[GoldfishX]

On paper, Felghana is one of the greatest soundtracks in existence. Classic VGM remade. Still has plenty of the rock attitude of the original versions. Originals not tampered with too much. Back in 2005, I had this thing crowned as the greatest soundtrack since Megaman 2. No really, I did. I went back and read some of my old posts...Very embarassing.

In practice, it is poorly mixed with questionable samples (drums and that synth orchestra in Strongest Foe...yeesh). There's little separation between layers, so stuff like rhythm guitars and drums, even the techno/orchestra parts, get buried and don't "drive" the tracks as they should be. The lead melodies end up feeling bare because of that and even when a solo comes up, its like "oh a solo...how nice". Between the samples and the minimal separation between everything, I literally get a headache when I attempt to listen to this one. It is like a total assault on the senses in the worst way possible. And the techno in songs like Illburn Ruins sounds like a bad fan remix of the song. Even early on, I hated this approach.

I heard plenty of the music online before I ordered the soundtrack, but literally everytime I tried to let it sink in, I got a headache from it (this was before I was aware of the loudness wars). Finally, I just came to the conclusion it wasn't worth the attention I was giving it. Occasionally, I'll still try to enjoy this one with a random sample here and there, but the conclusion is always the same.