Doujin, Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews

SHIFT by WASD (Review)

March 22, 2016 | | 2 Comments Share thison Facebook SHIFT by WASD (Review)on Twitter

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Shift by WASD is a metal album that is a solid tribute to early PC era video games. WASD is an obvious reference to keyboard shortcuts.  For me listening to the album took me back to a time that I had long forgotten about, the age of 3 and 1/2 inch floppy bootdisks, and 4X to 8X CD-Rom drives. The band’s mantra is “Console games are dead. Long live the personal computer.” If you grew up with early PC games, this is an album you will appreciate.

So come take the trip down PC game memory lane with my review of the album.

Shift‘s first track “Boot Up [Apogee]” immediately takes you back with the sounds of an old PC turning on, the magnetic drive reading a floppy disk, and the chip tune Apogee logo music which gradually evolves into a rock guitar and drums cover. Although simple, the execution is a lot of fun and setups the whole album.

Of the remaining 9 tracks WASD covers the music of La-Mulana with “Monumental Subterranean eXploration”, The Secret of Monkey Island with “The Island of Melée”, X-COM: UFO Defense with “Enemy Unknown”, Baldur’s Gate with “Heroes & Hamsters”, Diablo with “Not Even Death Can Save You”, Command & Conquer Red Alert with “Soviet Power Supreme”, Half-Life 2 with “You’re Not Supposed to be Here”, Quake 2 with “Quandra Kill” and Unreal Tournament with “Liandri Mining Coporation”.

The album also features some excellent guess solos including Ryan “Munzadeth” Munz (Kirby’s Dream Band) and M-H on “Soviet Power Supreme”, VikingGuitar on “Not Even Death Can Save You”, and Nick Long on the Acoustic Guitar for “You’re Not Supposed To Be Here”.

The album just oozes with love for PC gaming, and listening to it brought me back to long weekends, and nights of modem and gaming. I also began to crave something I haven’t had in years, a Jolt Cola! I thoroughly enjoyed the entire album.

You can sample the tracks of the album above, or watch the trailer for the album below.

The album was produced and arranged by Austin “Katamari” Green, and I also noticed that on YouTube he posted “Monumental Subterranean eXploration La Mulana Metal Remix” which is an earlier version of track two of the album. Listening to that version truly gave me an appreciation for the high production values on this album. You can get yourself a copy of Shift on WASD’s bandcamp page digitally for $7.00 or on a smartly designed CD for $10. If you’re a PC gamer, you’ll appreciate the design.

Can you relate to WASD’s mantra “Console games are dead. Long live the personal computer.”?

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