ArchonofFail's Top 10 Touhou Original Songs #10

Rating: 6/10 This is something I have wanted to do for a while, having posted several of my favorite Touhou song remixes, here are my top 10 favorite Touhou original songs, prepare for epic Japanese video game music glory! Starting off with #10, Doll Judgement ~ The Girl Who Played with People's Shapes. This song is down at #10 on the list because of the amazing chorus. The rest of the song is fairly average I feel but wow that chorus is amazing. Also this song has spawned numerous amazing remixes including one of the most famous Touhou remixes of all time which in an of itself has many hilarious remixes.

Demetori - "上海紅茶館 ～ Chinese Tea"

Rating: 8/10 Another Touhou metal song, this one is much slower than the last one I posted, but is still distinctly metal. Demetori is one the few groups that I like just about every song of theirs and this is one of my absolute favorite's of theirs. Some really sweet instrumental metal.

Linkin Park - "A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES (FEAT. STEVE AOKI)

night gets darkest right before dawn, what don't kill you makes you more strong, you'll have my mercy then when you're gone

Rating: 8/10

The band Linkin Park is well known for the many different sounds and styles of its music: from the nu-metal days of its debut album Hybrid Theory, the fourth studio release and concept album A Thousand Suns, and the more electronic fifth album Living Things. Back in 2002, the band released a remix album of its own music with guests. Last October they did it this again with the songs from their fifth album, featuring remixes done by different artists and one entirely new track. This song is a collaboration with the DJ Steve Aoki and made its premiere at a Summer Sonic show in Tokyo last year. Aoki starts off the song by dropping a sick dubstep beat that is soon matched with Rob Bourdon's drums. Then emcee Mike Shinoda spits an unforgiving rap verse that leads right into singer Chester Bennington's angst layered vocals that fill the chorus. Although I am biased as Linkin Park is one of my all time favourite bands, I think this song is great. It is filled with insane electronic samples that are just as badass as Shinoda's raps. This song is and fantastic mix of EDM and rap music with a touch of rock from Linkin Park's roots.

xi-on - Lost Remote

Rating: 7/10 Another Touhou remix, this time some Jazz, xi-on does a bit of a bunch of genres but I think their best stuff is their jazz. I really like the focus on the piano and the funky general composition of this one.

Tom Waits - "Road to Peace"

Rating: 5/10 But Israel says they did not know that his wife and child were in the car... A true classic, this anti-war part-song, part-prose piece features Tom Waits' ragged voice stunningly. An electric guitar strikes a smooth lead over the slow one-two drum beat, and carries the listener back in time.

A-ONE - "Leave Me In the Dark"

Rating: 6/10 One of the genres I have become interested in is a unique genre called Eurobeat. It originated from Italian disco but has since died down in Europe and has instead become popular in Japan. This song is from a Japanese group who work with a variety of vocalist to make Touhou eurobeat remixes in both English and Japanese. This one is by a guy who goes by Odyssey and it is fairly solid. Not my favorite song by him, but a quite solid one.

Coldplay - "Clocks" (Rogue Remix) + "Clocks" (Rhythms Del Mundo)

Rating: 7/10 Shoot an apple off my head... Taking this strong original rock song to the realm of dubstep, Rogue layers bleeping synths and speeds the up the beat for danceability. Crunchy synth sweeps take the true sound and merge it into a grooving drop.

Rating: 6/10 Confusion never stops... Closing walls and ticking clocks... This latin-inspired track is so smooth, and stays very close to the Coldplay original. Wooden knocks and Cabasa rolls make a funky backing to the horn jabs that punctuate this tune. Warning: may inspire salsa dancing.

Iron Attack - "Heaven's Sword"

Rating: 8/10 This Japanese power metal artist recently came under my radar and this song is one of their best, there aren't very many Touhou power metal remixers out there and I am really glad I found this. It reminds me a lot of earlier Rhapsody music along with the classical intro make this quite the great song.

What So Not - "Touched"

Rating: 6/10 This EDM track featured tribal sounds and rolling drums in a smooth drop that'll have you rocking the dance floor. Its only drawback is the tempo shift, which slows this song as the rise builds back to a peak. Enjoy.

Memphis May Fire - "Grenade (Bruno Mars cover)"

Easy come, easy go That's just how you live, oh Take, take, take it all, But you never give

Rating: 8/10

You have most likely heard the song "Grenade" by Bruno Mars, but you probably have never heard it quite like this. Every once in a while, Fearless Records puts together albums of "Punk Goes..." and this track was featured on Punk Goes Pop 5. This is one of the best covers I have ever heard. It keeps the core of the song and the emotion while also bringing in elements of the band. The lead vocalist of this metalcore band from Dallas, Texas, Matty Mullins, has such a great voice that can handle the various screams featured in such a genre as well as the clean vocals that make this cover so great. The mastermind and lead guitarist of Memphis May Fire, Kellen McGregor, put together the beautiful electric guitar parts that change this from a pop song to a metalcore one, of course, along with the help of Jake Garland's fast-paced drums. Amazing pop-to-rock cover, enjoy.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - "On My Own"

hopefully this is just a dream 'cause I can't live without the one who makes me feel anything

Rating: 6/10

In 2010, The rock band The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus released and EP called Hell or High Water. I actually found this song when I was looking for something else, but I liked it so much I had to get it. The vocals done by Ronnie Winters on this track really pretty great, something I always love about RJA. The drums create such a nice beat for the song and it is pushed even further into awesome with the electric guitar.

Seether - "Eyes of the Devil"

it kills me to watch this fade and I realize it's all charade and every mistake I made is the same

Rating: 7/10

The album, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces was released by the rock band Seether in 2007. The band is originally from South Africa, but has found a following in the United States. Shaun Morgan has fantastic rough vocals on this song; something that drew me in to this artist in the beginning. The verses are softer and when the chorus comes in it hits you with an electric guitar and fast drums. The bridge sports a pretty awesome guitar riff. All in all, the song is pretty wonderful.

All Time Low - "A Love Like War (feat. Vic Fuentes)"

Hearts on fire tonight Feel my bones ignite Love feels like war, war

Rating: 6/10

Here's a fairly well-known band with one of their most popular songs. If you don't know them,they are a pop-punk band from Baltimore, Maryland who make extremely catchy songs with more of a rock sound than some mainstream music. This particular song is from the September re-release of their most recent album, Don't Panic: It's Longer Now! and features Vic Fuentes, vocalist of the post-hardcore band Pierce the Veil. I'll admit, I am not a huge fan of All Time Low; I don't find main singer Alex Gaskarth's vocals all that gripping as they are not, in my opinion, so very unique. I do, however, enjoy Pierce the Veil to an extent and so I listened to this song mostly for Vic. Then I listened again. And again, and again. It is a song that gets stuck in your head and refuses to leave. From Jack Barakat's first guitar riff, to the fast, gunshot-like drums by Rian Dawson this song hooked me and I now I quite like it, not to mention how nicely Gaskarth and Fuentes' vocals go together. If you're a hardcore original punk and rock fan, there is nothing I can say to make you like this, but whether you are or not, check it out.

ArchonofFail's Song of the Month: November: Blind Guardian - "Mirror Mirror"

Mirror, mirror on the wall, true hope lies beyond the coast.

Rating: 9/10

Since I haven't has too much time to work on making posts for this blog, I decided to do two specific posts at the end of this November, if I like how it goes, I probably will do another two at the end of December in a similar vein. First, the song I have decided as my favorite song this November, here goes. Blind Guardian is an awesome band and this is one of their more awesome songs. From their album Nightfall in Middle Earth, a concept album based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien's work, notably the Silmarillion. I absolutely loves this song, the guitar part is masterfully written and the chorus is just so good, the pacing is perfect and everything about this song is just so good. One interesting element of Blind Guardian's music is that they do not incorporate a bass guitar in their studio albums, but even without it, they manage to make some of the best Power Metal in existence. Unfortunately a lot of their music is not available in the U.S., but they recently released an album in 2011 where they remastered their best songs, and this song is on it.

Blackmore's Night - "Loreley"

Oh, the song of Loreley, charms the moon right from the sky, she will get inside your mind, lovely Loreley.

Rating: 7/10

Wow, I just discovered this band today and I am already in love. Blackmore's night is a duo consisting of Ritchie Blackmore, the former guitarist of Deep Purple and Rainbow, and his then girlfriend now wife Candice Night. Their music is primarily folk, a genre I generally don't think of as one of a genre I like, but wow, I love this music. This song is about a legend of a rock in Germany called Lorelei, and the legend of a siren like woman associated with it. I don't really know why I like it so much but it is really awesome and I have been listening to this band and song all day, I am really impressed.