Elite - 2184: Inari's Penultimate AdventureMartin O’Donnell – Ghosts of Reach (Halo 2 OST)
Blood Stain Child – Stargazer
VOLA – 24 Light-Years
Simon Chylinski – Red Alert (Subnautica OST)
Obsidian Kingdom – The Pump
Simon Chylinski – Fear the Reapers (Subnautica OST)
Muse – Panic Station
Cartographer – Built With Blood and Fears and Tears
Meshuggah – Dancers to a Discordant System
Andrew Prahlow – Into the Wilds (Outer Wilds OST)
Dyble Longdon - Heartwashing
First Impression - Strange song selection....and yet brilliant in places.
I like the way you used the soundtrack pieces interspersed throughout the EP and starting with Ghosts of the Reach followed by Stargazer, I almost feel like I could be watching the opening sequence and first part of an epic anime show or something. Not sure if that's was what you were going for, but that is what I thought every time I listened to this. I don't watch anime, so I may be way off base. I've seen some opening sequences and credits for various anime's and this just reminded me of those. Plus Stargazer makes me want to get up and headbang and dance and get in the pit all at the same time
This song is just so catchy and cheesy and epic and weird and awesome....Tim would hate this
Next is 24 Light-Years and while this starts off pretty good with a moody intro, I'm not as keen on this song as Stargazer. It's still a pretty good song, the problem is it just doesn't quite reach the climax I'm looking for. I left wanting more. Even when the song does kind of break out it's a little anticlimactic. I'm aware of Subnautica, it's one of my favorite games of all time and the soundtrack and sound design of the overall game is a big reason why. Having said that, I'm not sure I like Red Alert here (I understand why it's there for the story), nor do I care for The Pump (again I know why it's here). I like Obsidian Kingdom, but this song just leaves me a little cold (maybe that's the intention
). I do think Fear the Reapers has a great ominous tone to signify what it stands for in the story and I think it fits a little better for what I have in my mind stylistically for this story than Red Alert. Then we have Panic Station, which on first listen was the biggest WTF of the round. The more I listened to it and thought about how it relates to the story the more I liked it. Just the eccentricities of the song alone work so well (mostly the eccentricities of Matt Bellamy). It's a fun song with some neat disco grooves, but also hints at ominous undertones. Built With Blood and Fears and Tears is another interesting pick. As far as the instrumental/transitional tracks go, this one is the most interesting musically. And thankfully it's short enough that it doesn't lose my interest. The same cannot be said about Dancers to a Discordant System. I'm split about 50/50 when it comes to Meshuggah. Some songs I love and some I just don't. This falls into the latter category. I just don't feel this song at all, no matter how many times I listen to it. I can always appreciate what they are doing on a technical level, but this one just doesn't jump out at me as particularly interesting. Plus it's nearly 9 minutes long. Then we come to the final 2 tracks which are kind of the peace after the storm. I like both of these a lot! Overall the music is a bit of a mixed bag, but nothing was outright terrible. Just a couple out of place things and one that I just couldn't get into.
Song Score - 7.4/10
I thought the story was borne from an intriguing concept, which was told quite well with the music you chose, actually nearly perfectly, in my humble opinion. I would have probably swapped out Red Alert for something else, but that's just me. The story reads like part Horizon: Zero Dawn and part Fallout and part The 100. That's 2 video games and 1 TV show if Tim is reading this
I liked the twists you put on it and would like to see this world fleshed out a bit. I gotta say that I love the way you ended with Into the Wilds and Heartwashing, it's a great ending, with a possibility for a continuing story. Would probably make for an interesting TV show, maybe pitch this to a producer
Story Score - 9/10 +1 for bonus theme
The way this flows is also pretty well done. You made nice use of edits here to make it all work together pretty well. The only part I wasn't too sold on was going from Dancers to a Discordant System to Into the Wilds. There were some transitions that were almost imperceptible or nearly perfectly executed even though I could tell the change in song. Overall well done.
Flow Score - 8/10
Overall Score - 25.4/30