Song of the Week 15: 'Battle~Trials of a Cocoon Master' by Another Soundscape

Marim:

This week I'm apparently doing Song of the Week solo, since Met had really no time to finish his review on this week's song. That means that I have to pretty much cover what he usually puts in his section. Sorry if I don't do this very well, but I'll try to see if I can cover mostly everything. Alright, this snog is from the game/album 'Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu. The song itself is called 'Battle~Trials of a Cocoon Master by AnSo (Another Soundscape). You all can find various comments and reviews of the song here. Okay, after listening to this song, I found it to be pretty cool. The very beginning starts out with an intense bass line, with some percussion mixed in. The beat was well emphasized, and it even made me want to tap my foot for a little while. At 0:21 more of a melody is introduced, and it makes the song sound a little more exotic. The melody at that point sounds almost Egyptian, but the continuing beat and percussion line did an excellent job of supporting it. At 0:40 if you listen closely, the melody has somewhat of a harmony that stood out to me. I think it was nice to add that in there because of the fact that it adds a bit more to the melody, instead of straight, single notes. Of course that really doesn't last very long, and the melody continues. at 1:03 there is a break from the existing part of the song. In this new part of the song there is some pretty awesome mallet percussion, as well as some electronic sounds as a base to support it. The mallet percussion does an excellent job with this melody, as it stands out very much in this section. It follows a similar type of melody as the first that appeared at 0:21, but obviously different sound and note wise. At 1:24 more of an exotic melody is introduced, this time an entirely new rhythm. This has to be one of my favorite melodies in the song; it almost gets me to the point of having goosebumps. It definitely gives me a chill up my spine, and I have to say that it's great. At 1:37 is an awesome crescendo that leads into another new melody at 1:43. This time the melody is even louder than the others that had been playing throughout the track. It gives off more off of an electronic sound, rather than instrumental. The beat is much softer this time around, with the percussion overlapping it a bit. The harmonies work great though with the melody, so it all works out in the end. At 2:35 the mallets are introduced once again, this time with more of a cooler base to back it up. Absolutely awesome. At 2:46 more mallets are added, which is more of a bell/glock sound that overlaps the original mallet melody. There's nothing like some good high notes to add to the mood of the song. At 3:06 there's a new instrument added in for a harmony: the piano. The piano does a great job and really adds more, even if it's just a couple notes. At 3:19 more instruments are added in, including a string line that will gradually get louder as the track continues. The mallets will continue to be played, with some percussion mixed in. They will eventually decrescendo, and the song will come to an end.



Pros: Excellent instrumentation, and a great exotic melody. The mallets were an excellent part of the song, and the combination of electronic and instrumental was excellent throughout the piece. Great dynamics also with the harmonies and melodies, and was definitely a piece I could listen to over and over again.



Cons: The beat in the beginning of the song in my opinion was a little too loud, but other than that I can't really think of very many cons this time around.


Overall: This is a very excellent song. It's intense bass and percussion line were great, as well as the various exotic melodies. The variety of sounds you hear in this song is awesome, and there were so many great harmonies to back the melody up. This is a song worth listening to.



Rating: 9.2/10



Sorry, Met. I never got your input on whether this is good enough to post. But it's Wednesday, so I need to put what I have. Let's just hope that it's good enough.