So yeah. Some of you may remember what I did with the Umineko soundtrack a while back. This is going to be something similar.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Crow's Claw, they basically remix songs into Heavy Metal-esque music and then do a damn good job of playing it. It's mostly instrumental, and the three main franchises they remix are Touhou, Type-Moon, and Final Fantasy. They've also done some original work, but I'm not going to go into that here. By my count, it's 92 songs over nine (Two Type-Moon, Two Final Fantasy, and Five Touhou) albums, and I plan on going an album at a time (But not more than an album a day).
So yeah. If you're interested, feel free to read along If you're not, feel free to laugh at the lolreg opinions, if you're into that kind of thing
First album will be one of the touhou ones just because there's the most of them. I'm going to give it one more listen in addition to giving the original songs all a good listen so yeah <_<
also note that I haven't listened to some of these as thoroughly as I have the Umineko songs and am thus less familiar with them
I don't have those, so you'll just have to make due with this
also actually listening through the album then listening to the songs themselves, THEN the originals on top of that is going to take a while. first one will probably be tonight-ish
Original: Touhou 06 - Septette for the Dead Princess )
This is a good, solid remix of the original track, but really nothing terribly specail. The guitars are decent for what they are, there's a nice solo at about the 2/3 mark, but after that it gets into the low-pitched, kind of rumbling guitar sound that I don't like much. The main riff is alright, but I feel like it doesn't really represent the original song that well. By no means a bad track, though.
Rating: 6/10
Track 02 - Mountain of Faith
Original: Touhou 10 - The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field )
Let me start by saying that I don't care for the original much. It drags on and on, I feel, and at some points it tries to feel overblown and "epic". On a synthesiser. 'no'. The arrangement, however, is great. It's a heavy mix, for sure, but it actually feels like a battle theme and I feel like it gets everything the original was going for, without sacrificing much else. The guitar solo is a classic shredding solo, but it fits the nature of the song well. Very good and enjoyable arrange of a below-average song.
The original really feels like the same song played twice <_<. The arrange is pretty solid, though. The riffs really capture the essence of the main song, and I find this to be a very enjoyable piece to listen to. The solo halfway through is another "how fast can I play" solo, but it at least makes it flow within itself, making it one of the better ones of that type <_<. The slow, melodic section shortly after is also a well-placed break from the overall weight of the rest of the song.
**** IN Extra. Now that that's out of the way, this takes a good theme and makes it better. There's a good riff, good backing instrumentation, and a damn good guitar solo. Some points it's like "ehhh", but overall, everything blends together in one good package.
I feel like this piece is totally average. It's got an "alright" riff, but it feels like a lot of it is just that riff over and over again with no real variation to it. The guitar solo is nice, but beyond that, there's not much here other than a pile of listenable mediocrity.
Original: Touhou 06 - Shanghai Teahouse ~ Chinese Tea )
This is a far more melodic theme on the surface, but argh that rumbling low guitar. Looking past that one issue, it's not too terribly bad. Solid melody, good solo that isn't "how fast can you play", and I don't really feel like it drags on too much at all.
Rating: 6.5/10
Track 07 - Puppet of the Magus, Pt.1
Original: Touhou 04 - Vessel of Stars ~ Casket of Star )
A good track, I guess. Why is it eight minutes long, though? It drags pretty hard in the middle, but looking past that it's relatively good. Not too much to say about it, though, because nothing about it really stands out to me <_<
Rating: 7/10
Track 08 - Necro Phantasia
Original: Touohu 07 - Necrofantasia )
And here. Here's probably the highlight of the album. You take a great (And one of the most famous) touhou track and you do an excellent arrangement of it, and just in general do everything right, and you get this. The guitar melodies are excellent, there's none of that rumbling guitar that I hate, and the solo is well-done too. Excellent track.
Rating: 9/10
Track 09 - Still Winter
Original: Touhou 07 - Paradise ~ Deep Mountain )
Now this being a stage 1 theme of a game I play, I actually know it reasonably well <_<. And I'll just say I don't really feel like this captures the original too well. However, ignoring the remix part, this is still a decently listenable track. Not Necro Phantasia levels of great, but still good enough. Also mostly lacks the rumbling guitar that I hate, which is always a plus.
Rating: 7/10
Track 10 - Gray Thaumaturgy
Original: Touhou 10 - Faith is for the Transient People )
Another listenable track, featuring good guitar work. The downside to this one is probably its drums, actually. I appreciate some good drum work, but this feels like "how much can we bang the drum and make noise" which I really don't like. But another solid track, this one. Nothing aside from the drums that I notably dislike.
Rating: 6/10
Overall, a pretty solid album with one stand out (Necro Phantasia), a couple more "good" tracks, and the rest are solid and listenable, at least. Nothing really bad here.
Disclaimer: Some of these opinions may be skewed by the fact that if I know the original song (IE: It's not F/HA), I probably love it <_< I'm also a huge Type-Moon guy.
Anyways here's #2 for all three people that are actually looking at this <_<
Broken Phantasm (Type-Moon Arrange CD)
Track 01 - Opening -Die Lorelei-
Original: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Opening Theme )
Now I've never played F/HA (obviously), and I don't care for the OP theme much, but this piece is a nice melody and pretty much the opposite of what you'd usually expect from Crow's Claw. It's also really short, which is ok I guess. A pretty light piece, and not bad, but not really great either.
Rating: 6/10
Track 02 - Possession
Original: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Theme of Karen )
Ok I listened to the original for this one, and I'm wondering what the hell it was turned into. A quieter, peaceful theme was turned into a loud, in-your-face Crow's Claw kinda thing. Which I guess should be obvious, but <_<. Anyways, ignoring that, there's a bit of the rumbling guitar stuff (Which is rather prevelant on this album <_>) and beyond that, this is a pretty damn good piece. The (regular) guitar work is top-notch here. The solo is kinda wah-wah ish at a couple parts, and is overall pretty typical, but still listenable, and doesn't really detract from the rest of the song, too.
Rating: 8/10
Track 03 - Countdown Zero
Original: Melty Blood - Ready )
The intro to this one is how you do low pitched without rumbling, by the way. I mean maybe it sounds the same to you guys, but I feel like it's different from what I've been complaining about, and I like it. It's a good riff, and the high-pitch on the end of it is a nice touch. The only real drawback here is that it's repetitive -> Solo (Which is good, admittedly, and long enough to make a nice break) -> repetitive.
Rating: 7/10
Track 04 - Thousand Chain
Original: Melty Blood - End Of 1000 Years )
So who was paying attention to me trying to push the original into VGMC5 <_<. This mix, also does a good job of capturing what I love about this song. It's a higher energy piece that is somewhat easy to listen to, and is fun to listen to. Preserving the original piano track in the second half is a really nice touch, too. It's short, but I feel like for this, it's the perfect length.
Rating: 9/10
Track 05 - Vermillion Red
Original: Melty Blood Act Cadenza - Forest of King Stage )
Fun Fact: This was the first Crow's Claw song I heard. This is another high-energy piece, focusing on the speed of its riffs (Even the slower one feels a tad rushed to me <_<), and that drum beat, which is kinda harsh but also pretty cool. I mean, it's nothing exceptional or anything, but it's still one of my favorite to go and listen to when I want something fast-paced and high-energy.
So this song is pretty similar to Countdown Zero in a lot of ways, not the least of which is the fact that its main riff is low guitar -> high note rinse and repeat. Interestingly, it manages to be a bit more repetitive than Countdown Zero, but it's also segmented, and the segements themselves are reasonably different (They repeat, but that takes a couple minutes to get to), so it gets a pass there. There's no solo here to break it up, oddly enough, but I guess it works alright without it.
Rating: 6.5/10
Track 07: This Illusion
Original: Fate/Stay Night - This Illusion )
This song has more of a progression, I feel like. Or at least it's not the same riff over and over. Which is pretty nice after Number of The Beast, Vermillion Red, and Countdown Zero. There's a good solo here, but I feel like they try to milk it for a few seconds too long. The riffs are good, and the arrangement is good. There's nothing to really dislike about this song, unless you just don't like guitars.
Rating: 8/10
Track 08: Rogres
Original: Fate/Stay Night - Vanishing Desire )
I really don't know what to make of this track. I mean it goes for the whole simultaneously light and heavy thing, and while it's certainly more melodic (And with a fine melody at that), I don't feel like the lightness of the piano and the guitar work really mesh that well together. The guitar solo is nice, and probably the best part of this song, but I just feel like the whole thing doesn't have much, if any flow to it.
Rating: 5.5/10
Track 09 - Broken Phantasm
Original: Fate/Stay Night - Emiya )
Emiya is probably the most well-regarded F/SN song. And guess what. This remix does it justice and then some. The drum work is top-notch, and really forms the groundwork for the rest of the song to shine. The techno sounds in the background are an amazing accent to the whole thing, and the guitar work is great, too. Even beyond that, the song flows really well (Which is directly borrowed from the original), and the added light breaks and ending serve as nice accents to the piece.
Rating: 9/10
Track 10 - Days
Original: Fate/Stay Night - Days )
This is another one that I'm like... what am I supposed to make of this one? It's a straight-up vocal piece, the kind that if it were in english, you'd probably hear it on the radio. Fittingly, the vocals kind of annoy me. I don't like the voices. The instrumentation is fine, but it takes a backseat to the singers every time they open their mouths. The solo is nice at least, if for no other reason than there's no vocals.
Rating: 4/10
Maybe it's just because I like the originals better, but I like this album a lot, even in spite of its weaker tracks.