Some of you may know that I am a musician. I'm whatever level musician is below amateur. I'm am-immature. I don't know. Anyway, I enjoy playing guitar and bass, but I mostly just Google how to play Enter Sandman or Smells Like Teen Spirit and try to emulate, as faithfully as I can, the work of Hetfield or Cobain. I'm not a creative person, and any steps I've ever taken down the path of creating my own music has resulted in me immediately falling on my face and giving up.
If I ever eventually try to create my own music, it may begin with the middle ground of re-arranging established tunes. I, like most gamers who have a soul, am passionate about video game music, and think that arranging game soundtracks would be creatively fulfilling and an absolute blast. While I've yet to give such a venture the ol' college try, I have spent a considerable amount of time on YouTube, finding artists who are experts in arranging and performing video game soundtracks. While there are dozens of artists that deserve your attention, there is one group that stands head and shoulders above the rest: Metroid Metal.
(Click on the embedded video and start listening while you read the rest of this post. I'll point out some of the band's nuances with individual tracks later, but this is a solid track to get a general idea of what their work sounds like.)
On the surface, Metroid Metal is exactly what their name implies. And on the surface, they absolutely rock. But anyone (okay not anyone, but just work with me here) can simply play iconic songs from various (Varia-s??? GET IT?) Metroid soundtracks with overdriven guitars and a double bass pedal. These guys take it to the next level by the brilliance of their arrangements. Let's look at some examples.
On their EP, Expansion Pack (see what they did there?), one of the highlight tracks is simply titled Brinstar (specifically, Super Metroid's Brinstar). Most semi-hardcore Metroid fans will point out that Super Metroid's Brinstar is split up into upper (aka Brinstar Green) and lower (Brinstar Red) areas, each with their own vastly different (yet equally amazing) background music. Me, as a non-creative person, would simply arrange the two as separate tracks, but Metroid Metal takes a more artistic and interesting approach.
Notice how the song starts off with the familiar pep of Brinstar Green, then quickly shifts to the more moody depths of Brinstar Red. Before it gets to the real meat of Red, it goes back to Green, and subsequently back and forth between the two themes in some sort of intense "dueling Brinstars" arrangement whose peer you are unlikely to find among the dozens of fan remakes of either of those tunes. The best part about this technique is the fact that they never use it again. There are tons of tracks that cover multiple themes, but this is the only instance where they are both split up and alternated throughout the entire song, like a musical pendulum. This creative choice is particulary fitting as a Metroid track, as the game requires the player to guide Samus back and forth through both Brinstar regions (and beyond) throughout the adventure.
Metroid Metal is also incredibly good at making a complete song out of a really simple track. First, take a quick listen to the bare-bones Norfair theme from the original Metroid. Then, start playing the Metroid Metal arrangement while you continue to read.
The music in the first Metroid game wasn't really designed to be listened to when not playing the game. The idea was for the songs to be minimalistic, atmospheric, and alien. Metroid Metal takes the skeleton of the Norfair theme and makes something new. Using only the chord progression of the original track, MM is able to get a few different ideas going before, at about the 90 second mark, a guitar finally comes through playing a clearly recognizable version of the original melody. Metroid Metal was able to add layers of interesting movements, transforming music that was barely meant to be noticed into a driving adventure that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. And they do all of this with the utmost respect to the original work.
Of course, there are some Metroid songs that don't really need to be modified or embellished to stand on their own. And as such, you'll find many tracks, like Kraid, Lower Norfair (SM), and Metroid 2 Queen, are just hard-driving versions of the original chip tunes.
Hopefully I've convinced you how awesome I think these guys are. If you're interested in purchasing their work, check out their Bandcamp page. All three of their albums, Varia Suite, Expansion Pack, and Other Album are available for a dirt cheap on their page. Good music, especially from independent artists like Metroid Metal, always deserves a shout out. So thanks, Metroid Metal, for setting the bar for arranging and performing Metroid music impossibly high for me. Like why would I even try when these dudes are out there killin' it!?
So when I started this blog, I had no idea what kind of subject matter I would gravitate toward writing about. So I came up with an alliterative name that encompassed three of my interests, and threw it on the ol' web. A few years later, I realized that I've never written about Cutlery (though I do have a draft that has been sitting in cyberspace for a long time...maybe someday) and have barely touched on Culture. This brings us to right now. I knew a name change was in order, but I didn't want anything so restricting as before. The first draft for my name change was It's My Blog...Deal With It. I liked this a lot. It leaves me the freedom to write about whatever I want, because...It's My Blog. More importantly, it includes one of my favorite lines in TV, when a toddler Korra has the best moment in her own series. Ever since then, I've made the phrase "deal with it" a steady part of my vocabulary, even using it on this site a few times. As a matter of fact, I like this phrase so much that I'm just gonna shorten it to those three wonderful words in perfect sequence. Gone is Comics, Cutlery, and Culture. That was a stupid latte-sipping peckerhead name. This is Deal With It. You gotta deal with it!
