"An OverClocked ReMix Album"

Over the years, the community for fan remixes of videogame music has not only grown substantially, but has also been putting out higher quality work than ever before. It is becoming increasingly common for fan projects to have the impressive polish of professionally produced albums.

I first started feeling really strongly about the quality of the albums released by OverClocked Remix when “Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream” was released. That is not to say that the albums before were lacking in quality. After all, when the very first album, “Relics of the Chozo: A Super Metroid Musical Collaboration“, came out, I basically wore out the ogg files from playing them so much.

Voices of the Lifestream, however, seemed to take the idea of fan made arrange albums to a whole new level of professionalism that just hadn’t been seen yet. “Final Fantasy IV: Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption” is no exception to the trend of increased quality.

The album is comprised of four discs. The first three are listed as “acts” while the fourth disc is made up of bonus tracks. There is a pdf file in the torrent that gives a break down of each point in the game’s story with each song on the album corresponding to a scene in the act. It’s an interesting way to both give the album context to those not familiar with the original game, as well as provide an extra helping of nostalgia to those who loved it.

The whole experience spans over forty-six songs (not including the bonus tracks), over thirty different artists, and lasts over two-hundred minutes. In other words, strap in for a lengthy, but satisfying, musical adventure!

Because so many different artists worked together on this album, there is a huge range of musical styles covered. With everything from orchestral, rock, trance, and even drum & bass, there’s bound to be something for everybody here.

My personal favorite track is “Survival Instinct“, Audix‘s take on Final Fantasy IV’s “Battle 2″. It reminds me of Pendulum, a drum & bass group that has quickly become one of my favorite artists in the past few years.

Like the thirteen OCR albums before it, Final Fantasy IV: Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption is available for download absolutely free. You can find the official site here. Watch the embedded teaser below, download the album, and spread the word to the rest of the world about this wonderful gem.