BadAss: Paragons & Renegades Comments from album directors David L. Puga and Pieter van Os (Pavos) & ReMixers Album freely available at https://badass-pr.ocremix.org Long ago, ancient scholars agonized over one existential question that would change the time space continuum for all... time and space. That question, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a BadAss album, except for hero themes?" Well, now we have the answer in 18 tracks of badass heroic reimagines of heroic heroes that have hero'd, and even some that aren't necessarily heroic but still did a good in the end. While it may not change the time-space continuum, it'll make the next hour and change pretty friggin' kickass, hardcore style. It's been a long time. 4 years since BadAss 3, and 7 since the last time I had a hand in directing. It's about damn time, and I'm proud to present the newest in the BadAss line, Paragons & Renegades: A BadAss Heroes Album! It's finally here, you guyses! To commemorate this occasion, I'm gonna tell you a secret: I first started BadAss to have a different sound and tone when compared to what OCR had been putting out to that point, at least in overall style. Much as I loved all the albums to that point, I wanted something meaner and darker; I had just come off of The Dark Side of Phobos and wanted more of that while at the same time not being tied down to a single game, so we joined up with KNGI and made it so. The making of BadAss 1 and 2 were some of the most fun moments I've ever had making music & I look back fondly on those days. We made some kickass tunes, but I like to think it was the friends and memories we made along the way that make these albums good & I think that's pretty kickass! When Pieter and I first started planning a hero-themed fourth album in the BadAss line in 2019, the only goal we really had was to have fun. I can't speak for Pieter, but I missed having fun making music. I'd been doing contract work composing & sound designing and I was getting burnt out by it all, but I remembered those days making BadAss 1 and 2 and how much fun it was. We were experimental & I think the tracks that come out of a BadAss album show that. So, we started BadAss Heroes if only to be experimental, to let the music guide us, and to just have fun. A lot has happened in the world since then, and so have my reasons for working on this album. This is a hero-themed album & maybe we can all use a reminder to better days when defeating evil and being a hero was as simple as loading up a game and pressing a few buttons. It's become harder to see the better days, and even harder to see the heroism in the world. My hope is that this album leaves you energized, feeling badass, and most importantly, with some good-ass memories. And, hell, if we can inspire a little bit of heroism in you hardcore style, well, that'd be awesome too! - David L. Puga Welcome to Paragons & Renegades: A BadAss Heroes Album! A true spin-off from the main BadAss series focusing on heroes this time around and having two discs with their own feel. Why not a BadAss: Boss Themes: Volume 4? Well, as I wrote in the album write-up of BadAss 3, I had been working non-stop on BadAss since its never-released spiritual predecessor, Crescendo to Chaos. BadAss 1 was really an experiment for us (I was just an assistant director then) and so was the music. A genre-style album, not focusing on a certain soundtrack, born from the KNGI community almost more than from the OCR community… it was new in many ways. In BadAss 2, I think David really found his niche of genre and we made it even rawer and focused than the first one. With BadAss 3, I took over as director and had my own staff without David. It gave me the opportunity to grow more as a director and give it more my (genre) niche and vibe: more eerie and more bombastic - more like a movie soundtrack. After that, I felt like the trilogy was complete and I did everything I could with the BadAss formula. But David and I (and others in the project threads) always teased each other with "Well, one day there should be a GoodAss…" And that day has come! We're going back to something new, something fresh. Bringing different genres to the mix, having a new focus, being able to welcome new and additional mixers to the BadAss family and trying to figure out how to make something work all over again... It was the fresh energy I needed to direct another album, this time with David beside me! It has been a difficult one-and-a-half years for me (i.e. medically speaking), so making the time to work on this album and make a mix for it was very challenging for me this time around. But it has been a great experience slowing down and picking up again with David picking up when I couldn't and vice versa. In the end, it was really fun doing this as it felt like two buddies making something new! And since GoodAss isn't a great name, and since we went for a separation of genres (bombastic and/or more peaceful on disc 1, and way more aggressive and raw on disc 2), this is: Paragons & Renegades! And who knows, perhaps there will be a Paragons & Renegades: Volume 2 in the future? - Pieter van Os (Pavos) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-01. Pavos - "The Hidden Ones" Paragon: Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed Origins) Composers: Jesper Kyd, Sarah Schachner Sources: Assassin's Creed II - "Ezio's Family," Assassin's Creed Origins - "Last NPC Remaining Variation 02" David L. Puga: Pavos once again graces us with a beautiful piano intro track, only this time he threw some funk and synth in this awesome, groovy reimagining of "Ezio's Family." Absolutely Assassinating it, man! Pavos: BadAss is back, but this time it's the heroes' time to shine! Usually I make ReMixes of fairly old (SNES-era) games, but Ezio's theme stuck with me since I first heard it. No wonder it became the de facto overall theme for the Assassin's Creed series (I do kinda feel sorry for the composer(s) of the first Assassin's Creed game though). It wasn't so long ago that I finished Assassin's Creed Origins and hearing the theme in there gave me a lot of satisfaction and reminded me of how good Ezio's theme is, but I also very much liked one of the battle themes in it. And while playing, I already started mixing it with Ezio's theme in my head. The new BadAss album was the ideal opportunity to give that idea a shot, because what hero is more BadAss than a master assassin? While my experience and most of my expertise lies in piano mixes (with various accompanying instruments), I've been working with a more synthrock style for an original album of mine. So I wanted to try and make a ReMix in that style; this is BadAss after all. The track was a lot more challenging to make than I had first anticipated, since I didn't want to lose the tranquility and peacefulness of the Ezio theme and the dynamics in the build-up of the original, but still make it harder and more… well, BadAss. I've switched parts around quite often, changed the energy levels of the track a lot, but I finally found a synthrock-ish/piano hybrid that I'm really happy with. The themes work perfectly together in this style in my opinion and I feel it pumps up the energy for this new (series of?) type of BadAss album to kick off! 1-02. Sam Dillard - "Time Warrior" Paragon: Crono (Chrono Trigger) Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda Source: "Chrono Trigger" David L. Puga: I'll admit that I took a sabbatical from the scene for a bit, and even though I've peeked in every now and then, I've missed out on a few things, especially the new crop of talent... but, holy damn hell, was hearing Sam's mix of this classic theme a really good surprise! Close your eyes, listen... that's heroism and romance if I ever done heard it, by gawd! Let it flow into your soul! Pavos: If you think OCR albums and bombastic, you automatically think Sam Dillard. And it was a true pleasure having him as the second opener for the album! Sam is truly bringing in that Paragon vibe with his amazing Crono track; you can close your eyes and feel like you're sitting in the movie theatre as the credits and opening montage or a big fight of a live-action Chrono Trigger movie is coming at you! Sam Dillard: My idea for the track was actually pretending that Crono had become a playable character in Smash Bros. and, after an epic intro, Crono jumps out of the Epoch and squares off against other foolish heroes and villains, with swords clashing as they fight on the wings of the Epoch and the background flies between the different ages throughout time and space. Sadly, we will never see this, but I thought it would be cool to provide the soundtrack anyway! 1-03. RebeccaETripp - "Chariot of the Moon" Paragon: Cecil Harvey (Final Fantasy IV) Composer: Nobuo Uematsu Source: "Lunar Whale" David L. Puga: I just... hell, this music is so good. RebeccaETripp, like Sam Dillard, was a new name to me when I came back for this incarnation of BadAss and I am blown away by the talent on display here. Rebecca has done a fantastic job making a sweeping, epic, lush, beautiful... I can go on but I'll just say this track is pretty (and) great! Pavos: Another artist I was very happy we could bring into the BadAss family with the new possibilities of this spin-off was Rebecca. And, boy, did she deliver (as per usual)! If Sam's track was underneath the opening credits of a movie, this is definitely a journey theme, or when the audience sees a magical landscape in its full glory for the first time. I also like the "moon-esque" instruments on the end, clearly showing what Rebecca had in mind. The sense of exploration and progression is very clear in this track, so close your eyes and let yourself be guided by this magical track! RebeccaETripp: I chose "The Big Whale" because Cecil is my favourite "paragon" hero in video gaming (maybe tied with Link). I had already done arrangements of virtually every other track that had anything to do with Cecil's journey, including (to name a few) "The Red Wings," "Mount Ordeals," "The Lunarians," "Mysidia," the "Main Theme," and the "Credits"/"Epilogue"/"Prologue" themes. However, this theme was still on my to-do list! I've always been enchanted with the whole idea of the moon and the Lunarian people in Final Fantasy 4. This seemed like a really good theme to represent the hero's truest identity -- an identity which he doesn't really discover until the latter part of his journey. The song also has a kind of grandiose, virtuous aesthetic that I associate with superheroes and old-fashioned epics. I'm hoping that this arrangement will tell a story of Cecil's party slowly lifting out of a docking bay, optimistically thrusting into space, accelerating into the slipstream, and then finally arriving to meet their collective destiny at the moon. 1-04. Audio Mocha feat. Pandora's Bread - "Revenge on the Terror from the Deep" Paragon: Magus (Chrono Trigger) Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda Source: "Magus Confronted" David L. Puga: Audio Mocha and Pandora's Bread took a very unique approach to mixing this song, and that approach was to make a badass surf rock fight track! If there was ever a time where I was going to do battle with a terror from the deep, I'd do it riding in on a surfboard hurling magic fireballs with this track blaring and being awesome as hell! Pavos: We had Magus on BadAss, but we never had Magus like this! Marking the point in the first disc where we enter the area of rock a bit, this surf-rock version of Magus is something you won't expect! Picturing Magus with his long blue hairs ridin' the waves never ceases to amuse me. And you can be prepared for whenever Lavos decides to emerge from the sea right? He sure as hell won't know what's coming at him! Audio Mocha: I remember seeing when BadAss: Paragons & Renegades was announced and thinking that I'd finally have a chance to contribute to my favorite line of albums on OC ReMix. I kept telling myself that I'd think of an idea for the album and start working on it as soon as I could. However, at the same time, I was also dealing with having to plan a move with my wife from Michigan to Colorado. With the worry of having to find another job and dealing with a move with an uncertain date, the thought of BadAss: Paragons & Renegades slipped my mind for a while since I was mainly focused on looking for work and interviewing after getting home from my job then. Fast-forward about 10 months to finally having settled in Colorado and lurking on the forums looking for any open albums to join and I notice BadAss: Paragons & Renegades once again. My heart had sank because I thought I had probably missed my chance to join in! I posted in the album forum hoping that there was still time to join and was super stoked when I was told I could still make it. I knew I wanted to make some energetic surf punk track, since that's the genre I like to make most, since it's fun to play and is not commonly seen in the VGM world. So a renegade character was the obvious choice, but I wasn't sure which one I wanted to pick. I made a list of various anti-hero characters from a bunch of my favorite games and eventually the choice came down to Dark Pit and Magus. After much deliberation, I realized that the Magus theme worked perfectly with a surf punk aesthetic and I started thinking up ideas for it, and the whole thing started coming along pretty well. However, I realized that the VST bass that I was using was not up to the task even after fiddling with it as much as I could, so I contacted my friend Alex (Pandora's Bread) from Pixel Mixers and asked if he was up to laying down some bass for me. I may have gone a little too nuts with the composition I made for the bass on MIDI but in the end, he came through and added some great little touches that really made the track come together. After working through some feedback, I finally had a track that I felt proud of and can't wait for everyone to hear once the album is out! 1-05. David L. Puga feat. XPRTNovice - "Human After All" Paragon: Eshe (Sundered) Composer: Maxime Lacoste-Lebuis Sources: "Sundered," "Eshe" Pavos: As per usual with BadAss albums (yeah, I know this is a spin-off, sue me), games that I'm unfamiliar with are bound to come up. This is also the case with Sundered, but the track gives a great idea about what the vibe of the game is. It's creepy and, most of all, feels strange… but in a good way. The track also has a sense of calm, serenity, and beauty over it which combines into a very unique mix. XPRTNovice's sax playing beautifully supplements what David has laid down as foundation into one of the more unique BadAss tracks I've ever heard. Creepy serenity; I've never thought something like that possible, but I like it! David L. Puga: I love cosmic horror. Absolutely adore that stuff. I like Metroidvanias too, which is why Sundered was a great old time for me! I've fond memories of playing the Eldritch Edition alone and feeling that solitude and loss; I also played in co-op with my wife, back to back, the both of us whupping up on some of that Eldritch ass and spending hours exploring hellish alien landscapes together with a beautifully horrific soundtrack pushing us on. A soundtrack that I would rate up there with the best of them for its beauty and horror. The main theme has been on my list to remix ever since, if only to commemorate that time spent with my partner & I figured this was as good an excuse to check it off as any. I'd been listening (hell, I still am listening to) lots of dark synthwave at the time - Gunship, Perturbator, Dance with the Dead, etc. - and I really wanted to do something in that type of feel, particularly Gunship's "Cthulhu" and "Dark All Day." To that end, I also wanted a sexy, cool sax line that would make all the little sisters both cry and still believe; so I wrote a really noir-sounding bit and hoped for the best, because I have no idea how to write for sax. However, the synth sax just wasn't cutting it. Luckily, Joe came through and recorded some sax for me and elevated it to a new, unseen maddening level! I'm talking like 60 Insight, if you can dig it? Anyway, hope you enjoy this cyberpunk flavored foray into horror! 1-06. heymagurany - "Part of Me" Paragon: Madeline (Celeste) Composer: Lena Raine Sources: "First Steps," "Resurrections," "Scattered and Lost," "Confronting Myself" David L. Puga: Starting off with an uplifting intro that's full of hope, heymagurany takes us on a journey of self-discovery. Retelling the story of Madeline as she journeys to the mountaintop in song form, the track takes us on a rollercoaster of doubt, despair & ultimately triumph, though ending on a darker but ultimately balanced finale... of sound and emotion! You gotta punch the shadow within, and find that good balance, maybe rock the hell out to this track while you do it! Pavos: Another new addition to the BadAss family, heymagurany, was one of the (if not the) first to finish his track for this album, so mad props to him! We're getting more into the rock vibes here yet, but it still has a very heroic and uplifting vibe to it, certainly at the beginning! heymagurany shifts perfectly between different themes of the game and sews them together perfectly, playing with the dynamics of the piece and adding some sweet organs! As we progress further into the track, darkness is creeping up, the uplifting vibe slowly but surely fades away… perhaps incorporating the frustrations of all of the players who tried finishing this game? It gets more BadAss and raw along the way, giving a sense of what's to come in the second disc! Great track, great dynamics, and great guitar work! heymagurany: Celeste was my favorite game of 2018 and I knew I had to make an arrangement of at least one of the songs in the amazing soundtrack. So when I saw a new BadAss album in the works, I took the opportunity! This was a tough one for me. I wanted to make a rock arrangement while keeping to the source enough to make it obvious that Madeline is the BadAss in question while at the same time changing things up so it's not just a cover. So I smashed together "First Steps," "Resurrections," "Scattered and Lost," and "Confronting Myself" into a guitar/organ, slightly proggy rock thing. I hope you enjoy the result! 1-07. HoboKa feat. Sykozealot - "Whip of Justice" Paragon: Simon Belmont (Super Castlevania IV) Composers: Masanori Adachi, Taro Kudo Source: "Simon Belmont's Theme (Stage 1-2 BGM)" David L. Puga: Like Dracula's Castle, this mix pays no heed to genre restrictions and does what it wants, creating a dizzying fever dream of an experience. It's time again to pick up that whip and snap into a slim... this track! Pavos: HoboKa has always been great at setting an ominous and uneasy vibe in the intro (check out his BadAss 3 track!), and this is certainly no exception! The creepiness drips from this track before it goes into more serenity, even adding some violins. It switches between many genres during the course of the track and sometimes feels bombastic, creepy and ominous, serene, and even minimalistic… Mad props to HoboKa for seeing this one through and giving us another BadAss entry for the album! HoboKa: I felt it was a must to include the Castle Gates theme to preface "Simon's Theme" as gamers familiar with Castlevania 4 just love some good fan service. Plus, it adds an element of spooky atmosphere. I used Omnisphere 2, E/W Composer Cloud, Aria Player, some Castlevania 4 soundfonts, and a Sykozealot E-guitar VST library whom I discovered on Newgrounds. He rocks. Especially his Mega Man X remix collection. The general idea was a cinematic metal cover-remix, which is seen in more modern iterations of Castlevania games, like SoTN and the PS2 3D games. I also did some other fan-service things, like having an outro using said CV4 soundfonts. This was a long, painful process. In contrast, equally painful to the project staffers, whom I made my captive audience, whilst getting it to sound reasonable enough. And now… I'll be hopping on to the Paths Less Traveled: Volume 2 bandwagon. Wish me luck, OCR and beyond. 1-08. Chernabogue feat. heymagurany - "Apex Predator" Paragon: Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 2, Super Metroid) Composer: Kenji Yamamoto Sources: Metroid Prime 2 - "Echoes," Super Metroid - "Theme of SUPER METROID" David L. Puga: If there was a dive bar filled with grizzled space bounty hunters, for sure this would be playing on the certified retro jukebox, it would undoubtedly have a game of pool happening in the back, Samus walking in and demanding to know where a pirate was at, culminating with a bar fight that Samus would just walk out off without taking part in. Yeah, that's the feel this has. Dirty, grungy, and hardcore with a sci-fi flare to warm the blood! Pavos: Chernabogue is back! He was a mixer on the first BadAss, and the assistant director, mixer, and creator of the trailer for Volume 3! So I'm glad he's also part of this spin-off album too! He's brought us a cool atmospheric take on Samus by integrating two of her themes; I really like which parts he combined and by doing so created something new instead of alternating between themes. Hearing this, you're immediately captured by the Metroid feel and heymaguraney's guitar work finishes it off nicely! Chernabogue: When you think of badass video game protagonists, Samus comes to mind immediately and having some Metroid representation on the album was much needed. This track blends the Metroid Prime 2 main theme with Super Metroid's theme. I went for something sounding rock/metal and added synths to symbolize the space/sci-fi aspect of Metroid in the music. Big thanks to heymagurany who proposed to record guitars for this track and recorded some badass ones! See you next mission! 1-09. MkVaff - "Spirit of the Sword" Paragon: Fi (Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword) Composer: Takeshi Hama Source: "Fi's Theme" David L. Puga: A beautiful ballad of a track to bring the more heroic side of this album to a close. MkVaff weaves a soothing, minimalist, groovy piano beat. Lo-fi beats that you can hero to? You damn right! You damn right. Pavos: As the first disc progressed, it got more and more aggressive (it's still BadAss of course) without losing the heroic, atmospheric, and, most of the time, bombastic touch that you can expect from a Paragon disc. What better way to close it off than to go back to the beginning of the album and the roots of a true hero and paragon: the light within. This track… wow. There is so much emotion in the piano (especially in the beginning and the end), and, when the groove kicks in, you are overwhelmed by the blanket of warmth and purity that MkVaff is known for. This track reminds me a lot of his Link to the Past track on OCR ("The Darkness and the Light"), not just because they're both Zelda, but because of the feel and the dynamics of the piece. Which is good, since it's one of my favorite OC mixes of all time. I'm glad we have a Zelda track on the album, but I'm even more glad that it's not the Zelda (overworld) theme - just like we don't have the Mario theme. It's different, it's unique, but it's great. An awesome way to finish off the Paragons disc if you ask me (and they did, so there)! MkVaff: I came up with the idea for this song while I was in the middle of a completely different arrangement of another song for this project. I originally worked on a cover of Dark Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising, but I didn't feel that the song captured the theme of this project well enough. During a workout, I randomly remembered "Fi's Theme" from Skyward Sword, and started humming it, even though I hadn't heard it for years. After going on YouTube and confirming that it was just as gorgeous as I remembered (if not more so), I decided to change my source material to that track instead. Though my primary instrument is piano, I've never practiced enough to become any kind of virtuoso on the instrument. If I had to choose a musical muse for that instrument though, I'd have to say that I've always had a profound respect for Tori Amos throughout the years. She has a wonderful way of using her classical training in interesting contemporary trappings, and often uses the piano beautifully to weave in and out of her vocals. This arrangement is heavily inspired by some of her earlier work, and it was wonderful to feel like I was channeling even a bit of her brilliance and sound into this already gorgeous source material. It was nice to be part of another OCR project and, in the end, I felt this track fit in well with the paragon theme and was a much better fit for the overall concept. Luckily, weeks later, I also ended up completing the Dark Pit track anyway, which seemed too cool of a track to leave incomplete in its own right. I guess I still have a thing for those Nintendo themes! 2-01. Lashmush - "Devil's Lament" Renegade: Doom Slayer (Doom, Doom II) Composer: Bobby Prince Sources: Doom - "At Doom's Gate (E1M1)," "The Imp's Song (E1M2)," "Suspense (E1M5)," "Sign of Evil (E1M8)," "The Demons from Adrian's Pen (E2M2)"; Doom II - "Running from Evil (Map01)," "Into Sandy's City (Map09)" David L. Puga: Lashmush didn't just make a track, he wrote us an epic tale in the vein of Gilgamesh, Odysseus, and Ash Willams. A story of triumph. Of brutality. Of fighting the good fight not just because it's right, but because asses need kickery hardcore style. From a haunting, religious experience of an opening, to the familiar riffs chugging as if to wake us from our slumber and say, "It's demon killing time, fool! Rip and Tear. Rip. Tear." And so we shall. Pavos: You HAD to know this was coming. When have we ever given you a breather not to be followed up by some massive ass-kickery? Lashmush is back. After his phenomenal work on Volume 2 and 3, Lashmush kicks off the Renegades disc of Paragons & Renegades. Yeah, we're not playing nice anymore. Lashmush starts this with the serenity and heroic vibes of the previous disc and then goes full bombastic and orchestral. This is the music in the trailer, this is the part in the movie with the rise of the hero when everything seems down and lost, this is the moment when all the odds are against our hero and then… Doomguy stands up and does what he does best: kicking ass and killing a WHOLE lot of demons! The climax at around 3:20-ish is when you know it's on and the day is going to be won. Heroic vibes mixed with Lashmush's trademark rawness and shreddage follow not long after. He mixes different motifs at the end very nicely to give us a very satisfying climax to the track. Lashmush: I went for a kind of last man standing approach to the track, which is not far from the truth in those games. Most everyone else in Doom games are either dead or people you kind of want dead. I took on the idea of a paragon "good guy" or rather pomp and glory "anti-hero" theme of E1M1 simply due to it being one of the suggestions and it kind of tickled me to put that spin on it. I really wanted to give some broader reference to the two original games and their tracks since they hold a special place in my own gaming past. A sum total of seven different tracks are used to cobble together this end result. I'm quite happy with my new approach to mixing and mastering as I think I'm getting closer to a clear and fully expressed sound. I do however feel like this is the product of me being quite rusty in terms of general composition since I put music on the shelf for a few years, but it still delivers a good, solid punch and I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. 2-02. Mak Eightman - "Fire Cleanses All" Renegade: Firebrand (Gargoyle's Quest) Composers: Harumi Fujita, Yoko Shimomura, Tamayo Kawamoto Source: "Title" David L. Puga: I felt Mak needed a song of his own on this project, so I asked him & he told me to find him something worthy of BadAss, so I gave him this track from one of my favorite games as a child. Wild, evil, and fun, this is the perfect theme song to the anti-authority punk of the demon realm. I couldn't have asked for more! Is there such a genre as carnival demon punk? Well, there is now, and we're all the better for it! Pavos: Mak seems to be doing us favors with BadAss. I requested his entry for Volume 3 and now David made his request. And Mak nailed it again, obviously. The track starts quite creepy and distorted, but then quickly goes into Mak's standard territory: heavy guitar shredding. It has twisted carnival vibes, heavy metal vibes, punk vibes… we've had all kinds of genre fusion up until this point, so why not a heavy metal fusion? Time for me to shut up and headbang to this track! Mak Eightman: Mostly inspired by Rammstein's "Radio." I wanted to make a vocal song, but unfortunately I'm still not good enough with using a microphone. 2-03. Redg - "Blood Is Everywhere" Renegade: Caleb (Blood) Composer: Daniel Bernstein Source: "Unholy Voices" David L. Puga: A twisted and chaotic track that'd put a big evil grin on Aphex Twin himself, I tell you huwat! Listen to this and tell me you won't have some weird dreams tonight? I dare you. Pavos: Seriously, what the hell? Yeah, Clem did his creepy-as-sh*t Molgera in a collab with Chimpazilla in Volume 3, but this is going way beyond that! Want to feel like your nightmares are being ripped from your mind and formed into reality before your eyes? Listen to this track and you'll know what I mean. And weirdly, that is a compliment; perhaps I should seek professional help. Perhaps you all need to after listening to this though. Redg: Blood is a really fun classic. This remix is an atmospheric take on the main theme. I took a very basic approach for sound design: lots of distortion and compression. But I made sure it still had some good dynamics. Thanks for listening. 2-04. Steele - "Eternal Shadow" Renegade: Nero (Devil May Cry 5) Composer: Casey Edwards Source: "Devil Trigger" David L. Puga: You like big beat? You like dubstep? You like rock? You like sending evil bug things back into the bowels of hell knowing they'll remember your name? Well then, this track, this effin track right here... This is what it sounds like, when devils cry! Pavos: Coming off Clem's track, this starts out with a creepy vibe, but not for long - the synths transition more into a dubsteppy/rock vibe as we're used from Steele's previous mixes! I'd say this feels fuller and rawer at places than his previous mixes, filling the atmosphere more. That makes the transition into the more minimalistic parts better and leads to better dynamics overall! In the main part of this song, Steele blends more synthwave into his mix rather than his usual synthrock, making this a great new addition to his repertoire. And, of course, some true dubstep parts to really shut those demons up are included in this great package! Steele: When I heard about BadAss: Paragons & Renegades, I was immediately excited to get to work on a new remix. It just so happens that I had recently played Devil May Cry 5 at the time and I loved the song "Devil Trigger." I decided I'd attempt to remix this one even though I knew it would be a challenge, because it's a well known song with high production value. At first, I was going for a synthrock style, but changed to a synthwave style halfway through. I find it hard to let go of heavy metal when I am making a remix of this kind, so I ended up doing a mix of both in the end. It took a long time as I was working full-time in Japan, but when I finished it, I was quite happy with the results. A big challenge was using a vocoder for the first time and trying to get a dubstep voice similar to something like Teminite. 2-05. bLiNd - "Bassbag" Renegade: Duke Nukem (Duke Nukem 3D) Composer: Lee Jackson Source: "Grabbag" David L. Puga: bLiNd, you went and gone and done it! I've wanted bLiNd on a BadAss album from the beginning & I'm glad to finally have him, because he made a mix that'll get that adrenaline a-pumping! Get you ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and, yes, you do have bubblegum this time, and it never loses its flavor, and also it has caffeine and steroids in it. Pavos: I was really hoping somebody would tackle "Grabbag"/Duke Nukem 3D and not just somebody, but bLiNd stepped in and gave us his synth version of it! It has a true vintage vibe to it, but it never loses the rock of the original. Pumping with adrenaline and empowered by the arpeggios and pumping beats courtesy of bLiNd's synths and even adding some electric guitars into the mix, this mix will certainly make you feel like the BadAss the Duke is! bLiNd: "Grabbag" has always been a favorite VGM song of mine and secretly I always wanted to do something with it but was never equipped enough to make my visions come to life. Well, with the help of some Impact Soundworks Shreddage 3 Hydra guitar and my heavy drum n bass drum sounds ,I was able to make the Duke track come to life even more with a drum-n-bass remix. I really wanted to keep the feel of the original, so the synths are also vintage-sounding Roland JP series stuff. Hope you like it as much as I did making it! 2-06. Garpocalypse feat. WillRock - "Righteous Ragemaster Rocketship Rampage" Renegades: ToeJam & Earl (ToeJam & Earl) Composer: John Baker Source: "ToeJam Slowjam" David L. Puga: Picture it: ToeJam & Earl driving, weaving in and out of traffic in fast cars, doing heists... making heists? Whatever the right way to say it, I imagine it happening while listening to this track. It's a funky, metal-as-hell track that gots them old school bleep bloops, that there slap bass, a bit of guitar wankery & is just a damn fun time all around! Pavos: Awwww yea! A funky bassline, pumping synths, rockin' drums - this mix has got it all! I can't listen to this song while sitting still; even when I'm trying, my foot just jams along with this glorious package of energy and cool vibes. Put on your sunglasses and/or your cap and ride along with this mix that blends the retro sounds and vibe of the original with modern synth solos and drums! Garpocalypse: I've been meaning to do a rearrangement of something from this glorious OST by John Baker since I started doing OC ReMixes years ago. However, I felt that I could neither do the game justice nor make anything that could stand with the 2 other remixes on the site from the early days of the absolute musical juggernauts that are Jake Kaufman and Joshua Morse. When the call came that the legendary BadAss album project was reviving for another installment, I decided to finish this idea I had for a funk/power metal take on "ToeJam Slowjam," because there was no way that I would have been satisfied if I did not at least try to get in on this project. During the near final stages of the track, I was still slamming my head off of my desk trying to figure out what more I could do to really drive this remix home and contacted long-time OC ReMix solo specialist and all-around good guy WillRock, who agreed to do up one of his solos for a section of the remix. It all came together to make for something I am very proud of and hope you all find it as enjoyable as I do. ToeJam & Earl being the first game I ever personally owned the day that I received a Sega Genesis makes this a very special remix for me, and I am thrilled to have been a part of this project with the many other great musicians that are part of this community. 2-07. Gunderslam - "The Butcher of Blavikin" Renegade: Geralt of Rivia (Witcher 3) Composer: Marcin Przybylowicz Source: "Geralt of Rivia" David L. Puga: Fantasy and metal have always gone good together, and this is no exception. Epic and heavy in all the right ways. I'd toss a lot of coin for a hero with this badass tune as his theme! Lift your Igni signs in the air, and wave them around like you just don't care! Pavos: A very epic opening of the track, very alike the vibe the game itself has… but this is BadAss and the Renegades disc at that! So, time for some metal! I love the Witcher 3 soundtrack since it keeps the folk and Eastern European vibe in almost every song. But we all know we would love to hear when this soundtrack (and the main theme in particular) doesn't hold back, and this is exactly that. Gunderslam thrust every elf far back on the shelf and gives us a Geralt beefed up on toxins ready for battle! Gunderslam: It's an honor to be on this album and to also be able to pick a song that I resonate with melodically. Geralt's theme has elements from folk and orchestral music which pair really well to metal, so it was an easy transition for me to work on this track. I also love The Witcher 3 and really like his character. My girlfriend points out to me some personality traits between us too, like me hating to wear formal clothes and playing meaningless card games (I like to play Magic: The Gathering occasionally, LOL). Working on the song was super fun and I love any chance I can get to make something from a video game sound like it's off of an Amon Amarth record. I'm super excited to hear this album in its entirety and excited to take part on this record! 2-08. Justin Lassen - "City of Lost Things" Renegade: Earthworm Jim (Earthworm Jim) Composer: Tommy Tallarico Source: "Junkit" David L. Puga: Earthworm Jim, the gritty cyberpunk reboot. That's what this track conjures up in my mind. It's industrial badassedness with a smooth spy flair, it's the theme to the Earthworm Jim game we all want... Jim as the deadly cybernetically enhanced beast that he is, throwing cows around with his bare hands and zooming around space! Oh, yeah, it's a space opera too! Pavos: Wait, this isn't how I remember Earthworm Jim! Not that there isn't much to recognise here; there's a lot of the EWJ vibe in here, but it's much rawer than that! It's the industrialised Earthworm Jim, with a raged out Peter Puppy calling the shots! The production value on this track is really great and Justin makes some great transitions throughout the track. Rock on, Earthworm Jim! Justin Lassen: Earthworm Jim was first brought to my attention in the early 2000s from my friend and kindred spirit, Tommy Tallarico. He scored the video game and our circles crossed so many paths over the years. I met him before the existence of G.A.N.G., Video Games Live, and his new Amico/Intellivision revival when he was still heavily scoring all kinds of projects under Tommy Tallarico Studios (I still have his CD-R business card from back in the day!). He pulled up in a yellow sports car with a custom Video Games license plate at a DTS 6.1 surround project I was mixing at the time and he had the best attitude ever! So I got to help mix his remix and stems even back then! So I took on this remix as a tribute to him in a way from my heart to his awesomeness and fantastic work over the last 2 decades! It's upbeat, exciting, and a lot of fun! I hope that I have done the theme justice for him and the fans of this now-retro run-and-gun platformer! I wanted to do a more visceral, straight-to-the-point rock with electro elements kind of version that ticks all the right bells. I had a lot of fun working on this remix! I even got to use my own loops from my own custom Black Fox Society loop library! 2-09. David L. Puga feat. Mak Eightman - "And Hell Followed Him" Renegade: Death (Darksiders II) Composer: Jesper Kyd Sources: "Tree of Life," "The Guardian" Pavos: David always knows how to set the vibe in the intro; this track has a lot of melancholy, but it gets more and more raw and full of emotion as Mak's guitar shreddage increases. The atmosphere of this track is great and carries it along. I loved that about David's BadAss 3 entry, but in this one, hope and optimism shines through. This track has so much heart throughout, while still being full of dread. It's a beautiful juxtaposition (or perhaps even a paradoxical one), but perhaps having a Renegade hero disc (or an anti-hero at that) is that as well. Having Death as a hero perhaps feels strange, but this track captures that feeling fully. It has guitar shreddage, but the serenity (and emptiness) of the choirs are always there. So, we close this spinoff of the BadAss series not in the traditional guitar-heavy epic and bombastic way, but in a serene and hopeful, yet raw and perhaps even anticlimactic way. This isn't BadAss, this is Paragons & Renegades. And even in the most dire of times, with the most BadAss Renegades there are (I mean this is Death we're talking about), there's always hope and there will always be the light in their and our center, shining through and refusing to fade away. David L. Puga: I've wanted to remix this song since I first heard it, it's one of my favorites. Even tried to do it for a previous BadAss since a version of it is used in the Guardian boss fight; no matter how much I tried to dirty it up, the inherent heroism always seemed to shine through. So, I decided to make a new BadAss album for heroic tracks just for this song. Probably, anyway. I mean, it's not the only reason but it is one of them. So, I started working on inclusion on this album, and, after getting it to a good enough point, I asked Mak if he wanted to come in and help me get the more visceral rock sections to a higher quality. His geets, bass & drums really made this fly! In a lot of ways, this is the heroic counterpart to our Wesker track from BA3, as well as an evolution of that sound. I've always found it beautiful that in-game this is used both as Death's theme and the Tree of Life theme, that death & life are one and the same. This is my attempt to tell that story through music. Beautiful, naive beginning into the world, the inevitable hardships that test you as a person, the understanding that, while not easy, finding balance is possible, and ending with a crescendo of the elements giving way to a serene climax without a traditionally satisfactory end. Death, while absolute in a sense, is seldom the end; it always gives way to a new beginning somewhere. There is always hope & heroism in this world if we look for it. And if we can't find it out there, then maybe we can find it within ourselves. Mak Eightman: I was very inspired working with David. Somehow, this track fits my soul's mood. I feel what I do, playing guitars on these tracks. This is our second collaboration and it means a lot to me. Hell, I don't know how to explain. It feels like the music I want to make.