Board 8 > [VGMC] d34: Don't Speak vs Mechalullaby, Second Dark Matter vs Blind Jusice

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 14, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss/edit#gid=320804650
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=473292
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78524521
Bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1REnVI_W6yELaDP6Zac8b0Wq
ToC playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RE-TQMj19D0k5nm-0zeH12J
VGMC compability sheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lpX4faqnn_geI0y4i6MrZ2AXpV6SWXoWrIA6_eyx-yM/edit

Rules:
- Listen to both of the songs. Links have conveniently been provided for both songs. Even if Song A is your favorite of all-time and Song B is from a series you hate... Listen. To. Both. (If I have suspicions your vote is not based on a fair and impartial preference, it will be disqualified.)
- Obvious contest rules apply (no alts, one vote per person, no rallying, etc.).
- Please make your voting options clear, rather than burying them in text.
- Each set of matches lasts 24 hours, even if the new one isnt up by then. (Matches do not begin until at least 10:00 EDT.)
- Always vote on the versions of the song provided, not versions from different sources.
- If you know ahead of time that you're not going to be around and you want to vote in advance, post your choices in the discussion/bracket topic.
- Please do NOT post tallies/score updates in the middle of the match, as this has a tendency to directly influence matches.
- You don't have to vote in all the matches, but it'd be cool if you did!

.

Match 1

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Don't speak her name!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFY5TPI-kaU

Kidou Sentai Iron Saga - Mechalullaby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCRtnoYGh2U

Match 2

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - Second Dark Matter Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeXGr9WerPg

beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD - Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Y66A4jP-M
<

Mechalullaby
Blind Justice
goldenslaughterer

easy

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Kidou Sentai Iron Saga - Mechalullaby
beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD - Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
Shovel Knight - Strike the Earth

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"Don't speak her name!" (118th) vs Mechalullaby (178th)
Second Dark Matter Battle (63rd) vs Blind Justice ~Torn souls, Hurt Faiths~ (31st)
Strike the Earth! [11th//14th] vs goldenslaughterer [20th//25th]

Same soul that I've believed in and missed in my lonely life
Holy war to save our soil
Same fight we could do I hoped for the genuine justice
Dune
people in hunger where to go...

Torn my heart, my friend, that's you wanted to?
No can make my faith illusion

Can stay with me?
Or just go away
You see my tears, it's a doomed reunion....

((good songs today all around, mechalullaby is the only one i'm meh on cause it really does put me to sleep and I don't really care for even its WEIRDNESS but yeah i love everything else a lot lolol))

Strike the Earth! > Blind Justice ~Torn souls, Hurt Faiths~ > goldenslaughterer > Second Dark Matter Battle > "Don't speak her name!" > Mechalullaby

Don't speak her name!
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

More like don't sleep her name haha get it it's because it's... you know what, forget it, you already know why. But yeah, it's a song very symbolic of the dramatic shift Awakening took for the.... i dunno, sheer budget of its soundtrack. Meanwhile, mechalullaby exists. It's okay, but I don't really have strong opinions on it. It has vocals that I am neither for or against. It has a nice beat though i could do without the bubble pop sounds. Overall, very neutral, which in vgmc puts it below most of the field. zzzzzzzzzzzz *pop* (awakens)

It's been a while since I last ran through all of them, but I recall that Blind Justice is not my favourite zektback song in any of its forms, but it's still pretty great. unrelated side note, it always catches me off-guard when I see that Starbreaker avatar on that channel. Now i wanna play some aos2... Except I will not because i have 3 other songs to get to. SDMB is a song my mood can apparently swing on considerably... today... Maybe picking blind justice first was the cause, but I'm not really feeling it.

slaughter the earth

Second Dark Matter Battle

others coming later
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Don't speak her name!
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
Strike the Earth

Don't speak her name! (7.5) / Mechalullaby (7.5)
Second Dark Matter Battle (9.5) / Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~ (8.0)

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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
Strike the Earth
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Fire Emblem: Awakening - Don't speak her name!
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - Second Dark Matter Battle
Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 - goldenslaughterer
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Mecha
Hurt
Earth
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I'm so glad that TRE and I canceled out our votes seconds apart
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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

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Don't speak her name!
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

I used to not like DSHN much at all, but I think it's nice now. Mechalullaby started out great and had a lot of promise and I thought I was going to vote for it and then it just didn't go anywhere...

SDMB is kinda okayish I guess. Too bad it keeps getting in and jobbing all the time. Blind Justice a classic. Not my favorite Zektbach either, but definitely a gooder.

Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~ > Don't speak her name! > Second Dark Matter Battle > Mechalullaby
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Don't speak her name!
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

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Don't Speak Her Name
Strike the Earth!
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Kidou Sentai Iron Saga - Mechalullaby
Pokmon Super Mystery Dungeon - Second Dark Matter Battle
Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 - goldenslaughterer

Match 1: Oh hello there perennial Fire Emblem song. This is actually one of the better ones though. Feeling more in the mood for Mechalullaby today, it's pretty chill.

Match 2: Second Dark Matter Battle was one of my favorite discoveries last year, and I still hold that it is a great song. EPIC POETRY genre (apparently that's what this is) is totally my type of music, wow this match is super close.

ToC: GREAT match and I hate that I'm voting against StE again.

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Don't speak her name!
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
Strike the Earth

that second match actually tears my soul though

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Don't speak her name!
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

Don't speak her name!
Second Dark Matter Battle
Strike the Earth

Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

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Mechalullaby
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

Don't speak her name! is my 149th favorite in the contest! this has grown on me, i used to only really care for the Morishita contributions to Fire Emblem...they're still the only things i get /really/ excited for, this doesn't come close to the portion of the soundtracks i care about (i don't hate rei kondoh, he's done a few FE tracks I like and I like most of Okami!), but i at least think this is alright. it's EPIC and has some Big Moments (mostly cool modulations) that feel cool. idk i don't think i have much new to say about this that i haven't said before. when the plucked strings and glockenspiel poke through it feels nice! i don't find slow orchestra music boring anymore like i did in vgmc12 when i ranked this really low. i mean i guess 149 is low but i like this field way more than average haha

Mechalullaby is my 130th favorite in the contest! the piano line in this feels SPOOKY. even though the chord changes in this are pretty straightforward, they don't feel like they are? they're really spaced out in a way that makes the familiar chords all feel fresh. This sound design is wonderful, bubbly sounds are cool, i love delay echoes!!! vocalist is singing in a vocal style that I like! BEEP BEEP BEEP sine wave having fun it feels like a Hitomi Sato pokemon song turned into a POP song on the RADIO. this flips between the relative minor/major a lot, which i often find difficult to find "effective" compared to stuff where the scales beneath have to change, but this manages to be like entirely the same diatonic scale the whole time and just changing the context around that scale has a lot of power.

wow!

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Second Dark Matter Battle is my 68th favorite in the contest! another track much like don't speak her name, song that keeps getting into contests from a OST I love but the song not being representative of what i like about the ost AND, just like don't speak her name, this has grown on me...well not really, my opinion on this has been all over the place (part of this has to do with initially judging from an HQ rip, but later judging based on really low quality uploads that made it hard to hear elements about the track i cared most about, and only realizing later that my initial introduction was way higher quality source and thats why i "used to like it but stopped liking it" but then later "started to like it again". all depends on how well i can HEAR it lol since my interest is so dependent on tiny details that get lost with low quality). I think also maybe there's a lot of bias against it because i like at least 75% of the ost (and pmd series music in general) far more than this song so it's always been a frustrating recurring contest rep for one of my favorite soundtracks/series even if I still like the song. anyways i've talked about this a lot already in the past, it has things i like, 4ths/5th parallel harmony in melody lines, REALLY cool big chords, big flute! EPIC. starts with the fun voice. I LOVE THIS SONG OK i've said most of what i want to say before i didn't even need to type anything here

Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~ is my 67th favorite in the contest! TOMOSUKE! I stopped exploring tomosuke music for like no reason, should get back to seeing what else he has that i do not know about that i might like. This is like if you made Bach music but turned it into something I love somehow. chord change at :30 is whooooaaa. has really cool subtle mixed meter rhythms in the harpsichord part as its kicking in at :40 which flows really smoothly with those chord hits and the constant 8ths. This is like if Umineko music waS REALLY COOOL (umineko music is really cool). 1:45 is TENSE O_o i'm going to be STABBED by the big church guy playing the harpsichord I like the vocalist and church organ is a fun instrument I like instruments. There's so many chord/key changes that hit at just the right moment. I think i tend to prefer this at the parts without the EDM drums but I LIKE how the edm drums are there because the contrast of those sections to "it literally just sounds like classical music" sections is necessary for the calmer moments to be effective (and vice versa). 3:27 is a very cool tense chord transpose on church organ angry moment and it's very scary and wonderful climax of intensity to this thing!! Amazing track, so many other details i could've pointed out. ermine showed me this a while ago and I had a reaction of mild positivity but the more I listen the more I like it.

the only "only 1 place difference" round 1 match I'm aware of. Needless to say, ultra close match!

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Strike the Earth (25th/56) / goldenslaughterer (20th/56). very close match. I like strike the earth more compositionally but goldenslaughterer takes it in terms of atmosphere and sound design. other shovel knight stuff would beat goldenslaughterer easily, then again other umineko music would make this a no-contest vote for umineko. could flip later if i change my mind.

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honestly all 3 matches today are very close! just barely prefer one over the other every time. could flip on any of them
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Fire Emblem: Awakening - Don't speak her name!
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - Second Dark Matter Battle
Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 - goldenslaughterer

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Don't speak her name!
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

mechalullaby
second dark matter battle
goldenslaughter
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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
Strike the Earth
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Don't speak her name!
Second Dark Matter Battle
Strike the Earth

-
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

wtf fire emblem music is good
oh I thought Blind Justice ~Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths~ was going to be RE:UNION -Duo Blade Against- even though that already showed up lmao
shovel knight strikes the earth and finds some gold "why do I hear boss music"

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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

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Mechalullaby
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

Mono
Sodium
Glutamate

Could have gone either way on the first match, but then I wouldn't be able to spell a food additive out of the first letters. (I also am fine with Strike the Earth.)

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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

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Mechalullaby
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

Don't speak her name!
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
Strike the Earth

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Don't speak her name!

Super tough match, was about to vote Mechalullaby but DSHN ultimately impressed me after 3-4 listens (that's like 6-8 loops!). Though Mechalullaby feels more cohesive and digestible, DSHN has a lot more to offer when I give it my attention and don't let it fade into the background.

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Don't speak her name!
Second Dark Matter Battle
goldenslaughterer

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Kidou Sentai Iron Saga - Mechalullaby
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - Second Dark Matter Battle

Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 - goldenslaughterer
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Mechalullaby
Blind Justice ~ Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
Strike the Earth!

Wow, this first match is crazy good. I'm a huge fan of Don't Speak Her Name, always have been, but Mechalullaby is just awesome.

You know what's also awesome? The Second Dark Matter Battle. Be it main line games or spinoffs like this, Pokmon usually delivers with its boss themes and has ever since RBY and the first Champion Battle theme. And yet, I nearly voted against it here, until Blind Justice ~ Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~ started getting a little too Umineko-y for my tastes. Except actually good. Actually, really good. That ending brings it back; it's too good not to vote for.

Which leaves us with this unfortunate ToC match, in which a song that is merely "good" easily gets my vote on a day where all four main bracket songs were "great" because it's against "please lord make it go away".

Mechalullaby > Blind Justice ~ Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~ > Don't Speak Her Name! > Second Dark Matter Battle >>>>>> Strike the Earth! >>>>>>>>>>^>>>>>>>>>> goldenslaughterer

Yes, that's a caret in there, as in "exponential". Seriously, this thing's been in at least 22 matches too many, probably more like 27 if I assume that people were at least trying to get it in in the years prior to its retirement that it wasn't in but other Umineko songs were. Yes that's right I'm counting it getting nominations as "too much".

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Mechalullaby
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
Strike the Earth

Mechalullaby
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

oh my gosh Mechalullaby is good. Weird feeling when in your head you're only listening to a song as a formality but then you actually end up voting for it. Have to imagine whatever loses in match 1 here is an absolute lock for my vote in the wildcard though.

Liked Second Dark Matter Battle a bit more than I remembered, but turns out it doesn't really matter. Blind Justice is pretty cool. Reminds a me a bit of the OP for The World God Only Knows. Feel like if anything's holding back this song it might be the singer herself, but the composition is really good.

Very good day.
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Quick votes today

Don't speak her name!
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

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Mechalullaby
Second Dark Matter Battle
Strike the Earth

-there's a melodramatic feel to Don't speak her name! (I mean, look at the title). while not compositionally similar, the way the track entreats me to believe that it's a serious and emotional moment kinda reminds me of shimomura's tracks that push in the same way. elaborate and stately, fastidiously arranged and well-produced, this track is nice in a number of ways, but strangely sterile. I feel kinda unmoved by the whole thing.
-mechalullaby is a pretty significant contrast-- not in pace or energy but in mood and focus. it's a simple track that I find immediately and almost startlingly pretty. the layers of synths and sounds under some sparse leads and TetraCalyx's very understated vocal performance give the track a dreamy, floaty feel. the whole vocal line in the chorus sits on the pentatonic scale and where something like that would turn me off the track, here I marvel at its effectiveness in fitting with the theme and feel of the piece. the muted piano, the bubbles, the sixteenth-note synth line in the chorus-- what an incredibly calming track, and a real panacea for a low mood. this is one of those tracks where the arrangement and instrumentation really make the piece-- there are at least two other versions of the track that I like dramatically less.

-there are moments where second dark matter battle makes an effort to sound really 'cool' and dramatic, the way a final boss theme 'should' be. a lot of the time those are the moments I care for the least. otherwise there are plenty of cool moments in this track. I actually think 2:03, where the track cools off for a bit, is very nice.
-EPIC POETRY. iidx genres, always a fun time. this grew on me a bit on successive listens. it has a church-like, almost gothic feel, driven by the texture of the vocals and the harpsichord and organ. some cool key changes and shifts in direction.

-close third match-- pretty mood-driven.

Don't speak her name!
Second Dark Matter Battle
Strike the Earth

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goldenslaughterer

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Kidou Sentai Iron Saga - Mechalullaby
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - Second Dark Matter Battle
Shovel Knight - Strike the Earth! (Plains of Passage)


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Mechalullaby
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

Oh yeah, finished the first chapter of Umineko today. That was surprisingly good.

goldenslaughterer > Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~ >>> Strike the Earth >>> Second Dark Matter Battle >>> Mechalullaby > Don't speak her name!

Don't speak her name!
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
Strike the Earth

Mechalullaby
Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~
goldenslaughterer

Mechalullaby is right on the cusp of almost sounding like my type of music, but then doing a lot of things that I don't enjoy. I can't see myself voting for it over too many other things... But it's Fire Emblem. This series consistently has some of the most boring music that I'm ever forced to listen to. Or at least what I've been exposed to through VGMC and Smash Bros. I can't stand any of it. The only FE song that I actually like is the one in SSBM, but (being a remix/medley) that's clearly not representative of what the music in the actual series is like.

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Don't speak her name! [6.9] < Mechalullaby [8.6]
Second Dark Matter Battle [8.7] < Blind Justice Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths ~ [9.2]
Strike the Earth < goldenslaughterer

x. i dont like this as much as the other song from fire emblem awakening
wow its the future and girls are singing and its melancholy

pokemon super CRAXY dungeon I LOVE WORLDS MUSIC COOL CHORD and anime
tomosuke to my knowledge sounds nothing like this but i guess they sound like this at other times. AMAXING rhythm game "CLASSICAL music"

i like virt sounds and lemonies!! wow games of digging have good music

right side is heavy day
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