Song of the Week 19.5: 'Dead Man's Lullaby (revamped version)' by Vitz

This Song of the Week is a .5 edition, which pretty much explains why I'm not posting on Wednesday. It's been a while since there has been a .5 edition; there hasn't been one since Met was doing this by himself. Anyway, as it was said in my last post, this is a revamped version of Dead Man's Lullaby. Here's the link again and here's Vitz's soundcloud page. Obviously this is the first song on the list. However, when I brought up the link (Vitz's soundcloud page), the original version wasn't on there anymore. I don't know why, and that being gone really doesn't help with this review. Fortunately, I did compare the two before it was taken off. After listening to this I found it much different than the original version, but has many similarities as well. I shall now explain, using last Wednesday's review to compare the two.

The beginning of the song sounds exactly like the original, and at 0:13 that same rhythm appears. There really is no difference so far. At 0:26 it's the same once again, but at 0:52 (sorry about the last review, I had a typo and said 1:52) there probably is a bit more bass added with the melody. At 1:30 there is a huge difference: a string section is added. I like it, and it certainly adds more of a mood to the song. Some more differences are the timing for sure; the breaks in the song are placed at different parts of the song, not to mention there are fewer of them in this version of the song. Where I mentioned about the song a 2:08 in my last review, there are differences there also. The beat is entirely different, with more of a swing rhythm than just straightforward. The upbeat part at 2:46 in the original song is gone, unfortunately. Instead it's more of a calmer section, and then at 3:00 it's that swing beat playing. For some reason I'm not a fan of that beat, it just sort of irks me. At 3:26 it goes back into what was going on at 0:26, which really isn't all that exciting for me. At 4:03 is probably where it gets the most intense, where there's strings, percussion, a beat, and even a new melody created by the piano. This section continues until 5:58, then it's all over. That's a difference I forgot to mention; this version is around a minute shorter than the original.

Pros: This song certainly shows much more than the original version. I like how they put a new melody closer to the end, and the strings make a nice addition to add some more emotion to the song.

Cons: I really didn't like that beat that sounded like a swing. It really didn't match up with the rest of the song. Sadly there wasn't as much intensity in this version, and it was disappointing that they took that huge, intense section from the original song.

Overall: I liked it, but I also disliked it. There was some additions that I did like about this revamped version, but all together I think I like the original song better.

Rating: 8.4/10

Karachay: Part 4

Tuesday, May 23rd 1967
Dear Isaak,
Pardon me for expressing my satisfaction in hearing of your troubles. Sometimes, I feel as though all the troubles in the world are seeking out me alone. We too have had the winds. I've advised the village folk to wear cloth about their faces when they go out. Though far less than perfect, this simple shield has kept many from succumbing, I'm sure. Those that do suffer have found their symptoms somewhat alleviated by willowbark tea. I'm sure any sort would aid, but willow’s curious restorative properties may provide additional benefit.
Five more have fallen to fatigue, a not one has yet recovered. The victim I wrote about a week ago was described to me as "shrieking and flailing in the night." He's wearing his wife to the bone, and I've prescribed them both opium from my personal supply to assist their slumbers.
The drought is surely natural, but it is doing untold damage. It has loosed the soil to the winds (have I mentioned how the lake sometimes resembles mud with such a film of dirt atop it?), starved the plants, and even shrinks the lake. The fisherman have caught only the smallest, most twisted fish this year, and proclaim a disgusting eight-legged frog they've found an omen. I place no stock in such rambling.
Perhaps by the time this letter reaches you, all will be recovered. Perhaps not. Either way, I send with it whatever strength I can afford to, and in return, I ask that you send me any opium you can spare. My stores will be depleted in the month.
I do wish you well, brother,
Lyov

We do Updates

At least I do; I'm sure Reogan will soon enough as he still has The Golden Apocalypse and Darklight to catch up on. Be sure to go back and check, we update more often then I bother to check so it's worth linking back to.

Updated Posts:
Song of the Week 16 (now with Met's review)
Song of the Week 18 (now with Met's review)
Song of the Week 19 (Edited for facts and additional links)

The Blaze

"Truth is


a fire,


that only lies


start.


It will eventually

consume

everything

other than
the truth."


There is

a fire.


It is spreading.


It's

everywhere.


"Know what is true."


Prepare for

The Blaze.

Post Script:
Political advertising? Me? Ha ha ha... right.

Song of the Week 19: 'Dead Man's Lullaby' by Vitz

Okay, so this week's song is from Vitz. This is some pretty good stuff; I remember reviewing one of his tracks as sort of a "practice review" before I actually started posting here. The direct link where you may listen to this track is right here. If you take the time to click on this link, the first two songs have the same title. However, the first one is the revamped version of the second song. We are looking at the original song here, not the revamped one. The revamped version will be reviewed and compared as a .5 edition of Song of the Week. So anyway, here's the original version of the song called Dead Man's Lullaby.

Alright, let's get to business then, shall we? The beginning seconds of the song give off a calm and relaxing sort of mood. At 0:13 more of a rhythm is introduced, while still keeping that calm feeling. The rhythm so far is almost like a swing, so it'll be interesting to see how the song will turn out later on. At 0:26 a beat arrives, making more of a restless tone. The swing rhythm at this point is gone by the way. With the beat, the song sounds a lot more straightforward. At 0:48 the beat disappears for a couple seconds, but at 1:52 it starts back up again, this time with some high notes to create somewhat of a melody. What I mean by "somewhat" is that the melody is pretty simple. It does stand out though, and that's a good thing when you're dealing with most songs. Oddly enough, even with the beat the song stills gives me a feeling of calmness. From 1:30 to about 1:42, there's some nice electronic sounds placed to support the melody. The beat will go off and on throughout the song. For example, the beat appears again at 1:43, but then it goes back to a softer mood at 1:56. At 2:08, after about ten seconds or so of a quieter tone, the song really goes all out, and this where it's the most upbeat so far. There isn't really all that much percussion, which I think really makes the song unique. The electronic sounds that both create a beat and a harmony do an excellent job at making the song exciting, as well as supporting the melody. At 2:33 once again it calms back down again. One reason why I like this song is because of its balance of soft and upbeat music. At 2:46, the song basically blows the upbeat part of 2:08 out of the water. It's a pretty awesome section of the song; it's very catchy, and all of the instrumentation works perfectly. It still has that simple melody, and the bass as well as the percussion work excellently with it. Unlike the other songs I have reviewed, this particular track has the same melody throughout. This entire part lasts about a minute and a half until it once again calms down at 4:29. Some sort of a beat is still heard, and this section is very similar to what was heard at 1:42. This lasts until 5:20, where that awesome upbeat section comes back that's exactly the same as it was at 2:46. It ends at 6:10, then continues into the song's conclusion. The end isn't really all that exciting. It's just that calm section again, and then it stops. Then the song's at an end.

Pros: Okay, this is a pretty awesome song. The mix of calm and upbeat work out great, and I found it unique that something other than percussion can keep a beat for a while.

Cons: The sections constantly kept repeating themselves in a pattern. Perhaps if there was a little more variety in the song, it could have gone better.

Overall: Nice song, can't really say much about it. There were probably more pros than cons, but altogether it's something to enjoy listening to.

Rating: 8.8/10

Met:
Editor's note 10/30/2010
Vitz choose a fine time to do some renovating on his soundcloud page. Within the last 24 hours or so he changed his bio (left sidebar of his soundcloud page) a little and removed several of his tracks including the one that this links to. I'm sure Vitz has his reasons so we'll leave it at that. I managed to download the MP3 file before it was taken down. However, I'm not distributing it (Vitz took it down for a reason that I'm not privy to and I'll respect that). Regardless, if you really want to hear the original sometime come find me; it's on my iPod.

Anya

Anya was Lost. The world she knew had left her in her wanderings. Now, there was only white. Everywhere she looked was an infinite stretch of nothing and everything,  powerful enough to drive a sane mind mad. Anya was not sane, though, and had little to fear. Truly, the sane cannot become Lost, for they are never Found.

Anya swallowed a lump of concern and stretched her mind. She felt reality slowly bend around her, poking at her extremities, feeling out her weaknesses. She felt it in her face and stomach and groin. Everything that was hers was laid bare, but she maintained her self through it all. By sheer will, she forced nothing away to where it belonged. She felt things setlle again, more pliable than before.

Anya smiled. She had been here before. She never knew when she'd find it, and she didn't always enjoy it. But she was finally arrived.

She was in the Making Place.

The Perfect Ones

*Edited on: 10/31/2010*

I was a lieutenant then, just stationed on the ship. The captain was terrible, and very strange, his beard was two strings from the corners of his mouth and a goatee. He flogged us himself for the smallest thing, even just bringing his food five minutes late. Simply put, he was sadistic. However, or maybe because of that, I wanted my own ship, just like in all the dime novels. It didn't have to be fancy, but I wanted one anyway. I can't think of anyone who doesn't, besides Davis, but he was always kinda strange. He never seemed to care if he moved around in the system, didn't seem to care about much at all, except what he did in the lab. But good things happened to him, seemingly without any drive from him. However, my skill or luck, however you want it, at climbing the ranks was not very good at that time, so I had been a lieutenant for quite a while. Ironically enough, my rise started with my fall. My fall from grace within the navy. You see, I destroyed a ship of theirs when they thought it needed no destroying. They were wrong, of course, but they were still mad at me. Whatever it was, she was key. I think she was pregnant. I'm not quite sure, but I think she was. But that doesn't matter. Anyway, whatever it was, she was the first one to go.  She was sleeping in a hammock on a walkway over a storage area, her choice, not ours. We never checked those much, the storage areas. One night, myself and some others were walking along when we heard screams from the walkway. We looked in and saw her there, awake and looking extremely disoriented and -I don't know- frazzled? Frankly, she looked terrified. I asked what was wrong and she said it was just a nightmare. We continued our rounds for a while, and found a part of the corridor that had yellow blood-like stuff on the floor and a bit of the walls. The rest of the group went through, though not without curios looks, and continued on. I stayed back, suspicious. I went back along the corridor to the storage room to see if anything had happened. I looked in. She wasn't there. Her hammock had some of the yellow stuff from the hall, but nothing else was there. I looked over the railing and saw a flash of yellow and black legs. Alien insectoid legs. I called the rest of my squad and told them to meet me at the captains office. They never came. At one point I thought I heard screams. I called them again. There was no response. I went into the captains quarters by myself. The captain was sitting at his desk, looking concerned. I coughed a little to get his attention, he asked me what it was. I responded with a rather full report of the events of the evening, omitting only the legs. The captain ordered us all to shuttles and readied the self-destruct. He stayed in the launching bay control and opened the doors to let us all out. We flew out into the darkness of space.

*  *  *  *

The captain sat back in his chair and waited for the end. Suddenly, Lieutenant Davis burst out from behind him. The captain whirled around. Davis had a gun.

     "What are you doing here?! The ship is going to explode, you idiot!" the captan yelled at him.

     The lieutenant only replied, "Exactly, Sir. They all want it dead. My precious creature! That which I worked so hard to create, and they wish it dead, along with you."

     "W-wha-?" The captain stammered. "What are you talking about!?"

    "O, nothing sir," scornfully, "They all knew. They only wanted you out of the way. They didn't care about this ship, or any of the inhabitants. They only wanted you dead."

     " I cannot accept that, you insubordinate fool!"

     "O, but you must. I can't do this without you 'Captain'."

     "And if I refuse?"

     "Did I ever say I needed cooperation?"

     "..."

      Davis smiled evilly, "Just as I thought. No, I just need your access, your life matters not."

     "Then why not just kill me now?" The captain was getting exasperated.

     "Ever heard of meat on the hoof, "Captain'? I simply don't want to lug you around, though I will if I must"

     "Why did you have to kill all those people though?"

     "Why? To make it convincing, that was all."

     "But... All those people," the captain sounded a little shaken.

     "Tarina, the pregnant woman, she was the carrier, that's why she died first-"

     All this time, the captain had been bringing his cat-of-nine-tails out from behind his back. He chose this moment to swing. Davis ducked, but was nocked off balance. The captain swung again, but Davis shot, first. The captain looked at the bloody stump that was all that was left of his left hand, then he fell, almost screaming from agony. Davis then tore off some pipe insulation from one of the steam ducts. He thrust the captain's stump into it, cauterizing the wound. The captain only screamed all the more.

     Davis put his face right next to the captain's and hissed, "My precious creature tears its way out, then eats the host. The host is the lucky one, though, for once the host is eaten, her brain is fused with the creature into a completely new being. An unstoppable being. A perfectly unique being mutated from its original form by the thoughts at the time of bonding. Commanded only by its whims and loyalties, and very slightly influenced by its previous life. O, they can also survive space. So, if you wish to help me, I will be generous, and let one of them eat you. Does that sound fair?"

     "You're utterly insane! How do you expect me to go along with this?" The captain was outraged, and only partially from the pain.

     "You seem to misunderstand. I'm giving you the chance to become a Perfect One, though you certainly don't deserve it."

Michael

Michael was walking the darker streets of Los Angeles when it happened. It was very late, and he was in his element. The darkness was his friend, and he knew its secrets well. But they were his to keep, for the darkness kept his too. Every slice of his knife had been seen by no one but the night. Michael liked the night.

It was more than he could say for himself.

Michale had been in a good mood, having just heard the young girls cries from the next street over. If he was lucky, her attacker would still be around when he arrived, and he could steal them both away.

And then his world fell apart. He felt, rather than heard, an infrasonic groan pulse from the East. He gasped as he felt pain sprout from his shoulders, and grow to spread through his wings. Suddenly, there was a wet tearing noise, and his world exploded into a conflagration of pain. As the  black feathers fluttered down around him, Michael collapsed into a ball and was still.

Karachay: Part 3

Friday, May 19th, 1967
Dear Lyov,
I am glad to find you well. It seems, then, that your village is isolated from this world. We may have more pressing concerns than politics, however. The recent high winds have made farming very unfavorable. Many a villager has asked me to cure a rather nasty cough, an obvious side effect of swallowing too much dust. These farmers are tireless and for the moment they’re all I have to deal with. Let us pray nothing more comes my way.
Ah, a wager. I see you’ve remembered that I am a gambling man. I will accept, for you’ve lost one too many a card game to me, and I can see that you’re trying to make it up. What is the opinion of your farmers of this drought? I cannot say that we’ve had anyone here call it an apocalypse; most of these farmers see it as just another cycle.
I’m glad that these letters hold your interest; I was beginning to believe they might bore you. There hasn’t been anything of medical significance here since you left, so I worried that my lack of scientific data was disappointing. However, our friend Mikhail, the barkeep, was recently vindicated. Over the winter he got into a scuffle with one of his customers who was later found dead. It turns out that it was just suicide; how any detective could make this mistake I do not know, but once they called me in and I examined the body, I knew right away.
I’ve just briefly examined your notes of the flu, and it seems to me a rather odd combination of symptoms. I would appreciate it if you continued to send your medical reports; there is little in this town that holds my interest now that you’re gone.
Your brother,
Isaak

Part 4, Aftermath

Are you
prepared

to deal

with this?


You asked for
it.


All three

agreed.


Did you make

the right

choice?


There's no

such thing
as regret;

that's a myth.


You'll always

remember

what you all
did today.


You worked

together.


You all made the same

choice.


Now deal
with


the aftermath.