favorite game soundtrack: Decisive Battle from Final Fantasy VI!

There are many “Decisive Battle” themes out there, but this one will always be my favorite (I’m biased). This is one of the first really intense songs you hear in the game, which could make it the first song in game to make you think ‘hey this soundtrack is awesome’.

It did for me anyways, haha.

This was the #2 most requested old GaMetal song for a remake from the public ballot, and was only one vote behind the #1 song, and as much as I love the FF6 OST, I can’t say no to that!

Aside from the usual remake changes, I added a new section to this arrangement from 2:20 – 2:46 to give this song a bit more fullness outside of the usual repeating of some sections.

I don’t have to say ‘I’m sure we’ll do more Final Fantasy VI in the future’ because it’s my favorite game soundtrack, so that one should be a given!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Good Night Mom)

We’re revisiting the song that introduced me to La-Mulana back in 2014: Interstice of the Dimension!

This one had a surprisingly large amount of requests from the May Madness ballot. I considered remaking it last year, but couldn’t quite squeeze it in.

With all of the requests it received this year, along with my love for the song, it was an easy inclusion for this year’s May Madness line up.

This time around, I changed up a few of the spots where the Guitars or Synths handled the medley. I also tested out including some bass drum shots in the video, since this one has some nutty double bass sections (for me anyway, haha) that wouldn’t of looked as cool with just the new front-facing shot alone.

This is a really crazy song and I love it, I’m glad a lot of you requested it in the public May Madness ballot. It was a blast to remake!

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Download (End card acoustic short: The Great Sea)

Ahoy mateys, we’re setting sail once again for Dragon Roost Island from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, this time for a Pirate-Metal style arrangement!

This was the last GaMetal song I did before the ‘Atma Era’ of GaMetal started in 2013. It received many requests to be remade from the May Madness ballots, and was the last song I cut from my May short list from last year, so all things considered, this one was a lock to return in 2021.

Upon listening to my old 2012 remix, I… hated it, lol. So I started completely from scratch and made this into a Pirate-Metal song, changing from 3/4 to 6/8 timing and adding some ‘piratey’ instruments (accordian, bagpipe, fiddle, flutes, etc).

The feel may be completely different, but I feel it suits the song well, and I’m definitely much happier with this arrangement than my old one!

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Download (End card acoustic short: MMX Staff Roll)

It’s been about six whole years since I last covered a Mega Man X song… and that was just a quick feature in the old Mega Man Mega Medley 2. Before that, there was the 2014 GaMetal finale, the Mega Man X Maverick Medley. I’ve only ever done MMX songs in medleys, but never gave one song the full treatment.

I must be crazy!

Well the GaMetal MMX dry spell is finally over with today’s newest GaMetal arrangement, one of my personal favorite songs from the game: Armored Armadillo!

I first did this song in the aforementioned 2014 MMX Maverick Medley, and it was the most popular song from that medley that you all requested a full version of from the May Madness ballots.

I’ll try not to take 6 years to get back to MMX next time!