Board 8 > FL81 Ranks 140 Songs (Ranking Phase)

(+) Yeah! (+)

#86 Frank Tichelli - Blue Shades
Rating: 6.3/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Haste_2 (5/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbkR_y_QMnw

We got some really jazzy orchestral/band music here, with a bit of swing. This sort of thing is really cool, makes me feel like I'm watching an old American cartoon (or maybe just playing SimCity 3000 >_>). I'm getting some real George Gershwin vibes here. Like a lot of jazz (and prog rock/metal too for that matter), it sticks around maybe a little bit too long, getting into really technical playstyles and kinda forgetting what it was ever primarily going for in the first place, but as a whole it pulls together and is not bad.

---

#85 Bring Me the Horizon - nihilist blues (ft. Grimes)
Rating: 6.3/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Bane_Of_Despair (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwzfR7-33Wc

I never really got into '00s Nu Metal or Metalcore bands back when it was the popular genre (like I said back on the Sevendust song writeup, even Linkin Park I didn't get into until recently). So when I saw BMTH for this song, I was pleasantly surprised when listening to this. The electronic music here with the low chords gives this a dark sound to something I might not have liked as much otherwise. I'm not even entirely sure what genre I'd classify this as actually.

#84 Denpa Men 3: The Rise of Digitoll - Boss Battle
Rating: 6.4/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @GameBopAdv (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwwV0W5Blhs

Woah, cool intro. That alone is enough to put this decently high on the list. It jumps off and gets a bit goofy (honestly it reminds me of The Simpsons >_>), so I dunno about the mood whiplash. All in all, it works as a solid Nintendo handheld boss theme.

---

#83 sun3 FielD - Casket of Star ~ STAR OF ANDROMEDA
Rating: 6.4/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes, but not this version
Nominator: @banshiryuu (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou4Qzg1p9SQ

This is an arrangement of Casket of Star from Touhou 4, but I might not have noticed that had it not been written in the song's title. It's there, but not very prominently. I used to be really big into Touhou doujin circles and the like, but I've actually never heard of these guys before, so this is all new to me. This starts off with a groovy electro beat, then gets to the main melody 1:39 into the song. The production value could use some improvement though, and I don't really like how the electronic sounds drown out the melody at parts of this. The original or SWR version of this song would probably get at least an 8/10. Also what is up with that album art

#82 -
Rating: 6.4/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @handsomeboy2012 (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrrXSaLW8Wg

With this placement begins handsomeboy2012's series of '80s Chinese rock music. As I do not know any Chinese, I will make no attempt to translate the titles (although YouTube's automatic detection has this listed as
Roman Tam - Ji Guang Zhong). Really the best part of this nomination is the cheesy music video that goes along with it. I've always liked the confident over-the-top style of this era of music and its crazy fashion sense. This is a pretty catchy and enjoyable little jingle, makes me think of a nightclub scene from a Kung Fu movie.

---

The title translates to In the lasers

This singer was known for more and serious and old-style traditional songs, so it was quite a shock when he came up with something this cheesy, just a lot of fun to listen to

Oh and I only nominated 80s songs because what came after the mid 90s are mostly garbage

#81 pop'n music -
Rating: 6.4/10
Have I heard this before?: No (as of the time it was nominated for my topic)
Nominator: @NFUN (5/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nkSUn1aU34

Oh hello VGMC song that broke azuarc's nomination script. Here we have another high-tempo two-minute long rhythm game song, but this one stands out with its cool vocal thing going on. Might've ranked this one too low (will probably be voting for it when it gets to its match fwiw), it's pretty nice; just short. Cool usage of the Japanese-style instruments here. I'd probably see this getting closer to a 6.8 if it was longer.

---

Rip the homie. That one was a gamble
---

#80 Shrek 2 - Holding Out for a Hero (Remix)
Rating: 6.4/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @Anagram (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EasWdq7Njgo

Shrek and Shrek 2 were such good movies, it's a shame they never did anything else with the franchise. Anyways, this is catchy even without the context of a good movie. Apparently this is a remix, but I've never listened to the original, so I only know this from Shrek 2 >_>. I have a thing for cheesy '80s dance music, and it fit in with the goofiness of the movie pretty well (though I shouldn't be ranking on context <_<), but yeah this isn't bad.

Being just ten songs short of the halfway mark, we now have our first ELIMINATION!!
Thank you for playing, Anagram! In the end, going all in on movie/TV nominations didn't pay off in terms of scoring, but it wasn't necessarily a bad idea since I basically live under a rock and these were new to me anyways. One day I will watch Lord of the Rings maybe

---

We're into the 6.5s now, stuff I can safely say I like.

#79 Chino - Espresso Shots
Rating: 6.5/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @banshiryuu (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n1iyxB-hu4

Oh hey the thumbnail is Chino from GochiUsa, that was a good show. The title is Espresso Shots and here I am drinking my coffee in the morning (it's after noon but my day off so it's morning) so this is fitting I guess. Short and simple techno beat here that's fast and fun, pretty standard EDM thing going on here, but it's not bad, not much else to say here.

#78 Leonard Cohen - It Seemed the Better Way
Rating: 6.5/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Fluttershy_Pony (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nyMrjGX2vk

I've never heard this before prior to it being nominated, but this does very strongly remind me of Johnny Cash, both in the singing style and in the melancholy lyrical content. More specifically, the last road trip I had was 8 hours long and we spent the entire drive listening to the Johnny Cash discography while looking at the countryside; anyways this song gives off that same vibe. Very somber and powerful.

And already we have another elimination! Thank you for playing.

---

johnny cash good (especially old man johnny cash)

---

#77 Celldweller - Lost in Time
Rating: 6.5/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @DireKrow (5/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr43fE59s8Q

Industrial electro-metal here, sort of like the MGRR soundtrack, except this one is better because it has laser dinosaurs. This genre as a whole continues to grow on me little-by-little, a couple years ago I wouldn't have ranked this so high. I almost want to rank this one higher just because of how crazy-awesome this music video is, but the music here is good too. Cheesiness is generally a positive factor in my evaluation of things.

Also, I wanted to add that in the related videos, this has an Anti Nightcore remix. Since when was that a thing?

---

Isn't anti nightcore just vaporwave

Vaporwave is one of those things that I don't think I'll ever understand.

---

Not the one I expected to drop first.

I was quietly hoping all of my noms were <70 so losing one so close to that cutoff is a bit disappointing. We'll see how the rest go though.

#76 Seajeff - Preschtale, Pt. 6
Rating: 6.6/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Toxtricity (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK8xiZEJUP0

Man, just imagine, this is how Doom 32X could have sounded. Doom and Xeno Crisis are the biggest vibes I'm getting from this, lots of cool FM synth going on here. The lead synth kinda rubs me the wrong way, I dunno maybe it's not harsh enough, but the rest of the background instruments all sound really great. It also falls into the prog rock trap of overstaying its welcome in overly technical sections that could benefit from being half the length. Still this is really good.

I kinda feel like I've already passed the halfway mark even though I've yet to hit Rank 70. 6.5 and up is all stuff I like (using 5/10 for average ofc), and I'm getting to the point where I feel like I should've ranked some of these higher (notably this one and the previous), but then I look at the rest of the list and realize they're quite good too. Very competitive tier around this point.


---

#75 Sabaton - The Last Stand
Rating: 6.6/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @GavsEvans123 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9BupglHdtM

You're going to be seeing a lot of Yeses for Have I heard this before when I get to all the rest of the Power Metal nominations. It's like, the one non-VGM genre I have a pretty extensive knowledge of lol. I bring this up because my roommate whose musical tastes change every week recently discovered this genre and has been playing Sabaton non-stop, and while they're good, I can only listen to their songs so many times before it starts getting old, especially taking into consideration groups with very self-consistent styles. That being said, I love history-themed music, or really anything that tells a story. Gotta have my lore.

This brings us to our third ELIMINATION!! So many right before 70 lol (thank you for playing!!)

---

#74 Yakuza 0 - Firelight
Rating: 6.6/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @NFUN (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7u0_Wphs0g

From what I've heard from the Yakuza series, the soundtrack has this very self-consistent style of electro mixed with rock, sort of similar to a lot of stuff in the Ace Combat series. Most of its music would be ranked somewhere in this range (with a few great standout tracks, like Bodhisattva Kill). This is pretty a'ight, neat sound design with the background instruments.

---

#73 Dance with the Dead - Riot
Rating: 6.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @DireKrow (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_5unoZTpoQ

Ooh, heavy metal drum intro leading into dark techno. I'm getting vibes of that Furi - You're Mine song that was in VGMC a few years ago. This is another Man, I feel guilty for not having this ranked higher songs because I feel like this should be in the top half. The electronic loops are pretty cool, but I feel like it had more potential that it didn't really end up running with, and this could've placed into the mid-7s if it did. Nonetheless, I like the heavy electronic instrumentation!

#72 Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler - END TITLE
Rating: 6.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Prody_Parrot (3/4)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpCzcSLx5wo

I'm guessing this is from a live action movie based off of the anime/manga Kaiji? Never seen that one, but I hear it's good. I have a thing for this sort of movie music lol, alternating between its powerful cinema chords and tense sections. This is better than a lot of stuff that comes out of Hollywood these days.

---

It's the same genre as Furi - You're Mine. Actually it's funny, because I knew I wanted to nominated some intense synthwave from the start and was actually planning to nominate a Carpenter Brut song first (who made You're Mine) but ended up going with a DwtD song instead. I did the nominations in a bit of a rush so... given more time I might have gone with one that had a bit more variation and intrigue.

#71 The Dear Hunter - The Old Haunt
Rating: 6.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @NBIceman (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qI_LBCofHM

There are some interesting things going on in this song. We have the pop-style choir vocals in the background, while being built upon a very prog rock base. The guitar at some points even reminds me of surf rock oddly enough. This syncretic approach is the most notable thing about the song, but it works well at some points but not as much at others. With that being said, I have a lot of respect for this song's overall approach to what it was going for, definitely fun!

We have now reached the HALFWAY POINT!! Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far! Thoughts/observations/predictions going forward?

---

GavsEvans123 posted...

Sabaton is the first of my nominations to drop confirmed!

Funny how this aged, it's the only one of his songs still left!

---

4/5 in the top half, not bad.

The Old Haunt going out hurts as much as it would for one of my own nominations, though.

---

PIayer_0 posted...

Funny how this aged, it's the only one of his songs still left!

It already showed up, rank 75

---

In that case, shame on Gavs for associating death metal with power metal which I definitely did not also do when the topic started also wow did not expect a prototypical power metal song to drop that early

---

PIayer_0 posted...

In that case, shame on Gavs for associating death metal with power metal which I definitely did not also do when the topic started also wow did not expect a prototypical power metal song to drop that early

For what it's worth, there's a lot of overlap between metal subgenres (less so between something like death and power, but it's still there from time to time).

Also there was that power metal cover of the Titanic theme earlier >_>

---

#70 Darius the Omnibus -Generation- - Boss 7
Rating: 6.8/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes, but not this version
Nominator: @UF8 (4/5)
Link: https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/darius-the-omnibus-sedai/09%2520Boss7%2520%255BDARIUS%255D.mp3

Starting off the upper half, we have a remix of Boss 7 from Darius. This is a pretty different take on the tune I am familiar with, and while I like it, it feels like it's missing a lot of the oomph from the original. The original (or remix from G-Darius) is easily in the 9s ranking and would probably place top 15 in this list. Still, it makes up for a lot of what it lost with overall general weirdness you'd expect from Zuntata, so it's still good enough to place in the top 70!

---

bump

---

#69 Eric Whitacre - October
Rating: 6.8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Haste_2 (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EoUAbODO34

This reminds me very strongly of sad war music, or more specifically, the theme song to Saving Private Ryan or the first Medal of Honor game. This is certainly movie soundtrack music, even though I don't even know if this is from a movie! Very somber, with the primary focus being on the tone. Maybe a bit long, but this wouldn't get in the way of whichever movie (which may or may not actually exist) is playing this in the background. Also, there's lots of peoples' sad high school band stories in the YouTube comments.

---

One of the bands at my school played that, I don't think I was part of it at the time though. That guy is pretty famous for modern choral/concert band/orchestra repertoire!

---

#68 -
Rating: 6.8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @handsomeboy2012 (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02vms3Eokz0

A 6.8 at number 68, wow this was totally not planned! We have another one of handsomeboy2012's Chinese '80s rock songs, which honestly I've been enjoying. My favorite thing about this is the music video where it's just two guys dressed in black walking around the city trying to look cool LOL. Anyways the tune is fun and catchy, and more loveable '80s cheese.

---

Its much better if you understand the lyrics, but whatever. Top half is good for me!

---

#67 recognize m. - A BEAUTIFUL SKY
Rating: 6.8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @UF8 (3/5)
Link: https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm8151766

This one isn't too flowery or overly complicated, but I find it enjoyable anyways because it is melodic and upbeat. This song is strongly reminiscent of the Suguri soundtrack. It's kinda long though, would work well as background music. I guess the word that best overall describes this is charming.

---

#66 Goo Goo Dolls - Slide
Rating: 6.8/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @Dragon66116 (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP4qdefD2To

Okay, lemme start off by saying that my whole life I thought this song was by Matchbox Twenty (or Third Eye Blind, I always get them all mixed up). This kind of music defined the sound of the late '90s, and my enjoyment of this basically just stems from nostalgia of a better time. It's one of those songs that you hear every day on the radio and you don't really like it that much until 10 years later, when all of a sudden you look back on it thinking huh this was pretty good.

---

#65 He Is Legend - Burn All Your Rock Records
Rating: 6.8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Bane_Of_Despair (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PcYhrZvddw

Woah, sick opening riff. Some hard rock here, with a sprinkle of hardcore punk mixed in, overall this reminds me of a lot of the stuff found in the Guitar Hero 2 soundtrack (my favorite game in the series). Lots of cool stuff in here, with a few parts that feel like they drag on for a bit, but overall this is energetic and fun.

#64 System of a Down - Sad Statue
Rating: 6.8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @pyresword (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IH1JFoiGqU

SOAD is the one nu metal group that I've always actually kinda liked. I haven't listened to this one before it was nominated, but it's above-average as far as their stuff goes. Another song with cool guitar riffs. (Lots of talk in the comments of PS2 games? Definitely sounds like music of that time period lol)

---

#63 Suikoden 3 - Exceeding Love
Rating: 6.9/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @Raka_Putra (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VijYRD_KsQE

I only very vaguely remember this song from a VGMC many years ago. It's strange that this hasn't been in more contests, since it isn't a bad song, and definitely has those world music vibes that B8 seems to really love. I have a thing for this sort of chanting, and the instrumental aspect of it is pretty chill. The video is one of those classic anime openings they would throw into JRPGs in the late-'90s/early-'00s, and actually fully animated and not just a slideshow. I do find it funny that this is labeled High Quality, even though it's in 240p and looks like a 2006 YouTube video.

---

Hahahahah, glad to hear you like the song. It is pretty darn memorable, I gotta say.
And man now I long for a truly HD remake. I mean even the best quality of this video is still in 4:3!

---

#62 TesseracT - Nocturne (Cover by Metal_Viking _1991_)
Rating: 6.9/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Toxtricity (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcsHwu3yXps

What we have here is a Sega Genesis FM synth cover of a prog metal song. I hadn't heard either of these before, so I went ahead and listened to the original too just in case. Comparing the two, I'd probably rank the original one a little higher, but this cover manages to be original and capture a completely different vibe here. It's very well made, you can tell whoever made this put in a lot of effort and didn't just plug in some MIDI they found online into their software and slapped on a soundfont. Sonic isn't really the first thing that comes to mind when I listen to this, but it does have that Genesis feel.

#61 NieR: Automata Unreleased and Arranged Tracks - Pascal
Rating: 6.9/10
Have I heard this before?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DifFysrKoDU
Nominator: @Place (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DifFysrKoDU

Ah yes, another one of those songs made by just slapping a whole bunch of different sound effects together until it forms something coherent. When it actually ends up working out (like here), you get something really unique and cool, and I'd probably take this over a lot of similar stuff I've seen in VGMC recently. I still haven't really listened to the NieR Automata soundtrack in its entirety, so there's always new neat little pieces I keep discovering.

everything after this point is at least a 7/10

---

whoops, meant to say "No" for whether I've heard the last song, not just post the URL twice

#60 Toehider - This Conversation is Over
Rating: 7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @TheArkOfTurus (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSc3FOoecuM

This video is sending me mixed signals, there's this prog rock song but the music video looks like it belong to some sort of hipster indie rock band. The vocals here have a bit too much of a Pop Rock feel to them, but the instruments here are really on point. When it gets going, the song is really good though so I feel a good 7/10 is fair. Also, apparently these guys are in some way connected to Ayreon, and they're one of my favorite bands as of late!

---

FL81 posted...

Also, apparently these guys are in some way connected to Ayreon, and they're one of my favorite bands as of late!

That's how I found them! Well, it's usually just Mike Mills (that's the only song in the album with other musicians IIRC.) He's been on the last two Ayreon albums, and some of the live ones.

---

#59 Nas - The Message
Rating: 7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Dragon66116 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh9TIYXKSFk

As previously stated, rap isn't really my favorite genre, but I've been pleasantly surprised by what's been nominated for this topic (and hey, there's still one more!!). I can definitely say I have a preference for the '90s stuff. I don't have too much more to say about this, but I like the lyrical flow.

thank you for playing

---

I still love how nas used that same background three times

#58 DV-i - Dream Navigator
Rating: 7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @cakophon (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsgdS06LT0

More DV-i space synth music! Hearing this sort of synth reminds me of all those GameCube soundtracks I love (specifically Super Monkey Ball 2 - Space Colony). Huzzah for nostalgia points on a song I never heard before! Gotta throw in that cheesy computerized woman's voice in at 37 seconds to really drive it home lol. Also enjoying that synthy piano towards the end. Man, I miss this sort of stuff ;_;

and there we have it, two back-to-back eliminations

---

#57 xclassicalcatx (Spirited Away) - One Summer's Day
Rating: 7/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes, but not this cover
Nominator: @pyresword (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPYfdCQA_yE

If there's one thing to be said about Studio Ghibli films, it's that they all have stellar soundtracks. Spirited Away is the first Miyazaki work I've seen, and still one of my favorites. Very nice violin cover of this beautiful song. If I had to nitpick at anything, it's that this is a cover and doesn't have the studio quality mixing of the original, but the playing here is on point.

---

#56 Gram VS HiTECH NINJA - Sa Maichi
Rating: 7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @banshiryuu (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrLp6tI4JsI

More FAST ELECTRONIC music from Deo! (As expected of Deo!) This one has a lot of neat stuff going on in the background too. Parts of this song of particular note are the intro (only now noticed that that little part 25 seconds in is giving me Dariusburst - The world of spirit vibes), and the fast melodic part around 4 minutes in. There's a lot of stuff under the surface and it's not just "fast beats".

Anyways, with VGMC coming to a close, hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace! probably not though, been busy playing trails no kiseki

---

#55 Gustav Holst - Uranus from The Planets
Rating: 7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Haste_2 (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDFGmiXnLjU

Funny thing is, I was actually not familiar with this piece before it was nominated. I've heard Mars and Jupiter (who hasn't), but not Uranus. Which is to say, I'd rank either of those a little bit higher than this, but this is a fun little classical piece, and I'm always up for one of those. I should probably look more into what other stuff this composer has written!

---

Uranus definitely my pick for most underrated movement from The Planets. It's so bouncy and jolly and I love it.

I don't like it quite as much as Mars or Jupiter admittedly, but that is true of like >95% of music.
---

I love Mars and Jupiter. Mercury and Uranus are great too.
The rest just bore me to death. Maybe I just don't like slower and quiet music.

---

the planets : )
---

#54 ARIA the Animation - Tenki Ame
Rating: 7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @NowItsAngeTime (2/5)
Link: https://soundcloud.com/s34w33d09/aria-the-animation-ost-track

I haven't seen the Aria anime and actually don't know anything at all about it. It looks pretty chill though, and this song certainly is! It starts out like most sappy anime music, but then the stringed instrument comes in and now it sounds like gondola music (I feel like I'm in the waiting lobby at the local Olive Garden ;>_>). But hey, it's a nice song.

---

FL81 posted...

sounds like gondola music

Impressive observation! I didn't see too much of Aria, but the main characters were gondoliers, so that's pretty accurate.

---

Aria is very good. Cannot recommend enough if you like slice-of-life anime.
---