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The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: Chernabogue on October 31, 2013, 04:15:43 PM

Title: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Chernabogue on October 31, 2013, 04:15:43 PM

(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.us%2Fa%2Fimg706%2F8924%2F8hz4.png&hash=b3f0e87201b62403bc5d8643da1968a607323123)

WEBSITE (http://kngi.org/vampirevariations/)

>> DOWNLOAD LINK << (http://areciboradio.com/archives/ngilive/Vampire%20Variations%20-%20Volume%20II%20(MP3).zip)

Following the success of the first album in October 2011, Alexandre Mourey (Chernabogue) and KNGI.org are proud to present Vampire Variations: Volume II – a whole new tribute album to the Castlevania series, released on October 31, 2013.


This new album focuses on two major games from Konami's series: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine, 1993) and Bloodlines (Genesis, 1994), and on the music composed by Akiropito, Keizo Nakamura, Tomoko Sano, Mikio Saito (Rondo of Blood), and Michiru Yamane (Bloodlines).


But this time, we decided to put it to the next level: 2 albums, more than one and a half hour of music, more than 25 musicians and performers, and full album artwork. Everything was done by fans, for fans, to celebrate the games' anniversary.


The project's musicians were asked to arrange the tracks the way they wanted to, and to create their own vision of the soundtrack. The project features several different genres, including orchestra, metal, funk, electronic music, and many other. In order to respect the work of the artists, no final mixing or mastering was applied to the project.


The project's artwork was created to bring the universe of Castlevania to life, but also to give Vampire Variations its own visual identity. Unlike the first project, different covers were designed for the second one to allow listeners to chose the one they prefer.


I would like to thank all the people who made this happen, who trusted me, and who dedicated their work for the project. I truly hope you will enjoy this new musical experience, as much as I enjoyed directing this project. The Dark Lord is rising once again. Hold your crucifixes close. What an horrible night to be cursed once more...

-Alexandre Mourey (Chernabogue)

Disc I - Rondo of Blood

101 – Sinfonía del Diablo (AngelCityOutlaw & Chernabogue) [Divine Bloodlines]
102 – Mechanical Salvation (Eino Keskitalo & Tuberz McGee) [Requiem]
103 – Richter's Graveyard Groove (Mega Beardo) [Cemetery]
104 - Nosfearatu (AngelCityOutlaw) [Cross a Fear]
105 – The Damned Thirteen (Lashmush) [Op.13]
106 – Transylvania Sound Machine (Stemage & Chunkstyle) [Picture of a Ghost Ship]
107 – Krush Kontrol (goat) [Former Room]
108 – Phantasmal Hellfire (Timaeus222) [Dancing in Phantasmic Hell]
109 – This Whip Was Made to Punish (Lashmush) [Slash]
110 – Crux Fortitudo Mea (aensland) [The Den]
111 – Circle of Illusions (Rize) [Illusionary Dance]
112 – Chocolate Rondo (I Kinda Love It) (The Nate Horsfall Experience) [March of the Holy Man]

Disc II - Bloodlines

201 – Red Pearl (Guifrog) [Reincarnated Soul]
202 – Bonds of Dark Secrets (Existence Zero) [Vision of Dark Secrets + Bonds of Brave Men]
203 – Unholy Water (Rexy) [The Sinking Old Sanctuary]
204 - Satanic Spire (Gario) [The Discolored Wall]
205 – Prussian Bones (DaMonz) [Iron-Blue Intention]
206 – Find Me (Mak Eightman) [Mysterious Curse]
207 – No Prayer or Queen (Afilion) [The Prayer of a Tragic Queen]
208 – City of Angels (Brandon Strader) [Calling from Heaven]
209 – The Eighth Deadly Sin (Chernabogue & Various Artists) [The Six Servants of the Devil]
210 – Bloodthirst (SoundTakT) [The Vampire's Stomach]
211 – Season of the Witch (Brandon Strader) [Together Forever]
212 – For Love is Immortality (tibone) [Requiem for Nameless Victims]


>> DOWNLOAD LINK << (http://areciboradio.com/archives/ngilive/Vampire%20Variations%20-%20Volume%20II%20(MP3).zip)

(Note: The KNGI servers are down for now, due to major storms in France. The website will be up as soon as we can. For now, enjoy the music.)

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Chernabogue on October 31, 2013, 11:13:16 PM

Website is live: http://kngi.org/vampirevariations/ (http://kngi.org/vampirevariations/)

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Maedhros on October 31, 2013, 11:16:04 PM

Downloaded man, will give it a spin tomorrow at work.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: DoctaMario on November 01, 2013, 02:12:32 AM

Downloading right now!  :)

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Maedhros on November 01, 2013, 11:13:35 PM

The first CD is solid as FUCK. Fucking amazing! :)

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Kingshango on November 01, 2013, 11:14:13 PM

Gonna give it a listen.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Chernabogue on November 02, 2013, 07:46:06 AM

Thanks for taking a listen to it, I hope you'll enjoy the album. :) And thanks for the comments!

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Dremn on November 02, 2013, 04:07:52 PM

Downloaded it last night, been enjoying the hell out of it ever since. I like this volume more than the first one, can't stop listening to those Bloodlines mixes. HUGE HUGE props for finally making a great Ghost Ship Painting remix too!

Can't wait for Volume III next year covering CVIII and IV. (wink wink)

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Sindra on November 03, 2013, 07:33:09 PM

Quote from: OSM on November 02, 2013, 04:07:52 PM

Downloaded it last night, been enjoying the hell out of it ever since. I like this volume more than the first one, can't stop listening to those Bloodlines mixes. HUGE HUGE props for finally making a great Ghost Ship Painting remix too!

Can't wait for Volume III next year covering CVIII and IV. (wink wink)

"Picture of a Ghost Ship" was done by Stemage and Chunkstyle, of the game cover band Metroid Metal. With the exception of goat, they're the veterans of the album and it shows. MegaBeardo did "Cemetery" some fantastic credit. I was very impressed with Guifrog's run on "Reincarnated Soul" with the essence of Hans Zimmer he had going there, also. I had very little bad to say about either CD....with the exception of some bias I have for certain tracks and certain artists' *ahem* stylistic choices.

Actually, I was toting that VV vol.3 should be the Gameboy titles. They are pretty much the games that get the least amount of love in terms of Castlevania arrangements in the VG music scene.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: uzo on November 03, 2013, 10:01:05 PM

This album is such an exponential improvement over last year's. I really enjoyed the vast majority of what was in it.

I hope this becomes the base line standard for the future. Good work.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Sindra on November 03, 2013, 11:25:35 PM

Indeed. The only other thing that could be said in needing improvement was what our buddy Foxxdragon (last VV's album artist) already said about taking the time to master the whole album so things like track volume didn't fluctuate so wildly across the whole CD and everything was more uniform. Considering some artists dropped and others didn't get their tracks in until a couple days before the album release, that's understandable.....though it could be argued that for the next album that stricter deadlines be enforced in order to make sure enough time is available at the end to do such things. (though Chern was doing a fairly good job of making sure people were on-task...from what I saw)

But like uzo said, this was an improvement over the last VV album, and I'm sure things will be taken away from this volume that will be worked on even more for the next to make it even better. Experience breeds improvement. I can see these getting to the same level as goat's "Unchosen Paths" album by the next volume.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Chernabogue on November 04, 2013, 04:29:41 AM

Quote from: Sindra on November 03, 2013, 11:25:35 PM

The only other thing that could be said in needing improvement was what our buddy Foxxdragon (last VV's album artist) already said about taking the time to master the whole album so things like track volume didn't fluctuate so wildly across the whole CD and everything was more uniform. Considering some artists dropped and others didn't get their tracks in until a couple days before the album release, that's understandable.....though it could be argued that for the next album that stricter deadlines be enforced in order to make sure enough time is available at the end to do such things. (though Chern was doing a fairly good job of making sure people were on-task...from what I saw)

Yes, time was the second main reason why we don't have a mastering of the album. The main reason is that some artists asked for their tracks not to be mastered, even for a volume check. SOmetimes being a project director is hard!  :)

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Sindra on November 05, 2013, 08:19:06 PM

Quote from: Chernabogue on November 04, 2013, 04:29:41 AM

Yes, time was the second main reason why we don't have a mastering of the album. The main reason is that some artists asked for their tracks not to be mastered, even for a volume check. SOmetimes being a project director is hard!  :)

Whaa? Who the hell wouldn't want their mastered? Maybe I'm still a noob to the recording and mixing process, but that seems counter-productive to an entry in an album.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Chernabogue on November 05, 2013, 08:47:56 PM

Quote from: Sindra on November 05, 2013, 08:19:06 PM

Whaa? Who the hell wouldn't want their mastered? Maybe I'm still a noob to the recording and mixing process, but that seems counter-productive to an entry in an album.

It is, but some artists have a clear vision of their own mastering, and are against the "loudness war". I try to respect the artists' work as much as I can, sometimes it involves not mastering tracks (Bonkers asked for the same during VV1 for instance).

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Sindra on November 05, 2013, 11:30:23 PM

Sometimes ya gotta be the hardass, Chern. I respect people's own work on their own tracks, yes....but when *not* doing something that streamlines all tracks as a whole starts detracting from the quality of the whole album......maybe you have to say "Sorry, but I'm doing this to make the album overall better". I'm sure Nate had to do that plenty with Spectrum of Mana.

Yadda yadda.....


Your album, I know. It's my 2-cents. I just want to see the album series grow, improve and gain larger acclaim. Volume 2 improved from volume 1, and I'd like to continue seeing that.

But yeah.......gameboy titles

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: uzo on November 05, 2013, 11:41:37 PM

I have to agree on that. Being the leader means taking a stance for the better of the project. I know this all too well.

Not allowing mastering for the overall cohesiveness of the album they decided to produce a track for is just juvenile and a mark of an amature.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: Sindra on November 06, 2013, 01:36:31 AM

I wouldn't say juvenile or amateur. Just....not what we call a "team player" mentality.

Granted, if you spent a lot of time on a track and thought you nailed it perfectly, would you want someone else messing with it? I can understand the logic, but at the same time....it's one track that could disrupt the flow of the entire album, and that's what ends up looking amateur. I guess it all boils down to what you're trying to accomplish with the album - just doing it for kicks and not really caring if the production quality is perfect or not, or trying to gain attention from the scene and a following with a slick and well-polished compilation.

Certainly neither of those two avenues are wrong. Again, just depends on what you're aiming for.

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: kadosho on November 06, 2013, 05:55:28 PM

I think its great to see more collaborative albums come together more often. Especially when it celebrates music, and the diverse sounds each part of the series inhabits with the community. Love it!

Title: Re: Vampire Variations II - Now Available
Post by: uzo on November 08, 2013, 05:28:23 AM

It's fine to be satisfied with your track as is if you're doing a singular track, or your own album. Once you step foot into a collaborative project however, you are no longer the sole artist and can't be a brat about your track being mastered, along with the whole album, to make sure everything flows well.

A little professionalism goes a long way. Something a lot of cover artists are in dire need of, especially if they want to be taken seriously.