Various Artists

Dwelling of Duels January Competition

By Zack Dusedau

            Video game music that sounds similar to Dream Theater, jazz, or Aphex Twin? As psychotic as this sounds, the Metroid arrangements created in this month’s Dwelling of Duels (DoD) can easily compare to metal, electronica, and jazz. DoD, a friendly, monthly online video game music cover online competition, has musicians create their versions of video game music. This month generated 22 entries, clocking in at about two hours of music.

            Some of the tracks don’t sound  all that much like the original themes, since the arrangements are very abstract. "Item Room," the ambient electronica arrangement, by Robby from The Advantage, a popular video game cover band, conjures up a bad acid trip. Alexander Liss, also known as housethegrate, performs a jazz rendition of the Brinstar theme from Metroid that he calls "Brinstar Minibossa." The drum samples, written to fit a jazz setting, smoothes out the feel of the piece. His solo exemplifies his ability on the guitar.

The winning track, was created by freelance video game composer, Jake Kaufman who uses the alias virt. He draws on nearly every theme from Super Metroid and arranges it into a 22-minute long progressive-metal epic. Virt’s intense keyboard orchestration and talent on the guitar, revealed through the recreations of melodies from the game and his solos, crystallizes this epic journey. His unique use of in-game sound effect samples in the song gives the feel of playing the game. He ends the tune with arranged sounds from the original Nintendo console.

             If you ever played any video game I suggest you download these tracks at http://dod.vgmix.com/jan05.html. The music transforms your views on video game music. After listening you may get inspired to create your own cover for the next DoD competition.