By Rainy andyomon00 SoundCloud rainywishes Tumblr YouTube YouTube andyomon00 Twitter ← Occult Hymns Previous track by this artist → On The Hunt For Something Dangerous [Beta] Next track by this artist.
Cover art by dizzims. dizzims Twitter ← Death Defied Previous track art by this artist → Nibiru Next track art by this artist.
Released 11/4/2023.
Duration: 13:22.

Listen on Bandcamp, YouTube, or SoundCloud.

Read artist commentary.

Contributors:

• Tee-vee teeveemusic Bandcamp tee-vee-novae SoundCloud YouTube YouTube teevee_terminal Twitter teevee.neocities.org Neocities ← Dreams of a Better Future Previous track contribution by this artist (lead, rhythm, bass guitars)
• Marcie Hobbs NezumiVA YouTube nezumiva Tumblr nezumiva Twitter ← The Hotel California Lounge Previous track contribution by this artist (Mimesis voice-over & co-writing)

Tracks that Go Beyond And Fight Further (Ft. Tee-Vee and NezumiVA) references:

• Could I Be A Hero Too? (Arcjec Voorat Vs. The End Of The World) by Rainy
• No One's Prisoner (Taz Is Unbreakable) by Rainy
• On The Hunt For Something Dangerous (Redux) by Rainy
• RUN IT BACK by Rainy
• Atomsplitter / Destroyer Of Worlds (Ft. votl) by Rainy
• Hope For A More Radiant Dawn by Rainy
• The Fool Does Not Laugh by Rainy
• The Curtain Rises ~ Millenium Actress by Rainy
• Strobelite Striker (Ft. Levc) by Rainy and Levc
• At The Gates Of Truth by Rainy
• A Portrait Of Ruin by Rainy
• Occult Hymns by Rainy
• Perfection by Rom M
• A New World by dbnet18
• Courage by Grace Medley
• DEAD 2 RIGHTS by Rainy

Tracks that Go Beyond And Fight Further (Ft. Tee-Vee and NezumiVA) samples:

• Glimpses Of Perfection [Loud] by SplitSuns

Lyrics:

(You know, dear listener, it’s funny…)

(Our plucky protagonists had overcome every trial and tribulation that laid before them. They had forged alliances, gathered their forces, and stood ready to fight against Gaiaeon’s encroachment into their world.)

(They planned accordingly down to the most minute details; every step deliberately taken to ensure their victory. Through all of their collective efforts, the twelve believed that overcoming the Naught-father was nothing more than forgone conclusion. A full house waiting to be played…)

(But here’s a word from the wise about overconfidence; it’s an insidious poison.)

(To such experienced eyes, even a hand like that's no better than a bluff. No one, not even our heroes at the height their power, could have anticipated the terrifying extent of Gaiaeon’s assault.)

(And thus, one by one, our heroes fell.)

(Everything they had worked toward and fought for was gone in an instant. The promise of a new world forged by the twelve and their many allies left unfulfilled. Hence, nothing remains, not even their regrets.)

(Their efforts were all for naught, naught, naught...)

Artist commentary:

Rainy: (YouTube description, excerpt)

Here it is, the longest, most ambitious song I’ve ever written. I knew when I pitched the album to Austin back in early January, I wanted to do a big medley encompassing all the songs on the album as a closer. The obvious point of comparison for this track is “Rex Duodecim Angelus” by Malcolm Brown. It’s an iconic homestuck and pretty anyone would jump to write something like. That being said I grossly underestimated how much work would be involved. The track took about 70 hours across 5-6 different projects files and took about a full month to write. With no hyperbole, this is probably the largest undertaking I have ever done musically. I will talk about this song more but for the sake of ease I’ll break it into 2 parts just like the song.

Part I – The Battle Begins
I like to think that every VGM composer wants to compose an absolutely nutty final boss song to show off their composition chops. That ethos is basically what is driving this part of the track. I wanted to write a song that would basically soundtrack the final battle against The Naughtfather, Gaiaeon. It might surprise you that I took a very normal song writing approach for this track. The song has typical Verse-Bridge-Chorus structure with the only twist being the 4-medley section between the various parts and those riff breakdown parts in 7/4. My concern with writing a song this ambitious is that it can quickly get stale if you don’t pace it right. I used this track structure to create a cohesive “shell” that would help guide the listener along and make the track feel like it’s constantly moving forward without disorienting the listener too much. It’s at this point I’d like to thank Tee-vee for bringing this song to life with his guitar performance In terms of influences aside from RDA, I took major influence from both “Raise Thy Sword in Pride” by Yuzo Koshiro and “The Ones Who Gather Stars in the Night” by Revo. The former is where I took symphonic rock influence from and the latter, I took the overall structure for the song from. In terms of the medley section, I tried my best to make so that every character had their chance to shine musically. Given how disparate the song on the album have been up to this point, getting them to cohesively transition into each other was a pain to put it lightly. Some segments with in the various medley sections are pretty close to original songs but some had more or less complete rearrangements to better fit the tempo of the song. The end result is a song that is largely cobbled together sounding but is that way by choice. Given that eclectic nature of the album, I think it works. This song is also notable because it’s only time that leitmotifs written other than me pop up on the album. What final battle theme would it be it I didn’t references some of the key leitmotifs from VE. Probably the most notable one of these is the interpolation of “Perfection” by Rom which I arranged over the off-kilter 7/4 riff breakdown. I wanted the utilization of these motif in a way that created a loose-ish narrative of how the battle went. Those riff breakdowns represent Gaiaeon’s unnerving, hostly presence while the more heroic motifs signify the growing confidence of our heroes as the battle goes on. This confidence culminates in the reprise of “A New World” and “Courage” as the battle ends with our heroes battered but ultimately triumphant…right?

Part II – All for Naught
And this is where the albums concept becomes apparent. On top of being VE’s “Strife” album it also the Probability album. Every song you’ve so far depicts a different alternate reality with this song being about the Alt! probability depicted in [S]Murrit: REW/FFW. If Part I is long but successful battle to save the world, Part II is our heroes realizing that the battle was over before it started. Those who’ve listened to the Hollownull album will recognize the narrator as the wonderful Marcie Hobbs (NezumiVA) reprising her role as Mimesis’s canon voice. Her performance here adds so much to the desolate tone I was going for. I couldn’t think of a better way close out this album especially considering the 1 Year Anniversary of PoP. Maybe things will wind up better for our heroes next time.