You ever interact with a piece of dark fantasy media and think, what would this sound like if it had "MOAR GEETS"? Well, Ashen Ones, you've come to the right place as PerksJFP graces us with a metal rendition of "Soul of Cinder" from Dark Souls III! Perks explains:

"I wanted to try and reimagine the orchestra as a metal piece with some metal staples, e.g. guitar solos, breakdowns, blastbeats."

Yuka Kitamura's original soared in its usage of choral and horns which gives it that foreboding, almost hopeless, gothic feel. Perks' choice to take the track in a more symphonic rock style filled with copious amounts of guitar and heavy chugging riffs really captures that feeling of when you finally overcome. Hemophiliac observed in his decision:

"I dug the arrangement on this one, I get the feeling from the original very much so and its tense boss-battle energy. The genre transformation and arrangement were handled well, those are the Pros on this. The organ was a nice touch to bring some drama outside of the strictly guitar-based metal."

The use of non-standard instruments really grounds it in that dark fantasy aesthetic even as the arrangement itself takes risks in the soundscape. The telltale twinkles of Gwyn's theme at the halfway mark keeps the arrangement from wearing out its welcome. It feels like you're summiting a mountain, if you can dig it? As Perks elaborates:

"My main goal was to try and hit the same feeling I had when first hearing Gwyn's theme from Dark Souls 1 in the final fight, hence building the piece up before letting the theme take the main stage of the song."

One of the best parts of the Souls series is the people. That no matter how hard and dark the world can get, we are not alone. That when we're struggling, we can reach out and ask for help and in gaining that experience, we too can help someone else. That fog gate is just a temporary obstacle.

You are stronger than you think. Don't you dare go hollow!