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Albums: Dwelling of Duels: Forest vs. Jungle Month (May 2025)

Dearly Departing

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Official link

Reviews

  1. cyrilthewolf

    To be quite frank – it’s annoying how clean and delicious the lead guitar in the first minute or so is. It’s pretty up front in the mix but it still blends so well with the rest of the band.

    Nitpicks: Lead guitar maybe could be quieter in some parts. Drums kind of felt like they were recorded in a separate room with a really trashy snare which slightly took me out of the vibe of the rest of it. Particularly at 2:55.

    Drums are hard though so whatever – the arrangement is so good.

  2. emeraldarcana

    Very nice combination of acoustic and electronic instruments, with good interplay between them in the arrangement. The acoustic guitar sounds really good, the change-up in the middle with all of the bass and percussion is really interesting. I feel the guitar is almost too up-front with how many things are going on in here. Great take on a classic.

  3. slowlycrushed

    Very crisp acoustic guitar. I was having normal enjoyment of this one until about 57 seconds in where that little woot weet woot synth comes in and pans around. Then I started loving it. Great vibe setting in this one. One note: As an avid enjoyer of the heavy stuff, I think this one could have gone either heavier or less heavy when the distorted guitars come in. I feel like it was left a bit middling in that section. Other than that, wonderful adaptation of the source.

  4. TheManPF

    Atomspheric intro, almost movie-like. Acoustic guitar sounds really crisp and the buildup is really well done, it almost sounds mysterious and mystical. Lots of little details happening. Drums are great. Arrangement is pretty sophisticated, it feels almost like a stream of consciousness, with a bunch of different elements coming and going and creating a cool vibe, main gripe with this is the mix, it’s not bad by any means and it doesn’t detract the enjoyment that much, but at points there’s a few too many things going on at once and there’s an overabundance of mud, as well as some instruments maybe sounding a bit too loud to the point they distort (or clip?). Some more mix cleanup could take this to the heavens.

  5. deluxdolemite

    Very nice instrumentation to start this off, gives a nicer slow orchestral ballad feeling. Solo guitar is very clean, and cuts through nicely against the backing instruments. Love that nice little bass solo before the piece picks back up. Drums are extremely well balanced – clear but not overpowering. The woodwind voices feel maybe a touch too pointed, could be smoothed out a bit. Transition to the triplet feel is very very smooth, though the drums overpower the strings a touch. Very nice entrance from the rhythm guitars to lead into the next lead solo. Very smooth transition back into just the acoustic guitar to wrap this up. Very smooth anon

  6. .minusworld

    Ooo, sounding good at the start. Acoustic sounding nice. Strings nice and swell-y. Fun synth sounds at 0:55. Drumkit bringing the groove! However, it feels a little far forward for this mix in my opinion. The kick and snare are like RIGHT in front of me. EG at 2:50ish is also a little bright.

    So, I’m very picky about lead guitar tones. The one around 3:10 sounds nice but is much darker than the rhythm. I think it needs to stick out a bit more. The tone at 3:23 imo has too much high-mids. Nice run though!

    That aside! The acoustic playing is just stellar, and the push and pull dynamics of the first 3 minutes are superb. Really nice track.

  7. tremendouz

    Another one that takes you on a journey, which I love. Love the clean and crisp acoustic lead guitar and the calm section at around 2 mins before it starts building up again adds nice contrast to it.

    Distorted rhythm guitar tone feels perhaps a bit on the thin side and lacking body to me.

  8. jnwake

    Phantom Forest! Really nice quality recordings here, the guitar, percussion and everything else sounds crisp. Production makes the ensemble jell together perfectly. I love the percussion around 1:50, adds some fun urgency to the arrangement. 2:30 is a great way to introduce a new musical idea and rhytm, sounds great. At 2:55 a distortion guitar joins and we move to a metal part. The track kinda loses me a bit here, I’m not digging the mix on this part too much, it doesn’t sound as powerful as I’d hope. In any case, the metal part is brief and I really loved the rest of the track… Nice job!

  9. Naop

    For a variety of reasons, this month was all about Square Enix music for me. I had completely forgotten about this source, even when it had been so significant for me in the past, and I was quite pleased to see it covered. This one takes the place as my top pick this month, only marginally above the other Phantom Forest entry. The melancholy is palpable from the start, with the acoustic guitar (as it should). The samples used and overall style actually reminded me of Porcupine Tree, a prog band I love. I was fully entranced by the time we get electric guitar, but it was such a welcome addition! Although a bit short lived, I must say. That would be my only nitpick.

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