3.5k words across 44 entries.

BeforusBound Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary, front)

Hey there, you! Yes you!

Welcome to this wonderful new album made by the coolest folks around B) You've all hear of AlterniaBound, an album made for a game about a bunch of wacky gray skinned aliens.

BUT... those were only 12 of those candy corn horned creatures, and you guessed it, there are more!

So we decided to make a different album to cover another 12 ashen colored individuals you might've heard of.

Introducing: BeforusBound! the coolest and most epic album out there as proclaimed by the best proclaimer of things ever, Morgan Freeman! (not really). For those people who hate animal sounds in music, there are none here! And for those people who thought Rex Duodecim Angelus was just an overrated piece of nofin. It's not in this album!

For all you people who do actually like the dancestors, this album will heat up your headphones like popcorn in a pan cause it's the real epic fyre, yo!

The games have never stopped but the Homestuck music sure has, so we, The self-proclaimed Paradox clones of the Homestuck music team, decided to try and give the fans another great album full of Homestuck inspired music based on no ones favorite characters! Now go listen to the awesome tunes from the depths of the internet and tell all your friends, grandmas and next door (neigh)bours to do the same, because they should!

I wish you a great amount of listening fun times, i'm out :D
*sounds of neighing horse galloping away*

-PB

All Alone Listen on: Bandcamp

Rainy: (composer, booklet commentary)

In it's initial stages, All Alone was going to be a song about Damara's generally creepy and unsettling personality and demeanor.

As I worked on the song however, I decided to change the topic of my song. Rather than be about Damara's behavior during the Openbound, I wanted the song to act as theme for her downfall.

It's implied in the openbound that Damara was a fairly nice but demure person prior to her fight with Meenah. Her confrontation with Meenah marks Damara's transformation into the person we see in the Openbound.

All Alone is about Damara's sadness and grief at her situation becoming bitterness and anger towards the world and her former friends.

It's also worth noting that This is my first fully original song I've done for a team album. I hope you like it.

Phosphor Bronze Listen on: Bandcamp

Caelan Kier: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song took a hellova long time to make, only because I went through like 5 drafts to end up on the song that's actually on the album.

Even with the finished product I wouldn't say this sounds too much like Rufioh; that's what made making a theme for him take so long in the first place.

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

I know Caelan said they don't think this song fits Rufioh but damn, and that art! woah! I'd slap this right on that Robin Williams movie if I could,actually, I can do that, welp guess what I'm doing tonight...

Either way this song fits Rufioh personally and I'm going to send Dante Basco a message forcing him to acknowledge the greatness and fittingness of Rufioh that is contained within this song.

Fate of the Heir Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify

Rowyn Berlan: (composer, booklet commentary)

This was actually my second take at writing a mituna theme for Beforusbound the first of which was repurposed into Mituna's Theme by PBoss (hella proud of what you did with it by the way).

Now I really wanted to write a song that focused on how Mituna lost his psychic powers and I feel like I did a decent job (also blind prophet reference cause good song), the whole feel of the song is hella supported by the amazing art Wumby did.

With that said this song is also something else, the start of a new personal standard for me when writing music and well in short I hope you enjoy

A 6elief in S9mething Higher Listen on: Bandcamp

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary)

Like vvith all of my tracks on this album, I really just vvanted to try something different from vvhat I normally do. VVhether or not it vvas successful is kinda unclear to me? Ah vvell. Either vvay vvhen I finished I decided it fit Kankri a lot better than the... other thing I had in mind.

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary, quirk-free)

Like with all of my tracks on this album, I really just wanted to try something different from what I normally do. Whether or not it was successful is kinda unclear to me? Ah well. Either way when I finished I decided it fit Kankri a lot better than the... other thing I had in mind.

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

Never thought Showdown could sound so cool and beautiful as a slower song but man was i wrong, Beau did an amazing job on this and sometimes i listen to it when i go to sleep, it's just very calming and i'm sure you could get your hysterically crying 2 year old to fall asleep to this better than Mozart can.

Hand in Hand Listen on: Bandcamp

Rainy: (composer, booklet commentary)

Biggest props to chroniCrusader for suggesting the title of the song.

So during STLaP 2's development, I got an idea for doing a serenade remix. Obviously, that never panned out for STLaP 2 but when I found out that were doing Beforusbound I saw my opportunity to make it.

I apologize if you wanted a more goofy sounding Meulin theme with like meows or something like that but I feel like that's been done to death.

I was hoping to get some live violin for this but that never really panned out. Anyway I hope you enjoy.

Gentle Heat Listen on: Bandcamp

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary)

The moment I savv Porrim up for grabs on the original spreadsheet, I just grabbed that right avvay. I'd been listening to a lot of jazz and Lo-Fi at the time, thought something like that vvould fit Porrim really vvell, and it finally got through my thick skull that you can line up bass hits and drum kicks.

*Amazing*
(Please kill me.)

This song didn't end up as the jazz I originally intended it to be, and didn't really stay Lo-Fi either, but it definitely seemed vvorth keeping in my book, and here it is.

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary, quirk-free)

The moment I saw Porrim up for grabs on the original spreadsheet, I just grabbed that right away. I'd been listening to a lot of jazz and Lo-Fi at the time, thought something like that would fit Porrim really well, and it finally got through my thick skull that you can line up bass hits and drum kicks.

*Amazing*
(Please kill me.)

This song didn't end up as the jazz I originally intended it to be, and didn't really stay Lo-Fi either, but it definitely seemed worth keeping in my book, and here it is.

Latula's Theme Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

This is another example of me being inspired by EarthBound music, i basically wanted to make a song that had slight hip hop influences while keeping a videogame style for Latula.

I also referenced Game Glr and Game Grl in it for the Latula vibes, and Mituna's theme for the relationship nod.

Dwelling Among the Dream Bubbles Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

So for this song i wanted to make a synthwave track since i had just released a synthwave EP, but i figured it didnt fit Aranea all that well.

So one day when i was playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 i reached the Cosmic Cove Galaxy and when i heard the music i instantly threw my wiimote into the TV and started editing this song. It turned out exactly as i wanted it and it ended up being synthwave mario galaxy music.

Lapis Arbalester Listen on: Bandcamp

Caelan Kier: (composer, booklet commentary)

This like the millionth time I've remastered an old song for a PMT album, this one is actually probably the least changed from the original, even with it's theme of being a Horuss song and also being on a never-finished album of mine also named 'Beforus Bound'.

I had a few other songs on that never-finished album that I wanted to put on here, but they're quite old and pretty trash so I thought I'd save i for the second sountest.

Final Darkness Listen on: Bandcamp

Stacatto Force: (composer, booklet commentary)

Yeah, the title is almost literal.

I made a whole song in one day, because I don't have much time. So, I almost plagiarized(?) 'Purple Tyrant'.

Well, it was successful and I really like it. (better than Arsenic Cat lol) And yeah, Purple Tyrant is a great song. (except for overuse)

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

This song took about 50 years to make but boy was it worth it, i'm a huge fan of the bass used in this and the Megadrive feel it has in general. It also uses Purple Tyrant which, hey, that's always a giant bonus like instantly, as much of a bonus as when your Grandma gives you a hundred dollars just for visiting her...

okay maybe not that much but still huge. Anyway this song slaps harder than angry penguins so great job!

Vwhat If I'm a Failure Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

I've always had a soft spot for Lo-Fi Hip Hop and this song is really well done, the drums are spot on and the overall vibe of the track is hella chill.

It might be a bit repetitive sure but i think it's pretty fitting for the genre.

If i could i'd spit the maddest fire over this like you don't even know.

Trident Thief Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

This song came to be after Rainy just finished his first attempt at a synthwave song for his solo album. I really liked his song and wanted to remix into a sort of Carpenter Brut style song, now im nowhere near as good at synthwave as Carpenter Brut but i gave it my best shot and even referenced Inner Animal by Scattle in this song.

Overall i think it came out pretty neat and the lower tone of it fits Meenah pretty well imo.

Spirited Euphoria Listen on: Bandcamp

Rowyn Berlan: (composer, booklet commentary)

Y'all like Purple Tyrant? cause that's what I based this song off of. Spirited Euphoria to me was an interesting song to work on especially when it differs from my initial thematic intentions of focusing on the dark side of Meulin's and Kurloz's relationship.

In the end it really just sounds like a pure Kurloz song which I'm totally fine with since the overall instrumentation and structure of the song supports it being that way.

Oh! yeah and the kickass EarthBound inspired art by Kiddles is really fucking good as well.

Center Stage Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify

Rainy: (composer, booklet commentary)

We all remember [S] Game Over right?

How could y'all forget all of your favorite characters dying. Anyway, Center Stage is about Aranea attempting to make her self relevant to the narrative again by fighting Her Imperial Condescension.

Indirectly, Hate You Listen on: Bandcamp

Stacatto Force: (composer, booklet commentary)

Well, the name of the song is good, and the song itself came out well I think.

The concept of the song is that Meenah broke up the Beforus session. (I don't know if the concept is well reflected in the song)

And in terms of instruments, I used FM sound a lot. It's my favorite kind of sound, and I thought it would go well with Meenah. Also, better than AC

(You'll know what that means)

Jaded Luminescence Listen on: Bandcamp

Rowyn Berlan: (composer, booklet commentary)

Ok so really all I can say here is that this is easily the best song I've made in my mediocre existence so far. This song came from a sudden wave of inspiration after listening to an early WIP of Gentle Heat and Darling Dolorosa/Darling Kanaya.

I originally had only come up with the melody from 00:19 in the song and really just built everything off that one bit. I like the idea of changing up the chords and drums of the song so frequently and layering the main melody with a flute every so often and lucky for me it worked out in the end. Hope you enjoy!

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

This song is a bop, period.... is all i could say but i dont feel like that conveys the message of how great this song is.

The chords are funky as hell and i love them, the bass fits them pretty well too, and i love Rowyn's use of E-Piano's theyre very all over the place in an extremely good way, man this is just great, giant props.

Mituna's Theme Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

When we just started working on BeforusBound, Rowyn posted a WIP of a Mituna theme, it started roughly the same as this one only after the intro, instead of maintaining it's fast BPM it slowed down.

People noticed this was kind of off putting and later Rowyn gave up on the song. SO i asked her if i could try to finish it. She sent me the FLP and i added more instruments and a very active melody.

I also decided to reference Caelan Kier's Distortion Navigator from STLaP2. I think it came out pretty good as a Mituna theme but what really finished it was the Cyclops voice clips of course lol.

Porrim's Theme Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

I was really inspired by Darling Dolorosa for this one which you can hear, lol.

I had also just restarted another EarthBound playthrough so i was extra inspired to work with the EarthBound soundfont a bit more.

Overall this is probably my favorite song from the ones i made for BeforusBound. I really like what i did with the composition and am just very happy with the song.

Achieving New Radical Heights Listen on: Bandcamp

Rowyn Berlan: (composer, booklet commentary)

Here take GameGrl but not really lmao...

This song is the last song I made for Beforusbound and an overall fun experiment with volume automation.

I really wanted to try and make a fun upbeat-ish song that I felt like Latula would listen to, the end result was surely something (again I threw in GameGrl because is it really a Latula song without that masterpiece?)

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

This song came in as a last minute one (sorta) but i really love what Rowyn did with it, her use of squares is really good and the drums in this are really cool too, i love how perfectly she managed to get the Game Grl vocals in this too.

It kinda sounds like a theme you'd hear when walking around in Game Grl's weirdly pink and filled with cats House. AKA the perfect retired Game Grl song.

PurriFeral Affections Listen on: Bandcamp

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary)

I finally got a midi keyboard! This is vvhat it vvent to. (VVith a name like this of course it's a Meulin track.) The Rhodes in this is just my bored impro<, vvith a bit of spice here and there, and vvith some cuts dovvn so it didn't stay as a 32-minute clip.

I can't vvrite that much. After vvriting the Rhodes, I played it back but kept my keyboard synced up to a different channel for a lot of the bleeps and bloops of the NES sound and just played as I listened, then corrected lining up and such. This vvent back and forth a fevv times, and a lot of parts vvere cut out, but e<entually it vvas finished.

Minimal changes vvere made vvithout the keyboard, so that's probably vvhy I'm a lot more proud of this one than I should be.

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary, quirk-free)

I finally got a midi keyboard! This is what it went to. (With a name like this of course it's a Meulin track.) The Rhodes in this is just my bored improv, with a bit of spice here and there, and with some cuts down so it didn't stay as a 32-minute clip.

I can't write that much. After writing the Rhodes, I played it back but kept my keyboard synced up to a different channel for a lot of the bleeps and bloops of the NES sound and just played as I listened, then corrected lining up and such. This went back and forth a few times, and a lot of parts were cut out, but eventually it was finished.

Minimal changes were made without the keyboard, so that's probably why I'm a lot more proud of this one than I should be.

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

I'm really into the complexity of this song, the theremin like sound is extremely atmospheric and with the seemingly perfect amount of reverb (which i thought wasn't humanly possible) on each instrument and the funky ass chords while maintaining relatively simple drums. Overall i love this cat sound less cat song and i will be listening to it many times.

Reboot Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

I really wasnt too sure what to do for Damara's theme here, i figured using ethnic sounds would give it a good base.

The piano was pure improv, i just kinda played something on my midi keyboard and decided to clean it up a bit and use it. Other than that i just kinda tried to get a somewhat orchestral piece going with slight influences from The Lost Child by Toby Fox.

Character Catastrophe Listen on: Bandcamp

Caelan Kier: (composer, booklet commentary)

this song kinda appeared out of nowhere so i was all like "oh ok let's put this on the album beep boop".

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

Since Caelan gives such in depth commentary, id like to note that this track's actual name is Baleishsprite for obvious reasons and you can't tell me otherwise.

Quasar Nebula: (wiki editor)

perhaps slightly less obvious reasons

Nostalgic Landscapes Listen on: Bandcamp

Rainy: (composer, booklet commentary)

I wrote this shortly after writing some ambient stuff for my solo album and it shows.

I wanted to make a song about the shifting landscapes created by the dreambubbles. This is probably one of my favorite songs I did for this album.

Oh and it quotes a song i wrote called "Sleepwalker." You'll probably hear it in the future...

MeGaLoVania (BeforusBound) Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

MeGaLoVania has an unused version that Toby Fox originally made to be on AlterniaBound, unfortunately it was never used because Tensei later played live guitars over the song and it got used in Vol. 6 so i wanted to make a MeGaLoVania specifically for BeforusBound.

I wanted it to be very similar to the original AlterniaBound version so i recreated that entire song which took me about 5 days, then i remixed it and added some BeforusBound motifs.

I'm probably most proud of the Center Stage solo at the end of this song.

Insufferable Sufferer Listen on: Bandcamp

Rowyn Berlan: (composer, booklet commentary)

Kankri is quite an odd but interesting character to me so I decided to try and make a song about his struggles as a leader and his reflection on the role of the sufferer.

I really just thought about making a calm relaxing song in a similar style to Jaded Luminescence which is exactly what I did lol...

that's really all I remember about making this song so uh yeah (song has birb noises for w/e reason, I can't recall why I did that but it oddly works)

First Tumor, Second Life Listen on: Bandcamp

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary)

This is, of course, a song about Meenah, and hovv she used essentially the original Tumor to blovv up the Beforus session so that they could all at least continue to exist as ghosts after their Scratch.

I really only <aguely remember making this track to be honest
I just remember a spot on the sheet opened up, and I vvanted to fill it.

I forgot at the time the song actually has to be rele<ant to the album, big doof that I am, so I vvas racking my brain trying to think of any vvay at all to connect this song to Beforus.

I couldn't just restart either; I'd posted my VVIP link vvhen it vvas already in a stage pretty close to hovv it is novv.

On a vvalk back from the store, I briefly remembered The Tumor, and figured "Eh. It's the closest thing to real Beforus drama I can remember."

(RIP my ears, for trying to open the original .vva< file on a basic phone. That vvas loud and terrifying.)

Beau Brian: (composer, booklet commentary, quirk-free)

This is, of course, a song about Meenah, and how she used essentially the original Tumor to blow up the Beforus session so that they could all at least continue to exist as ghosts after their Scratch.

I really only vaguely remember making this track to be honest
I just remember a spot on the sheet opened up, and I wanted to fill it.

I forgot at the time the song actually has to be relevant to the album, big doof that I am, so I was racking my brain trying to think of any way at all to connect this song to Beforus.

I couldn't just restart either; I'd posted my WIP link when it was already in a stage pretty close to how it is now.

On a walk back from the store, I briefly remembered The Tumor, and figured "Eh. It's the closest thing to real Beforus drama I can remember."

(RIP my ears, for trying to open the original .wav file on a basic phone. That was loud and terrifying.)

The Future We Could Never Have Listen on: Bandcamp

Rainy: (composer, booklet commentary)

What troll focused album would be complete without a medley of all the main themes on the album. In all seriousness, this song was directly inspired by songs like rex duodecim anglus and rex duodecim daemonia.

However, rather than focus on the fight with the black king, I wanted to focus on the doomed state of the session itself.

I tried my best to convey a sense of sadness and grief as the trolls realize that everything they've been through was for naught. For the most part, I quoted motifs that premiered on this album.

Initially I was going to quote the initial 12 song from the album, but I quickly realized that would be too difficult. I also quoted both Beforus, as a little call back to UMSPAF's Beforus album, and Theme (of Alternia). The latter quote serve to highlight how the hope of winning the game now lies with the Alternian trolls.

Pascal van den Bos: (album team, booklet commentary)

I really admire how Rainy was able to craft such a beautiful song out of all of the motifs he used (a lot), and i think i'll be listening to this quite a lot.

The Gentle Heat part is probably my favorite, the orchestral and electronic influences mixed in this song are also amazing and i love it.

BeforusBound Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

I made 3 fanfares for this album, these were all made to mirror the original fanfares that Toby Fox made on AlterniaBound...

(Continued in Victory!)

Victory! Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

(Continued from BeforusBound)

...since all the fanfares on AlterniaBound used the "Theme"/"Alternia" motif i decided to use the "Beforus" motif from the Beforus album by UMSPAF for these songs...

(Continued in Time To Rest)

Time To Rest Listen on: Bandcamp

Pascal van den Bos: (composer, booklet commentary)

(Continued from Victory!)

...and i also tried to replicate the original fanfares as much as i could.

Thats all i can really say about them, just a good way to end an epic album.