If you’ve been in the video game music fan community for any given amount of time, you may know of the “Dwelling of Duels” competition. If not, Dwelling of Duels (or DoD for short) is a monthly competition for musicians and game music enthusiasts to participate in, requiring the submission to be both attuned to each month’s “theme” as well as the condition that at least one main instrument used be played live. (No purely computer-created pieces) Dating back as far as 2003, DoD has featured a myriad of colorful monthly themes, including months based around singular games themselves (Final Fantasy, Contra) to blanket months covering entire game publishers (Konami month, Sega month) to mash-up versus months. (Fire vs. Ice, Hero vs. Boss). The winner gets the prestigue of being on the front of the DoD website for the entirety of the following month and overall egotistical bragging rights. The competition has done well, promoting growth and diversity in the way of different types of game music covered, as well as giving video game musicians a fun outlet for creativity.
As of MAGfest 11, DoD is taking it a step further with “Dwelling of Duels Live”, which is almost exactly what it sounds like; a live performance of DoD tracks by DoD artists. Lead by Tony “Prince of Darkness” Dickinson (Contra 4: Rocked ‘n’ Loaded, Splatterhouse: Butchered), and featuring Alexander “housethegrate” Liss (Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Project Chaos), and Kunal Majmudar (The Smash Brothers, The One Ups) with a few as-yet-unrevealed additions, Dwelling of Duels Live will debut at MAGfest 11 with an ensemble of pieces composed by each artist from previous competitions. (And possible some new stuff exclusively for MAGfest!) The band’s debut happens to coincide with the coming of “Overclocked University” from Overclocked Remix featuring a similar setup, which will make for some very interesting highlights from both.
Dwelling of Duels Live performs Friday the 4th of January at 11am on the 2nd Stage, so be sure to bring your mug of coffee with you to enjoy some funky grooves and fresh metal mashings from some of the most seasoned warriors of the game music arrangement battlefield.
