Board 8 > FL81 Ranks 140 Songs (Ranking Phase)

(+) Yeah! (+)

8/10s we're playing with the big boys now

#26 Crusader: No Regret - The Traveler (Remix)
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @SuperbVEVO (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1-hXJRa-OY

'90s PC GAME SOUND IS THE BEST, back in the early MP3 days back when they first started experimenting outside of chiptune/MOD/MIDI stuff where it still had that "computery" sound but was super clean too. This, and stuff like classic C&C, AoE2, StarCraft, etc. I even hear a bit of similarity to The Terminator (Sega CD) soundtrack in this one too with that awesome reverby synth providing the backdrop for this. Banger rock song with a kickass aesthetic.

#25 Gloryhammer - Rise of the Chaos Wizards
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @Janus5k (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGV6bCTMM5w

My roommate only fairly recently discovered power metal, but his tastes are very narrow and only plays the same dozen songs on repeat, all by either Gloryhammer or Brothers of Metal. Gloryhammer always seemed to be more of a parody of all the cheesiness in power metal to me, at which point I'd rather just listen to the classics, and as far as going all out on the cheese goes, I feel other bands like Pathfinder (oh hi one of their songs got nominated too) do it better. But with that being said, this is actually my favorite Gloryhammer song, and that chorus at 1:05 is one of my favorite moments in the whole genre! Honestly my only gripe with this is how overplayed it is, but it's still a very me style of music and a good song!

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hoots

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#24 Enigma - Silence Must Be Heard
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @azuarc (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCUran3CDFg

Enigma is another band I've enjoyed but haven't really dived deep into their discography. My friend was really big into them back in middle school, and I always liked their New Age influence. I was happily surprised to see that one of their songs ended up as the ending theme to one of the seasons of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Groovy song, love the echo effect and the trippy drum beat.

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Wow, this ranking is still going? Looks like I've still got, appropriately, Last of the Wilds.

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#23 Makai Toshi Niigata - Ukiyo-e Yokochou
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @DireKrow (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJjXxEhLhyI

Woah, sick piano jazz here, done in that "2 minute rhythm game song" format. This definitely does sound like something from a rhythm game, and judging by the related videos, it's apparently in Muse Dash? I've seen Muse Dash on sale on Steam several times and have considered picking it up, but my backlog is already huge. This could also work in a game like Deemo which focuses on the piano lol. Fast-paced + melodic + jazzy + piano are all points that work in favor of me enjoying a song, and this sounds like something that would have a pretty fun chart to play.

#22 Perfect Blue - Uchida's Theme
Rating: 8/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Place (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtGPTaOO4kE

NOW THIS HERE is a really cool genre. I don't know the specific name, but there's a very specific category of really weird/trippy '90s anime soundtrack music that this song falls into, and I absolutely love this style!! This totally catches an old vibe I am suddenly reminded exists and am thus also dismayed that it isn't really in vogue anymore. Very mechanical "construction site" sound here (hi B.T. Dutch). Obnoxiously loud, in a good way!

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#21 Pathfinder - When the Sunrise Breaks the Darkness
Rating: 8.2/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Janus5k (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5uZl-qTIqc

I just wanna say, Pathfinder is the coolest thing to happen to Power Metal within recent years (I say "recent" but they've actually been around for a while now huh). I actually haven't listened to this song of theirs before, but I am familiar with some of their other stuff (FWIW Beyond The Space, Beyond The Time would've gotten a 10/10 rating, and I think I actually nominated that song for tazzy's ranking many years back lol). Pathfinder is super cheesy, but they go hard af and it's always fun to listen to them! I feel like their music is a big culmination of the genre, matching DragonForce guitar, with the symphonic/fantasy elements of Rhapsody of Fire, and the crazy vocal range you'd find from Lost Horizon.

AGHHH that cheesy little keyboard melody at 3:14 I could've sworn I've heard in another metal song somewhere else but my searching has come up short. But yeah, Pathfinder is super cool!

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Fun song.

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I miss Pathfinder. Their vocalist left a while back and while they supposedly got a new one I haven't heard anything from them since.

But yeah their second album "Fifth Element" is a lot of fun.

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Janus5k posted...

I miss Pathfinder. Their vocalist left a while back and while they supposedly got a new one I haven't heard anything from them since.

But yeah their second album "Fifth Element" is a lot of fun.

Aww, that sucks. Hate it when I find a new awesome band, and it turns out they only ever made one or two albums.

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#20 Camel - Lost and Found
Rating: 8.2/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @SuperbVEVO (1/5)
Link: https://soundcloud.com/mohamed-ashraf-ahmed/camel-lost-and-found-1

Soundcloud link because the YouTube upload died! I'd like to start off by saying that of all the songs nominated for my topic, this is the one out of all the nominations I've moved up the furthest from my initial impressions spot. Also, second only to the #1 ranking song, this is the nomination I've relistened to the most! When I first heard this, I wasn't too crazy for the vocalist, but the style has grown on me, and the instrumental aspect of this song is excellent! I can't say I've heard of this band before, but apparently they were pretty big for the prog rock genre. Definitely has that cool '70s classic/prog rock sound to it, and I love when rock bands use the rock organ like that (Deep Purple vibes again)

#19 Zombieland Saga - Atsuku Nare
Rating: 8.3/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @PIayer_0 (5/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqTaJmvDpPc

ANOTHER DEAD YOUTUBE LINK AAAAA, I really liked the first link you provided since it highlighted all the singers' parts, but the uploader yoinked their channel off the internet, so we'll have to listen to this without it.

SO FINALLY PIayer_0/haha oh no has their first song eliminated (ALL SONGS IN TOP 20 AAAAAAAA congratulations)! Alright so I've never actually watched Zombieland Saga. I read the title and am reminded of that 2009 movie "Zombieland" and then remember just how overdone the zombie genre was in the '00s. But apparently this is an anime about Zombie Idols?? You can't see it here, but in the original upload one of the singers had the title "The Legendary" next to her name, I don't know if that's canon to the show or not but I found it amusing.

"Idol Anime" music is generally very hit or miss for me. Stuff like Love Live has some real good songs to come from it, but a lot of its music is just kinda generic pop. It was a good show and all, would recommend, but I still don't entirely get idol culture. As for Zombieland Saga, I might just have to give this show a try, who knows.

This song is a lot more "powerful" than what I was expecting from the thumbnail. This has a real bopping melody with strong chorusey vocals GUYS WHEN THEY DO THE WHOAH WHOAH WHOAH AT 1:49 I CAN'T UNHEAR THROUGH THE FIRE AND FLAMES SOMEONE PLEASE HELP and I was never expecting one of the best idol songs I've heard to come from a zombie anime!

Highschool of the Dead + Love Live = SCHOOL LIVE?? it all makes sense now

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tVR9cnYRBQ

The Legendary Tae Yamada

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#18 Thousand Memories - Ten Saints
Rating: 8.3/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes, I even used this in a VGMGG!
Nominator: @NFUN (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQM6PE_-ni0

Alrighty folks, gather 'round and listen to this song. You've listened to it? Good!! Now listen to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2guiRH2FsSk

Now if you have listened carefully you will notice this vague little detail that they are nearly the EXACT SAME SONG @#@#@#$%6

Ever since I discovered the VGM work that is Thousand Memories - Ten Saints, this has bugged me considerably. I don't know if Keisuke Ito knew of Nefertiti and was directly copying Daisuke Achiwa's style here, or if it just happened to end up like this, but I can't unhear one while listening to the other. Also, Nefertiti was something I used to nominate every year for VGMC so NFUN might just be fucking with me here. ;>_> (it feels like a parody of the song, or more esoterically, a parody of my tastes <_<)

The fact that Diet Nefertiti piggybacks off of one of my favorite VGM ever is enough to catapult it up this high in my rankings, but at the same time knock it down a few points due to lack of originality. Judging this song by its own merits, I really love the heavy metal eletric guitar, the synth keyboards, and awesome guitar solos. This actually is a really good song, and plays into my love of melodic power/speed metal! Good pick for the topic.

If Nefertiti itself, more specifically the improved extended version from Atelier Meruru was nominated, it would've gotten rank #4

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Zombieland Saga pitch because it's my sworn duty: It's a great parody of idol shows that sneakily transitions into a genuine idol show of its own. There's a lot of slapstick comedy but it's also really good at playing with different genres and moods when it wants to. I love the songs for being really distinct from one another and the full range of such a diverse group of voices! Unfortunately, this also means there's no more hard rock/metal songs to recommend*. Also it has Okabe Rintarou yelling at zombie idols!

*Well... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zows_Bbd2MM

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oh i should've checked if you'd used that first

I honestly never remember what Nefertiti sounds like, but I guess I was even more spot-on this time by calling this FL81 genre. thank kaonashi for this one (in that he nommed it for me, not that he uploaded it, which he apparently did)
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#17 Nightwish - Last of the Wilds
Rating: 8.5/10
Have I heard this before?: Probably, I don't remember
Nominator: @azuarc (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWTdFolXEgA

Back during around 2009~ish Nightwish was my favorite band and I listened through their entire discography at the time. This one I don't really remember, but I probably heard it at some point. Nightwish is mostly known for their "epic"-style vocals, but their instrumental tracks are all great too (my favorite being Moondance). Heavy metal guitars and folk strings are always a cool combination, catchy melody here, this has all the makings of another good Nightwish song.

Y'know as much as I like Nightwish, I've never been too crazy about all the copycat bands that have come after trying to emulate their style. They're able to get the same style of female-lead vocals down, but are never able to reach that same level of "energy" that Nightwish has and has made them so great all these years (except Epica, they're great too)

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There goes bracket.

How do you feel about Nightwish, post-Tarja?

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azuarc posted...

There goes bracket.

How do you feel about Nightwish, post-Tarja?

Not as much of a fan, but admittedly I haven't really listened to their recent stuff much (hell, Amaranth is probably their newest song I was really big into)

Actually sometime around 2010 was when I stopped really diving deep into new power metal releases in general. I'm kinda clueless as to what's going on in the scene nowadays

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGcvBMBbVXE
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I just got a brand new high-end headset! This will be perfect for streaming 128 kbps YouTube audio!

#16 Charles Mingus - Moanin
Rating: 8.6/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @rwlh (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__OSyznVDOY

AAAAAAHHH, I love jazz!!! For my car, I specifically got a receiver that supported HD Radio just so that I could tune in to the jazz station. I don't even know where to start with this song, it just sounds cool all the way through! Really cool use of the different instruments here in what's basically this crazy super-energized horn ensemble. (For as much as I rag on trumpets, there are some cases where I love them and classic jazz is a perfect example and there are a number of trumpet-centric songs still left in this ranking!!). This is the kind of music I like to put on when going for a nice cruise, and I could listen to this for hours on end, like I could just jump into this piece at any point and it'd be every bit as good. These solos are all pretty sick, got some very skilled musicians here lol

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#15 Kobaryo - The Lightning Sword
Rating: 8.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @DireKrow (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptylOKoOWDo

You know what sounds cool? Speedcore! You know what also sounds cool? Power Metal!! LET'S SLAP THE TWO COMPLETELY UNRELATED GENRES TOGETHER!!! Just by seeing the track title and the album art I knew this was going to be power metal, but I was not expecting this to be by a Japanese speedcore artist. The more I listen to this though, the more I realize it's actually not too crazy of a combination. These are both melodic-centric genres that often exceed tempos of 200 BPM, so why not. Pretty fun song, although my main gripe is that this is very obviously inspired by DragonForce, to the point that I'm pretty sure this is a parody. I feel like this exact solo is taken from one of their songs (not sure which one, a lot of their material sounds the same). Anyways this is a better DF song than the actual DF song that was nominated, so all's well! I always enjoy when music mixes together two very different genres that I like, it's fun to see what they end up coming up with.

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Happy New Year folks!

#14 Danmaku Shimai ~La soeur de barrage~ - Rolling Rose
Rating: 8.7/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @UF8 (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPVPThyhL9s

Woah, this sounds like something straight from the Rosenkreuzstilette soundtrack! (although UF8, being our resident royalty-free VGM expert, probably already knows that it doesn't have a "proper" soundtrack and is all royalty-free stuff from a number of different artists) The reason I have this ranked so high is because it totally reminds me of my VGM taste circa 2011 (about 1-2 years after discovering VGMC and B8) back when I was all into that really cheesy sounding MIDI speed metal with some neoclassical riffs, giving it those Dracula vibes. This is exactly the sort of song I would push hard for in VGMC noms only for it to lose 42-8. Melodic metal high-energy typical 2011 FL81 tastes song, guilty pleasure tier.

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#13 Theatres Des Vampires - Figlio della Luna
Rating: 8.9/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @Snake5555555555 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2hCFSQnvXI

More vampire metal! I'm pretty sure "vampire metal" isn't even a real genre, but it is my favorite type of music ever aesthetic-wise (Castlevania music rules). The song is being sung in Italian (I think?) which has always been one of my favorite sounding languages for songs. Dark gothic vibes make everything sound cooler! Piano + strings + electric guitar = great combo!! This is on the better end of symphonic metal.

Congrats to Snake on performing a lot better in this ranking!

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Yes it's Italian, glad you liked it! Such a cool sound.

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I saw "Vampires" in the name and initially thought Romanian ;>_>

very similar sounding languages

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#12 Ronald McDonald - U.N. Owen Was Her?
Rating: 9/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @PIayer_0 (4/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q16KpquGsIc


Nope!

Somehow, this is the song that everyone was watching to see where it would end up placing! It obviously wasn't #1, but I do like this a lot more than I probably should!

2007-2008 was the peak of meme culture. 2010~ish had too much mainstream crap going on like rage comics and nyan cat, and other stuff appealing to the early reddit crowd, and today's memes are just esoteric Wojak edits that don't even make sense anymore (yes I see the irony of talking about that when discussing this video of all things). Stuff like this and old YTPs were good ol' stupid fun. I guess "nostalgia" is why I have this ranked higher than the other "haha funny" songs, but maybe I am just an old grumpy man now!! SiIva rips are sort of a revival of this dumb sort of humor, so that's refreshing to see.

Yes, this video was my first exposure to the Touhou franchise. I wouldn't actually get around to playing any of the games until a year later when one of my high school friends (wow it's been that long) got me to start out with one of the fighting games of all things. Song itself is pretty good, it's based off of the COOL&CREATE arrangement of U.N. Owen rather than the original in-game song.



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I remember waiting for it to be my first drop when it was still 2019......got lucky with the nostalgia factor oops

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CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES

#11 RAY-KUDRYAVKA musiX - Last Resort
Rating: 9/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @UF8 (1/5)
Link: https://archive.org/download/RAY_KUDRYAVKA_musiX/23_Last_Resort_vbr.mp3

The main thing I think of when listening to this is "man this is way too good to not be uploaded onto YouTube". The song itself isn't too complicated or anything but it has all the makings of music I love! It's repetitive, but with each verse keeps things fresh and exciting! This has more of that MIDI electric guitar like in Rolling Rose, but overall this one sounds a lot more expertly produced. Was this composed for a game, or is it from some sort of Doujin album? (Or something else entirely altogether?) That keyboard synth 33 seconds in (and repeats a few more times) is my favorite part of the song! Very much the same style of music I always used to nominate for VGMC!

Edit: Forgot to mention, but that chord progression at 6:29 reminds me of some VGMC JRPG boss theme and I can't remember which!! >_<

Huzzah, finally time for the top 10~

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FL81 posted...

Was this composed for a game, or is it from some sort of Doujin album? (Or something else entirely altogether?)

So Ray Kudryavka is a freeware doujin shmup series that dates back to the late 90s i think, lasting up until the mid-00s. From the second entry (X) onwards this nagi guy volunteered to produce the soundtracks for it (inspired by the quality of the first entry which lacked bgm altogether). This soundtrack album happened after a few games, and apparently this was basically the culmination of his efforts over those years. I think he said something like that this was exactly the song he wanted to make when he originally offered to do them. So it's basically... all of the above? (okay, only the first two)

It's also the only song on that soundtrack album that i know for certain where it originated, since the games don't run nowadays and there's pretty much no footage of any of them, so I don't actually know which games the other ones came from. This one though, definitely never used in any of the games. Or at least, not before this album.

also yeah the games and the soundtracks are way too good to not be on youtube but they aren't because... shrug. apparently these games were pretty popular, there's about as many fanbooks and doujins of them as games like Suguri and Hellsinker but weirdly the series seems very obscure (almost totally unknown) in the west.

#10 Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home
Rating: 9/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @PIayer_0 (3/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhRx_4MuIY


Pyre was the one person to try and guess the winner, and did manage to guess a song in the top 10, so congrats on your song making it this far! (sorry PIayer_O this is pyre's song now)

This song was my JAM back when I played Rock Band 1 (man I miss those games)! This is my uhhh, 3rd favorite song from the original Rock Band! I still LOVE that guitar intro, always hooks me in and gets me to stick with the rest of the song. So yeah, it's a song I've heard probably dozens or hundreds of times, but it still sounds as fresh as the first time I've listened to it. It's hard rock that manages to both pay homage to the classics but at the same time not sound like anything else like it. It's hard to classify just what exact subgenre of rock/metal this is, I mean it's "prog" but it's also it's own thing. Pretty solid guitar solo too, but my favorite thing about this song is the vocalist. He has this very distinct way of enunciating all of the lyrics, but it comes out sounding really neat!

#9 Made in Abyss - Tomorrow
Rating: 9.3/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: PIayer_0 (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV571RZSltY

Hey, it's that song I liked enough that I actually used it in an anime music guessing game over in the Discord! Let me just say, that Made in Abyss is my single favorite anime to come from the 2010s decade, and that is not an easy top choice to make! I cannot recommend this show enough, and encourage everyone here to watch it!! The soundtrack is also amazing and I would put it in my top 5 anime soundtracks of all time.

This song is crazy! It's calming but at the same time manages to invoke a feeling of standing before the great expanse. The first minute has this weird ethereal feeling and I don't even know what half of these instruments are called. Then it switches to emotional anime music mode, and back to "cool space sounds" then theatrical weirdness AND THAT COOL VOCAL PART!!! I can't really compare this to anything else, but this song kicks ass! Kevin Penkin did an absolutely stellar job with this show's score.

watch Made in Abyss

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Aw ya go my Welcome Home.

Aw ya go my Kevin Penkin.

Made in Abyss was a pretty cool show. I don't know what my expectations for the franchise going forward but I really liked the original TV series at least.
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pyresword posted...

Aw ya go my Welcome Home.

Aw ya go my Kevin Penkin.

Made in Abyss was a pretty cool show. I don't know what my expectations for the franchise going forward but I really liked the original TV series at least.

I haven't even watched the movie yet! Was going to check it out w/ my roommate but he moved out beforehand, then COVID shut all the theaters down

very close second place for "Best Anime of the 2010s" I'd actually give to Vinland Saga

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Coheed and Cambria took a while to grow on me, but once they clicked, they did it in a big way.

Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness is one of the most ridiculous and awesome titles ever for one of the best albums ever.

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I'm still alive~!

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Haste_2 posted...

I'm still alive~!

If I were to do my own VGMC retiree ranking project

there'd uhhh, be a couple significant differences ;>_>

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I'm oblivious to how big Welcome Home is in rock/metal circles, to me it's always been "that song from the trailer for 9"...

The Made in Abyss movie was a wild ride and left me very emotionally exhausted! I remember hearing what sounded like a spiritual successor to Tomorrow in it, but haven't tried looking it up yet.

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#7 Galneryus - Raise My Sword
Rating: 9.4/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @Janus5k (2/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prBxPljqt0M

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

You know, you can really tell that a song is going to be great when it just starts out with a long loud scream. I don't know if this was picked out specific to my tastes I've projected all these years, or if Janus and I just have the exact same taste in non-VGM music. I'm leaning towards it probably being the latter, if the "Favorite song about:" topic series is anything to go by.

Galneryus is just a great band! Every time I see them come up in the power metal streams/playlists I always listen to, I know it's going to be a headbanger. Back when I was watching the anime Hunter x Hunter, my jaw slammed to the floor when I heard one of their songs used as an ending theme. I (very slightly) do prefer Hunting For Your Dream to this, but Raise My Sword is still one of my favorite Galneryus songs. Syu is one of the best guitarists in the power metal scene, mixing in a lot of neoclassical metal elements, as is the case with a lot of Japanese power metal, but let's be real here he does it the best. This high energy high speed kind of power metal is my favorite, it's gotta have FAST GUITARS

Japanese Power Metal is a weird rabbit hole I've dived pretty deep into, and there's a whole bunch of really good stuff to be found there. I could go on and on about it (and go even deeper if we start talking about the doujin power metal scene). Japan actually produces some of the best in the genre (along with Finald, Germany, and Brazil). It's actually disappointing that there's not much good stuff like this coming from here in the USA, but there are a few amazing artists to note such as....

#6 Symphony X - Inferno (Unleash the Fire)
Rating: 9.4/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: Janus5k (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzmZtXDI22M

Okay so Symphony X is one of my favorite bands EVER, as in Top 10 for me. Not only that, but The Odyssey is one of their best albums (spoiler the title track would have placed all the way at NUMBER ONE but I'm also glad that I didn't get swarmed by a bunch of 24 minute-long songs thank you guys, but yeah it's the one "super long" song I've listened to in full several dozen times, okay back to this song). I LOVE how this is the album opener (huzzah for this being the one song in the ranking where I've previously listened to its entire album start to finish), and it just starts out with a meaty, juicy guitar riff. Just like the other music these guys have done, this manages to strike the perfect balance between heavy and melodic, and even with the musical repetition, they still manage to squeeze out a good chunk of Russell Allen's vocal range. Even the slow "ballad-y" part at 3:23 manages to sound cool.

Symphony X is one of those bands where it sits on the line where it doesn't really know whether it wants to be progressive metal or power metal (or neoclassical metal or symphonic metal), but they've managed to carve out their own sound and it sounds cool as hell. Russell Allen is seriously one of the most deserving-of-appreciation vocalists in the genre and it's amazing how much a heavier voice (still with a lot of range) can do for the music, where a lot of other singers in music like this will go for a more falsetto sound. Michael Romeo is another top talent power metal guitarist, even if this song specifically doesn't showcase some of his crazier riffs (although the opener still has that cool signature style).

WELCOME TO THE ANARCHY ENIGMATIC ENTITY god I love these edgelord lyrics

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well guys I FUCKED UP

I skipped #19 in my spreadsheet by accident (Atsuku Nare is actually #18) and it's too late to edit it in

will do a writeup for it when I get to it

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YES THIS IS NUMBER 19, just rank up everything between Atsuku Nare and Tomorrow

#19 Chaotrope - Jagged Journey
Rating: 8.3/10
Have I heard this before?: No
Nominator: @GameBopAdv (1/5)
Link: https://soundcloud.com/chaotrope/jagged-journey

SORRY GAMEBOP I didn't mean to forget about you!! I blame it being two SoundCloud nominations that ended up right next to each other in the ranking. THIS SONG HAD A REALLY JAGGED JOURNEY GETTING HERE HAHA

That electro-jazzy piano intro is giving me very strong mozell vibes (or more in general, "deo nomination" vibes). This one is very short and sweet, I dunno if that's to its detriment since I kinda like what this is doing, vibing pretty nice to this then it just ends. Cool jazz techno metal (okay I don't know what genre this is), but hey I'm all about mixing together as many genres as you can fit in because that just makes it more interesting! Lots of MUSIC crammed into this short song, gotta fit everything in to make it COMPLETE. Also WOW that EPIC SOUND outro at the end of the first "loop" (it doesn't actually loop). Unique find!

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Wooo, top 5!

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#5 Lost Odyssey - Howl of the Departed/Roar of the Departed Souls
Rating: 9.7/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @PIayer_0 (1/5)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1it2CiuIujM

What is the official title of this track, anyways? Back during my early VGMC years, this is something I would nominate every year! Back in those days it sat comfortably in my top 10 or 20 VGM of all time. It's still not retired yet, is it?

Nobuo Uematsu falls into this category of uber-popular VGM composers, those names recognized even by people who aren't totally obsessed with niche video game music trivia like us. For as much as I see words like "overrated" being thrown at this group, I feel Uematsu is deserving of every little bit of praise he gets for his musical contributions. This, of course, is entirely because this style of music is a perfect fit with my tastes, but it is curious to note that my list of favorite JRPG music composers has one very high profile name and a bunch of less-recognized outside of here people in it too lol (Nobuo Uematsu, Ryuji Sasai, Akihiko Mori, Tsukasa Masuko, Noriyuki Iwadare - off the top of my head). The Lost Odyssey soundtrack just proves that Uematsu still has it, even after the classic FF days.

I am a sucker for "evil opera chanting" openings. It's overdone to hell at this point, but it's just so good at setting the tone. That ominous creaking sound 27 seconds in adds to the feel of this then we are SLAMMED with a juicy electric guitar telling us that this song means business! One cool thing about the choir chanting in the background is that they are singing in Japanese! (usually they go for the cliche Latin or something). All this cool stuff of course going on while the guitar and Uematsu prog rock organ are going ham in the background.

Of course my favorite part in all this is that cool ass mantra chanting 2/3 the way through the song. If you don't remember my last VGM ranking topic, someone nominated for me a song titled EXEC_ViiBaCi_MjiiRa/. (looking back it'd probably place in top 5 if I ran that same topic again, also I'm nominating it for VGMC!) and I mentioned just how much I love the idea of really dark sounding layered chanting, and Roar of the Departed Souls does something pretty similar here in that part. There seriously aren't enough songs that do this! Seriously, this is just a cheap and easy way to instantly jump the score of a song to at least a 9/10 for me! (In Johnbobb's "Favorite song about: God" topic, my choice nomination song also did something similar, see Theocracy - I Am)

Who knows, maybe I'll support this if it gets nominated for VGMC again! This song is just fun!!

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One of the most iconic intros in VGM

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PIayer_0 posted...

One of the most iconic intros in VGM

it's Uematsu he does this with every final boss theme >_>

and I still love it

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FL81 posted...

it's Uematsu he does this with every final boss theme >_>

and I still love it

if only the extreme was good beyond the intro
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NFUN posted...

if only the extreme was good beyond the intro

Funny you bring that up because The Extreme actually has my favorite VGM intro of all time

Rest of the song is like an 8/10

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FL81 posted...

Funny you bring that up because The Extreme actually has my favorite VGM intro of all time

Rest of the song is like an 8/10

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79271703/950385120
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the ff14 version is better anyway

bump

(I wanted to get a writeup in tonight, but I've had a stressful week and wanna save the writeups for the TOP FOUR when I'm in a brighter mood)

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#4 Project Cerberus - L L ~ Infinite Beating ver ~
Rating: 9.9/10
Have I heard this before?: Yes
Nominator: @xarlable (1/1)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkmSDjjJg08

HEY it's the song I used to nominate for VGMC every year!! Y'know after all is said and done I have a feeling that this is the song people think of first whenever they talk about "FL81 tastes" >_>. I'm not sure if you were specifically aiming for the number 1 spot, picking a song you know I like, but hey you came close!! I remember first discovering this when I was going through SSH's works (probably listening to his old Touhou stuff idk), and this song just instantly clicked for me. I like electric guitars yeah, but it's the crazy over-the-top delivery that really sells this for me. This has crazy amounts of energy and the billions of things going on all at once just sounds really great lol. I kinda operate under the notion of "Go Big or Go Home" when it comes to music. If it's going to try and sound crazy awesome, it has to go ALL THE WAY and this does! Impossibly fast "computer music" can be kinda ehh sometimes (well not actually impossible, Godspeed did a KICK ASS arrangement of this song check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l18rECQH84s ), but this is still all held together well and sounds really cool!!! There isn't really anything deep to break down in this, it's just hella fast melodic guitar and synth intertwining in dual solos.

I'm actually really happy that the VGMC relative-newcomers mostly enjoy this song, and it is something that whenever I see pop up in VGMC nominations I am sure to toss a support vote!

Okay, so the Top Three are all basically perfect 10s and I could honestly place them in any order, or even have it as a three-way tie. Top placement ties are boring though, so these are all going to be ranked on how I currently feel about them.

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Time's running short!

I'm strongly considering nominating that Trianthology track you nominated last year! It's called, um, yeah...Nova something or other? Oh, yeah, Over-Nove. (curse the video for its non-translated title) But yeah, it was one nomination short last time, so there may yet be hope for it. Would you be willing to support it again?

...unless you're planning on doing that again this year, in which case I will defer that task to you and I will definitely support it (again).

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I was the initial nominator last year!

I can probably support it again

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