It's very difficult to not support Chris Franke. "Battle Theme 4", like so many of Franke's longer pieces, packs many striking themes. I've always liked how Franke tends to blend orchestral sounds with electronic work, and "Battle Themes 4" is no exception. My favourite part is the entire 7th minute with its excellent blend of strings, trumpets/horns, sampled voices, and other electronic samples. Hardly a dull moment in its entire 11min run time, thanks to many exciting passages and some nice quiet interludes.

Elorin

This nomination was meant to give you a little more of a taste from the wonderful world of Japanese VGM doujins. Some of you may have heard of S.S.H. and Preludio, but IMHO, MintJam is the best of them all. For one thing, they use live instruments, and the mastering on their tracks are top-notch, making them sound very professional. They are also one of the few with actual game soundtracks under their belt, which makes them eligible for this contest.

Onto the track itself which is catchy as hell with awesome guitar solos with actual melody - not the mindless meandering kind we hear from time to time. The synth solo at 2:08 offers a nice change until things quiet down at the end with the acoustic playing.

Other doujin groups I'd recommend are Woodsoft, Crow's Claw, Akineko, and Jesus is Dead. For more info on doujins, visit this excellent run-down on niki's site.

_DH_

THIS is how orchestral game music should sound (listening Sakimoto?). Epic, yet hummable with no dead points of aimless droning. The reprise of the opening towards the center is an excellent touch. An overall great track.

GoldfishX

Ah, Lords of Thunder...the shooter with the best ROCKIN' soundtrack I've ever heard. This soundtrack is one of my favourites so it goes without saying that Bosque is the best this week. Most of the tracks on this album features fast guitar playing a solid melody with some synth thrown in for good measure and this one is no exception. Although it isn't my favourite track in the game, it still kicks ass! T's music kicks ass! If you want the entire Sega CD redbook rip in a noticeabley higher quality (ogg), get it from segaxtreme.net (they don't like being linked to).

_DH_