Albums: Dwelling of Duels: Forest vs. Jungle Month (May 2025)
The Forest and the Trees
Game(s): Chrono Trigger
Reviews
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Are these drums live? It really sounds like y’all rehearsed and just recorded this in a room with some overdubs bruh.
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A nice vibe for a classic. It’s dreamy and performed well. The grunge section is an interesting change. The bass is cool against the piano. There are maybe a few more changeups than I would have expected to start – maybe some foreshadowing that this will be a JOURNEY would be great – more changeups and shift earlier on to set the expectation for the listener. Good job, I enjoyed the direction and how well performed each part was.
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Love the band feel on this one. Chorus guitars are fantastic. I like how much low end is coming from that snare. The chorused bass is very sexy. Mix gets a little chaotic when the first heavy guitars come in but it’s a vibe. Little piano break is nice. Prog second half is rad. Goes into like…psych rock near the end and I love it. Fade out suits this amazingly.
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I like the chorusy tone on those clean guitars. I like the layering in this too with the clean guitars and acoustic guitars. Arrangement is super cool for this source, I like how everything combines in the background for the vibes and to support the lead in the front, although the lead gets kinda buried in the mix at times when there’s a lot happening, which is tough to balance I’m sure. I get the idea at 1:40 but it’s a little bit too chaotic in the mix, to the point I have no idea of what I’m hearing, maybe it’s the point? I’m not sure what it’s supposed to convey if it is. Chorused bass fucks. Arrangement wise, I like the part at 2:50 but the mix feels super odd, it feels oddly quiet and unbalanced, like it’s trying to go for a punk rock sound but it’s super shy, I think it needs to be louder than what came before to really hit. Lots of interesting ideas floating around here but I especially liked the first half, it’s the part that felt the most consistent to me, after the halfway point it felt less like a coherent arrangement and more like a display of different ideas without much glue between them.
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I might not be a fan of the raw sound in the guitar distortion in this particular entry, but I absolutely loved the bass in the first segment. However, I feel like the arrangement lets some very cool ideas go to waste by not giving them enough time to breath. Would have preferred less variety, in exchange for more solid and well executed segments. But this is entirely a personal preference. I did slide right, tho.
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Very clean guitar to start this one out, nice solo line to kick this off. Then bass and drums come through to help give this a kick. Everything feels really well balanced. Solo guitar comes right in and soars above everything, accentuated by the soundscapes. Feels very clean and tight here. The buildup into the section feels a touch discombobulated, but then comes right back together. Love the heavy guitars and open hats together, gives such a powerful hit. Solo piano and bass helps give a nice bridge into the next section – and that is one doozy of a modulation that occurs – throwing us right into some proggy goodness. Distortion on the rhythm guitars here helps to give a good punch, and that guitar starts to really shred and just help propel this a bit. Nice slow down, but drums feel just a touch off. And then dang, really enjoying this shuffle/half beat feel with the drums and the arpegiated guitars. Also love how the drums switch to bell hits with the organ coming in, and just keep grooving through the fadeout. This was one fun ride anon!
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Lots of layers here. Chorused clean guitars are always a plus. 1:40-2:06 is a little chaotic and out of control with all the overlapping element but the bass + piano part afterwards is delicious.
I feel like the bass tone is a little subdued and mellow and would glue better with the distorted rhythm guitars with a bit more grit.
There’s a real sense of a journey here with all the variations going on which is always a huge plus to me. Well done.
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I like that guitar sound. The bass is kinda boomy. Whoa nice run at 1:37. I can’t say I like the part that comes after though. It’s extremely dissonant, almost like some instruments are out of tune with others. The piano around 2:20 is nice. Guitar panning at 3:50ish is interesting – I think I’d prefer it to stay in one place. Interesting ending, it sounds like high pitched kazoos.
I think the two biggest things holding this one back are that the mix gets extremely cluttered when lots of instruments are playing and the part around 1:40 is really quite jarring. Very interesting ideas in here though!
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Anon here was like “I have like 10 different potential covers of Secret of the Forest” and then put them all on the same track. Begins with a clean guitar with a TON of chorus, so much that the bass sounds out of tune when it enters. First section is a very dreamy take on the source, with a calm lead and chill drums with very wet cymbals. Sudden change to metal around 1:35 for the second melody. This part is muddy and buzzy, not a big fan of the sound but I dig the idea. For the third section of the source we have a piano/bass duo, cool concept. Around 2:37 we move to a proggy take on the arpeggios before it lands on a more straight rock take on the source. Final minute is like a beach vibes jazzy take on the melody, fun!
Making a track like this with so much variations is risky, I appreciate it! I don’t think every section lands, with the more rock oriented ones sounding a little muddy and unbalanced, but it’s a fun listen. Nice job!
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