"Carol of the Bels But Louder" from Cthulhu Saves Christmas on the Nintendo Switch, and PC (2020, 2019)
Composer: Joshua Queen
Album: Cthulhu Saves Christmas (Official Soundtrack)
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: Limited Run Games
Developer: Zeboyd Games
Last year we featured one of the songs from Cthulhu Saves Christmas and it seemed only fitting to once again feature another song from the game. Purposefully chosen for how much this song hits the theme on the nose, you have Christmas music, winter music, and contextually, penultimate boss battle music. Essentially I can break down why I love this arrangement to a couple of points:
- "Carol of the Bells" is just an awesome 102-year-old song on its own; which apparently was originally written as a Ukrainian New Years' folk song in 1916 called "Shchedryk."
- It's similar to but still different enough from the version by Trans-Syberian Orchestra that it doesn't sound like you're listening to their arrangement.
- Because this is the boss battle and possibly other reasons being connected to Cthulhu and cosmic horrors, there is a musical reference to the Dies Irae around 2:52 - 3:06.
- There is a choir.
That is really it. Joshua Queen has done a great job not only with writing music to an existing franchise but also arranging a classic Christmas song adding in his own touches rather than just rehashing something you could hear on the radio*.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
*P.S. I specifically mentioned the arrangement by Manheim Steamroller not because I think it's overplayed radio schlock, quite the opposite. I love this album as it was our family's go-to when we would put up the Christmas tree every year. And it makes me a little sad that more songs from this album aren't as frequently played on the radio. But oh well.
No comments:
Post a Comment