It was only last month that fans released a double-disc musical tribute celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Metroid franchise, and it looks like the same is being done for Castlevania this coming Halloween with a project called Vampire Variations. What's different, however, is that while Nintendo has ignored Metroid's 25th, Konami has already released a couple albums to commemorate this momentous occasion. While the group of arrangers for Vampire Variations is different, readers will likely notice the inclusion of Metroid Metal's stemage on the artist roster, and you can bet the album will be paying homage to the franchise's heavy metal roots which were seemingly abandoned with last year's Lords of Shadow.
The team has already put together a trailer to let everyone know what to expect, and it looks like tracks from across the entire franchise will be represented. Best of all, the digital album will be released for free on Halloween, so there's no excuse not to check it out. You can head on over to the official website to sign up for updates and see the entire list of arrangers.
Lords of Shadow doesn't sound like a traditional Castlevania game, but didn't suffer for it. One of my favorite soundtracks last year and second only to Nier.
*checks lists of arrangers* No Goat? But there's Stemage. I fell out of the remix scene when Spaghetti Code VGMix 2.0 went down. I'll check it out to see what these newbies (at least to me) bring. Though I doubt it will be better that Unchosen Paths ( http://www.powergoat.com/page2.html ) in my opinion, so much love for that album.
"you can bet the album will be paying homage to the franchise's heavy metal roots which were seemingly abandoned with last year's Lords of Shadow."
And to good ends. Castlevania has been a lifelong favorite franchise of mine, and the music was no small part of that; but Oscar Araujo's score for Lords of Shadow absolutely fucking gorgeous, one of the best I've heard for any form of media. I'm sincerely looking forward to LoS II for this reason.
Yeah, I too enjoyed Oscar Aurajo's work. I wasn't trying to put his work down as much as I was noting that even the music took a drastically different direction.
I'm honestly quite torn about the Castlevania reboot, but OSV did publish a pretty cool opinion article about the change in direction for the music. Let me dig it up real quick... (typing on my phone).
Gideon here has no love for past Castlevania scores, which is a shame, but he does make some good points as to why perhaps Araujo's cinematic score is more appropriate.
Yeah! Awesome. Tributes like this make me so happy to be a gamer! Can't wait to start playing Super Castlevania IV again this Halloween season! Man, I love that game!
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Contest:
6:15 PM on 09.28.2011 | 
And to good ends. Castlevania has been a lifelong favorite franchise of mine, and the music was no small part of that; but Oscar Araujo's score for Lords of Shadow absolutely fucking gorgeous, one of the best I've heard for any form of media. I'm sincerely looking forward to LoS II for this reason.
I'm honestly quite torn about the Castlevania reboot, but OSV did publish a pretty cool opinion article about the change in direction for the music. Let me dig it up real quick... (typing on my phone).
http://www.originalsoundversion.com/castlevania-timeless-classic-or-retro-goggled-nostalgia-editorial/
Gideon here has no love for past Castlevania scores, which is a shame, but he does make some good points as to why perhaps Araujo's cinematic score is more appropriate.
Thanks for the article : )
<3 Lords of Shadow