Ok, due to complaints, I'm switching the position of the original and remade tracks.This makes perfect sense, but for some reason didn't occur to me.
So from now on it goes:
Track [number] - [title]
[Bandcamp embed of the OLD version]
Description of the song's story.
What I detested (and every once in a while, what I liked) about the original recording.
Description of the new versions improvements and lacks.
[Bandcamp embed of the NEW version]
Hope this doesn't confuse my reader (can I make this plural without lying?) too much!
-Armac
We now come to the second part of TCCV: "The Hunters".
In this part of the story, Armac is a vigilante in Thome, a medieval style city ruled by an evil dictator (Eval). Armac was trained by the Shadowmongers, a group of dark assassins (meaning they deal in dark things), but when he realizes that they aren't actually doing good things, he leaves and becomes a vigilante. I'm pretty sure no song really explains it, but The Hunters are Callan, Victual, and Stave, and are originally working for Eval.
See, to keep in control, Eval used the power of the Shadowmongers to bring in a bunch of evil creatures, like werewolves and demons. This way, Eval had something to 'protect' them from.
He created a group of the three finest fighters and put them in charge of fighting the beasts.
Armac is all the while killing the real badguys and eventually confronts The Hunters.
They realize their mistake and join up with him and the four of them attack Eval.
They are subsequently slaughtered, and Eval lives to see another day...
Now, song-wise, very little of the story is told. The four songs merely tell of a single battle between Callan and a werewolf, describe Armac, show the death of the Hunters and Armac, and describe a broken Thome.
When I extend the entire TCCV epic, I'll add a bunch more of the story.
Another major difference is that "The Hunters" was the first chunk written, and most of the songs were recorded a bunch of times.
You can listen to some of the older recordings here:
For discussing the old versions, I will just talk about the one on "TCCV" none of the other, older versions.
For now, here begins "The Hunters"
Track Six - Too Late
So, for this first song, I bet you're expecting the story of how Eval came into power? Or the formation of the Shadowmongers? Or the formation of The Hunters? Or Armac's origin story? Well, no no no and no. The first song of this section is "Too Late" a story of a battle between Callan, the leader of the Hunters, and a werewolf.
So, Callan is sippin' tea in The Hunter's headquarters, when he hears a werewolf. He springs into action and grabs his gun, named Stock. Why is it named stock? Fuck if I know. Probably to rhyme? Anyways, he goes outside, spots the beast, and then the chorus happens. The chorus is just like "blah blah blah, this guy is a werewolf now, so he's all crazy-like because its a full moon." Then the story continues with the werewolf charging Callan, pinning him against a lodge. This werewolf is like mere seconds from gutting our hero, but craftly Callan still has his gun. Chorus. Callan shoots the beast through its heart. The werewolf staggers away, turning back into a human and then dying. Callan feels bad. Then he goes back inside and beats Stave and Victual in Wii Sports. I'm just hypothesizing what happens afterwards. Who knows what really does...
The TCCV version of this song is played with an electric guitar. It starts right off with a 3 second riff and then the lyrics. Palm muting on the verses, I like that. Vocals pretty weak. Detuned. Inaudible and hard to understand. I mess up the rhythm for a second, as I begin the second verse. The guitar sounds like it may be somewhat out of tune. I'm not sure why I bend that string after the second verse. Then the breakdown thing. The breakdown was first there because I improvised it during a recording, and liked it. I still do, but it needs to be more structured. I originally based it off the Trigun theme song. Then after the breakdown, I do some whisper-yelling. It sounds stupid. Verse 3 is REALLY hard to hear. The guitar is phasing, I don't know why. Weak ending vocally. Yuck. I also leave the mic up for too long at the end. Overall, I don't dislike it musically at all. The recording and execution are very mediocre though. So is the breakdown. That part need rewriting.
For the remake, I decided to add to the intro, have a palm muted lead in to the familiar intro. There is also a second guitar and a faux-bass at this part. Then the song goes into the first verse. The vocals are very audible, and the singing is more tuned than before. I stay low on the first chorus. I kinda wish I'd make the chorus a bit louder. Whatevs. The next verse is much the same as the first, but when recording I messed up "Closes in, for the bite" and had to splice different vocals for that line, I did a damn good job, if I do say so myself. Up the octave and yelling for verse two. The faux bass sounds good. I like the segue from chorus two to the breakdown a LOT better. The faux bass only on certain notes at the beginning of the breakdown sound cool. I kinda like the clapping too, lol. Then the breakdown is power-chorded. I'm pretty sure I hadn't done that in the past. I like it. Then a 1-2-3-4. The yelling here is more real than before, and I drag it out until my voice dies. Then a solo! :O I very rarely solo, so this is new territory for me. I like how this one came out. I had to fix one of the notes though. Then verse three, pretty standard. Then the double chorus at the end. I extended the outro a bit. I like this new recording quite a bit.
