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For this week’s installment of Arrangement of the Week, we’re returning to another cover of a track from Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. The game’s soundtrack exists in a few variations thanks to its availability on a number of platforms with different sound chips. Much of the music lends itself well to rock interpretations, as is the case for this cover of “Steeling the Will to Fight.”
The artist for this arrangement is Ansgaros who created a high energy metal interpretation of the track called “Fire Still Burns in My Frozen Heart.”
For the opening sections of this cover, Ansgaros actually sticks relatively close to the marching pace and tone that is set in the original track. But after about a minute, he starts kicking things into high gear. There’s plenty of inhumanely fast drums, some energetic guitar parts, and a decent amount of synth strings that balance well against the rest of the instruments.
One of the things that makes this arrangement work well is that there are occasional breaks between the more intense guitar and drum sections. These contrasting segments transition back and forth rather well, so the cover never sounds disjointed or jarring. These calmer sections also give the listener some breathing room in between the more high-energy guitar sections. Overall, an excellent metal arrangement of music from Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.
Have you heard any good metal covers of game music? Let us know in the comments below. You can check out and download Ansgaros’s “Fire Still Burns in My Frozen Heart” on OC Remix [2].