Metal Gear Solid

Events, Game Music

APPROACHING LIGHT SPEED: VIDEO GAMES LIVE LEVEL 6 (REVIEW)

November 28, 2018 | Ryan Paquet | 1 Comment Share this

Video Games Live has just released their latest album, Level 6 after yet another successful Kickstarter campaign. If you missed our reviews of the previous two albums you can read the reviews for both Level 4 and Level 5, which both earned high praise for the calibre of their arrangements and production value.

The latest album boasts 12 tracks and includes an arrangement of the Classic Arcade Medley that’s been featured during live shows since the beginning. Read on for my full track by track review.

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Anime, Doujin, Game Music

Metal Gear Vocalist Releases Jazzy Covers of Game and Anime Music

April 3, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Metal Gear Vocalist Releases Jazzy Covers of Game and Anime Music Share this

It’s becoming a fantastic trend to see video game vocalists getting more spotlight in today’s industry. Donna Burke, who has been the vocalist on several well-known titles such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Silent Hill 2, among others in those franchises has broken out on her own and is being featured on a collection of game and anime music classics done in a classy jazz style.

Burke founded the GANIME JAZZ quintet in 2016 and has mostly focused on live performances. Now, GAME + ANIME = GANIME JAZZ is the quintet’s first studio album features 12 jazz-infused tracks, including several fan-favorites.

01. Calling to the Night (Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops)

02. Way in the Dark (Implosion – Never Lose Hope)

03. Sins of the Father/Quiet’s Theme Intro (Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain)

04. Glassy Sky (Tokyo Ghoul)

05. Snake Eater (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)

06. No One Can Save Me (Angela’s Song) (Inspired by Silent Hill 2)

07. Hotarubi (Firefly) (Tales of Legendia)

08. Kami to Hito to (God and Man) (GOD EATER)

09. Moonless Starry Night (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles)

10. A Quiet Night (Original)

11. Morning Sky (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles)

12. To Suffer is to Love (Claudia’s Song) (Inspired by Silent Hill 3)

I hope that fans’ interest in videogames and anime leads to a newfound appreciation of jazz. Although I’m well-known for my videogame ballads, I want to take this opportunity to share my passion for jazz with my fans all around the world. – Donna Burke

<a href="http://ganimejazz.bandcamp.com/album/game-anime">Game + Anime = by Ganime Jazz</a>

GAME + ANIME = GANIME JAZZ releases today on Bandcamp in digital and physical formats. Burke will also be performing as a part of the Metal Gear In Concert tour in Los Angeles (Oct. 10), New York (Oct. 13), and Paris (Oct. 28).
Events, Game Music

‘Metal Gear in Concert’ coming to Japan, then the World

June 6, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on ‘Metal Gear in Concert’ coming to Japan, then the World Share this

Seemingly just to keep the Metal Gear name kicking around, Konami has nonetheless announced a tantalizing concert performance for fans of Hideo Kojima’s long-running series. Metal Gear in Concert will be performed twice this Summer in Japan, first at the Orix Theatre in Osaka on July 30th and again at the Tokyo International Forum on August 2nd.

Each will be performed by the city’s resident orchestra (the Tokyo Philharmonic and the Osaka Symphony Orchestra) and will be conducted by Nicholas Buc. Singer/songwriter Donna Burke will also be performing which means her vocal themes from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V will most surely be played. The full setlist hasn’t been announced yet but Burke recently recorded new versions of all the Metal Gear Solid vocal tracks so it’s possible she’ll feature heavily throughout the evening. Like most video game concerts, Metal Gear in Concert will also feature a synchronized video presentation above the players with footage from the series.

Don’t fret, Western fans! While the show is debuting exclusively in Japan, Konami mentions that plans are in the works to bring the show on tour to North America and Europe but presumably not until 2018. For those interested in attending there are more details on Konami’s site. The rest of us will just have to dig out our old albums or involuntarily start humming the “MGS Main Theme” as I’ve been doing while writing this post.

Sources: Metal Gear Informer | Konami
Game Music

The Ongoing Collision of Game & Mainstream Music (Community Question)

March 2, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on The Ongoing Collision of Game & Mainstream Music (Community Question) Share this

Last week saw a little incident between nu-metal band Powerman 5000 and the game Final Fantasy XIV. Frontman Michael “Spider One” Cummings took to Facebook to claim the game’s music, particularly the theme played during the 2nd phase of the battle with big baddie Sephirot, was a direct ripoff of their popular hit “When Worlds Collide”, calling it unimaginative and balking at the idea that nobody would notice.

“I mean, this is When Worlds Collide! Using something as inspiration is one thing but a straight up rip off is another!

To clarify, this is music from the game. If it was a song made by a fan, we wouldn’t care.” – Spider One via Facebook

The game’s director Naoki Yoshida responded to the accusations, which can be read in entirety on Polygon.

“…I have been made aware of an allegation regarding similarities between an existing track and the track created for the 2nd phase of Containment Bay S1T7. However, track composer Masayoshi Soken, has also stated to me that he was unaware of the track in question while working on this FINAL FANTASY track.” – Naoko Yoshida

“When Worlds Collide” was a popular song back during the tail end of the ’90s and into the new millennia and has been featured in other games and movies of the past, including Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. How closely the Sephirot theme sticks to the song can be left to interpretation, but it does raise an interesting question about the overlap between game music and mainstream music.

This would be far from the first time game music has skirted a bit too close to popular culture music. There have been several instances brought up in the past, from the subtle to the blatant, that could be accursed of the same. Chrono Trigger‘s “Robo’s Theme” is a close-runner for Rick Astley’s infamous “Never Gonna Give Your up”. The C64 version of Turrican featured “Subsong 2” which was ridiculously similar to Vince DiCola’s “Escape” from Transformers: The Motion Picture. The comparisons go on through a lot of gaming history, and there’s always some degree of vagueness between what’s “homage” and what’s “ripoff”. Certainly, musicians have sampled each others works and integrated them into their own since forever, whether the original composer knew about it or not. The “Metal Gear Solid Main Theme” had to be taken out of any re-releases and sound collections past Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater due to accusations that it ran too close to classical Russian composer Georgy Sviridov’s “The Winter Road.”

The topic has come up several times in the past, and since the Powerman 5000/FF14 is a new example of the issue, I ask what the game and music communities think of the concept. At what point does a video game track stop being simply “inspired” by other mainstream music, and cross the line into “plagiarism”.

What are your thoughts? Are there any other examples you know of? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Featured, Game Music

Arrangement of the Week: Never Go Away

September 18, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Arrangement of the Week: Never Go Away Share this Arrangement of the Week: Never Go Away

Today’s Arrangement of the Week contains music from two different franchises and features a collaboration between a number of artists. The first game series is Assassin’s Creed, with the use of “Ezio’s Family” and the AC: Revelations “Title Theme.” The second franchise is Metal Gear Solid, being represented by the song “The Best is Yet to Come.”

The arrangement piece titled “Never Go Away,” is headed by remix artist DJ Mystix. Collaborating with him for this project are Chris “Amaterasu” Woo on Violin and Claire Yaxley on vocals. Together they have created an arrangement blending the music of Assassin’s Creed and Metal Gear Solid.

The cover starts off with a statement of “Ezio’s Family” from Assassin’s Creed 2, performed by a set of acoustic instruments, with Yaxley’s vocals coming in to reinforce the main melody. Around the one minute mark, Amaterasu enters on the violin with some original material to help transition to the first Metal Gear Solid segment. At 1’15” the vocals reenter for “The Best is Yet to Come” from Metal Gear Solid.

The arrangement as a whole has a very light pop music feel to it. Plenty of acoustic instruments like piano and strings, with just a handful of elements like the drums and bass helps give the music a modern pop sound. Most of the cover has Yaxley and Amaterasu taking turns as soloists. The “Title Theme” from Assassin’s Creed: Revelations shows up around 3’45” before returning to a final reprise of “The Best is Yet to Come.” On this reprise, at 4’30”, both the solo violin and vocalist share the spotlight, helping create a bigger finale for the arrangement. It’s an excellent collaboration between artists that also incorporates the music of multiple game titles in interesting ways.

Have you listened to any cool or unexpected mashups of game music this week? Let us know about them in the comments below. You can check out “Never Go Away” on OC ReMix.
Chip Music

Get Meta’ Gear with “Elegia” Remix by Taylor

August 13, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Get Meta’ Gear with “Elegia” Remix by Taylor Share this

Back at E3 in June Konami rolled out a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain featuring one of my favorite New Order songs, “Elegia”. The dark and brooding instrumental 80’s synth/rock track is like nothing else I’ve heard from the group and it fits the themes of Metal Gear Solid V perfectly. I suppose you could also read way into the Konami news and find some irony that the last trailer directed by Hideo Kojima is set to a song that is literally titled ‘elegy’.

Now imagine for a minute that Big Boss were to find a Game Boy in his latest adventure and, in true Metal Gear fashion, it contained an eerily prescient 8-bit stealth action game. Then surely the music in that game would be none other than this chiptune version of “Elegia” from Taylor and Sinner Fox Studios. It’s every bit as haunting as New Order’s original with minimal instrumentation, a nice crackly low end and an indeterminate array of chiptune sounds. No, this literally wouldn’t be coming out of a Game Boy or any other console I could identify.

The track isn’t a final version either and comes from the mini-album “Quantum”, a collection of “scraps” from Taylor’s unfinished project. You can grab “New Order – Elegia(Koneko’s Chip. Ver)” along with the title track “Quantum” for as little as you want (including free) over on Bandcamp. With The Phantom Pain so close I couldn’t help but share this track and imagine how it might fit into the crazy meta-meta-verse of Metal Gear Solid.
Game Music

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Interview: The East Meets West Soundtrack

May 18, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

Norihiko Hibino has been a long time friend of OSV. He actually was the subject of one of our first interviews on the site, which was about his and GEM Impact’s involvement with Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons of Liberty, which he felt his team didn’t get enough credit for. Well, here we are nearly two years later with Norihiko Hibino and GEM Impact once again contributing to the latest Metal Gear Solid outing, but this time, Hibino has brought along some friends from the West.

In our interview, Norihiko Hibino talks about GEM Impact’s involvement with the score, including their shift in role and the change in direction that Konami was aiming for with this installment. He also discusses bringing Jeremy Soule on board, his preference when it comes to working with Western composers, and what he has lined up in the future. While you’re waiting for the worldwide release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, check out our interview and look into picking up the official soundtrack featuring music from Konami, GEM Impact, Jeremy Soule, and Todd Haberman.

Hit the jump for the interview. (more…)