Epic Metal…Inspired by Ultima Online?
That’s what one Harley “Zeomne” Wootton claimed about a month ago on his Twitter timeline.
The name of his band is, evidently, inRed (with that exact capitalization), and a quick glance at their profile on BandCamp reveals that their newest album is, indeed, called Serpents Hold. The album is available for free, and I have embedded the player from BandCamp below:
Serpents Hold by inRed
Epic UO Metal?
Give it a listen, if epic metal is your thing, Dragons and Dragonettes. Does it give sufficient homage to the Ultima Online tradition?
Haven’t heard UO’s music, so I can’t say if it’s inspired by or copied from it.
I suppose the epic part would be the symphonic orchestrations, if not the insanely brow-beating percussion rhythms. I haven’t heard anything like it. Sounds like death metal combined with Japanese space shooter music performed by palsied meth heads. Awesome.
At 2:24 The Crimson Wind gets a little more normal. I just want to know if the percussion is sampled or live and if they’re for hire for a soundtrack.
thank you so much for sharing our work!! we’ve put our entire lives into music and this album has been the culmination of our lives’ work. seeing others have enjoyed it brings me the greatest joy imaginable! thank you!
@sanct – the percussion is very real. unlike many modern bands, we actually record drums. http://youtu.be/XqkSAvBPou4 here is our drummer’s latest video. and it just so happens that both me and my drummer (my brother) make lots of background music/beats/scoring and he is currently scoring my upcoming film on pro gaming/music/NY culture (http://www.youtube.com/eastcoastgrind) . we can make music of any genre, so please, email me asap on details of your project. 🙂 yellrah [AT] hotmail [DOT] com
we’ve been playing UO since 1997 and have easily spent more time in that world than any other game. (though we are thoroughly enjoying Skyrim at the moment!)
we are extremely proud of the Serpents Hold album and so thankful of anyone who helps spread the word, as we make absolutely nothing from our art. haha. its pure love for the music and the subject matter so you can imagine its extra special for us to be featured on awesome sites like this. UO has been a truly special world to us since we started and we look forward to adventuring with you soon!
The performance on the YouTube video was amazing. I like how it started off as a test of the drum set and then slowly emerged as a complete track. The drummer layered his strokes so well that at times they resembled multiple instruments playing simultaneously. I liken it to the percussion from Silpheed for DOS on the MT-32; driving, crisp and aggressive. Silpheed’s drums were a little less complex, but the feeling is similar.
You can find some info here on Aiera about my project:
ultimaaiera.com/?s=sanctimonia
My YouTube channel is at:
youtube.com/user/VasCorpBetMani
And my homepage is at:
eightvirtues.com/sanctimonia
The game is conceptually like UO but designed to be smoother and wieldable on a “dual shock” style gamepad. Its depth at a fundamental level is being designed to exceed not just UO, but any game to date. Making sure everything works with no real menus from a gamepad is a check and balance against too much immediate physical complexity, which is a good thing.
You’ll notice from my YouTube videos that the official tracks so far are DnB-heavy. While that may work for some situations, it won’t for all. I need some lighter fare, full of melody. 8-bit type stuff is ideal, but subtler and with quiet, simple melodies perhaps spanning arpeggios of plucked stringed instruments such as lutes.
Unlike most games, songs will do the same thing as sound effects in Sanctimonia. They’ll be driven by the environment around the player and not have anything to do with the story, ever. If you walk for a while without seeing water, then you come upon a small lake, it will play “Faery Song” as you hear the sounds of shallow water increasing with your proximity.
I already have the environmental sounds roughly working (see YouTube videos), but need soft music to accompany it. I’m also willing to pay for good work, of course (I am hiring). If you want to think about it, here are some ideas for songs which should blend playfully with their environmental sound effect counterparts.
4 – 8 bar interchangeable combinations of:
Deep Water
Medium Water
Shallow Water
One-off ideas for songs with a purpose:
From Open Water to Endless Land
People Drinking at Day
People Drinking at Night
Public Execution of a Criminal
Fisticuffs
Drawing Blood
Murder in Cold Blood
Murder in Self Defense
Holing Up Alone
Holing Up with Companions
Exsanguination (Dying Slowly)
Drought (Devastated Farmland)
Anyway, let me know (here or by email, but at least here is free advertising). You guys rock.
Here’s the Silpheed reference, near the bottom. Solid percussion for a cheap synth.
http://www.youtube.com/user/eightvirtuesmusic
I’m very very interested in working with you. I’ll make a track or two and see if I’m on to something. Where shall I send the files?
yo! tbh i’m not particularly fond of metal in any of its forms (can’t say i dislike it though), but i’d be very very curious about a metal attempt to re-sing every ultima track. hope to listen some of that someday 🙂
@ZEOMNE Awesome. 🙂 You can reach me at:
kevinfishburne AT eightvirtues DOT COM
I think I have a 10 MB file attachment limit. I need to dig through my server’s config files to raise that at some point or set up FTP.
Please send a demo “soft” track to:
kevinfishburne AT eightvirtues DOT com