Orphaned Land is an Israeli metal band, formed in 1991 under the name Resurrection, that combines Israeli Jewish, Mizrahi, and other West Asian influences. They are considered the pioneers of oriental metal. The band has gone through several lineup changes over the years, but has retained two of the founding members, Kobi Farhi (vocals) and Uri Zelcha (bass). They are joined by Matan Shmuely (drums), Chen Balbus (guitar/keyboard) who replaced co-founding member Matti Svatizky in 2012, and Idan Amsalem (guitars/bouzouki) who replaced co-founding member Yossi Sassi in early 2014. Their lyrics promote a message of peace and unity, particularly between the three main Abrahamic religions.
Dragon Quest, titled Dragon Warrior when initially localized to North America, is a role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released by Enix in Japan in 1986 and by Nintendo in North America in 1989. It is the first game in the Dragon Quest video game series. Dragon Quest has been ported and remade for several video game platforms, including the MSX, MSX2, PC-9801, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, mobile phones, and Nintendo Switch as of 2019. The player controls the hero character who is charged with saving the Kingdom of Alefgard and rescuing its princess from the evil Dragonlord. Dragon Warrior's story became the second part in a trilogy, with several spinoff anime and manga series.
Final Fantasy VII is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. Released in 1997, the game sparked the release of a collection of media centered on the game entitled the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. The music of the Final Fantasy VII series includes not only the soundtrack to the original game and its associated albums, but also the soundtracks and music albums released for the other titles in the collection. The first album produced was Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack, a compilation of all the music in the game. It was released as a soundtrack album on four CDs by DigiCube in 1997. A selection of tracks from the album was released in the single-disc Reunion Tracks by DigiCube the same year. Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII, an album featuring piano arrangements of pieces from the soundtrack, was released in 2003 by DigiCube, and Square Enix began reprinting all three albums in 2004. To date, these are the only released albums based on the original game's soundtrack, and were solely composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu; his role for the majority of subsequent albums has been filled by Masashi Hamauzu and Takeharu Ishimoto.
The music of the video game Final Fantasy VI was composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu. The Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version, a compilation of all the music in the game, was released in Japan by NTT Publishing in 1994 and re-released by Square Enix in 2004. The album was released by Square Co./NTT Publishing in North America in 1994 under the name Kefka's Domain. Selected tracks from the official soundtrack were later released as part of the Music From FFV and FFVI Video Games album that was included with the release of Final Fantasy Anthology, and two EPs were produced containing character theme tracks entitled Final Fantasy VI Stars Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. A special orchestral arrangement of selected tracks from the game, arranged by Shiro Sagisu and Tsuneyoshi Saito, and performed by the Milan Symphony Orchestra, was released under the title Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale by NTT Publishing in 1994 and 2004, and a collection of piano arrangements, arranged by Shirou Satou and performed by Reiko Nomura, was released under the title Piano Collections Final Fantasy VI by Square/NTT Publishing in 1994 and by NTT Publishing in 2001. Additionally, a single containing unused and remixed tracks from the game was released as Final Fantasy VI Special Tracks by NTT Publishing in 1994.
Yousei Teikoku is a Japanese rock band formed in 1997. Their music mixes elements of gothic metal, heavy metal, electronic and classical music. Their works include the opening tracks of several anime series, including Future Diary, Magical Pokan, Innocent Venus, Kurokami: The Animation, The Qwaser of Stigmata, Big Order, and the Tokyo ESP soundtrack. After releasing several independent albums, the band released seven major-label albums with their current label Lantis: Gothic Lolita Propaganda, Metanoia, Gothic Lolita Doctrine, Gothic Lolita Agitator, Pax Vesania, Shadow Corps(e) and The Age Of Villains.
MAGFest is an annual festival held in the Washington metropolitan area that celebrates video games and video game music, as well as their surrounding culture. MAGFest's primary features are a large open video gaming room, a hall of arcade cabinets, concerts by chiptune artists and video game cover bands, and a bring your own computer (BYOC) LAN party.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the third main installment in the Guitar Hero series, following Guitar Hero II. It is the first game in the series to be developed by Neversoft after Activision's acquisition of RedOctane and MTV Games' purchase of Harmonix, the previous development studio for the series. The game was released worldwide for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 in October 2007, with Budcat Creations assisting Neversoft on developing the PlayStation 2 port and Vicarious Visions solely developing on the Wii port respectively. Aspyr published the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions of the game, releasing them later in 2007.
The Protomen are an American rock band who started their career composing concept albums loosely based on the video game series Mega Man. Their stage names are largely references to pop culture films, song titles, and fictional characters. The group members refer to themselves as storytellers, creating a "rock and roll fable".
Built By Snow is an American four-piece rock band based in Austin, Texas formed in 2006. To date, the band has released one EP, and one mini-full-length album. The band has described themselves as "Catchy keyboard indie pop rock with an explosion of velcro melodies and magnetic hooks that hit your brain like an Atari blasting out of a bazooka."
Math the Band is an American chiptune-based synthpunk band from Providence, Rhode Island formed in 2002 by Kevin Steinhauser. Originally being a solo project by Steinhauser, the band's style has been sometimes called Nintendocore. The band has performed over 1000 shows throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom, touring with bands, artists and rappers such as Andrew W.K., Japanther, Wheatus, MC Frontalot, Horse the Band MC Chris, Peelander-Z, Anamanaguchi and MC Lars. Math the Band has been featured in several magazines such as Venus Zine and Keyboard Magazine, and were also featured on NPR Music. Still, with band members spread across the United States, Math the Band is based in Providence, Rhode Island and are a part of Providence's AS220 and have performed there multiple times.
Surfer Blood is an American indie rock band from West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, currently signed to Kanine Records, formerly signed to Joyful Noise Recordings and Warner Bros. Records. The band has four members: John Paul Pitts, Tyler Schwarz (drums), Mike McCleary, and Lindsey Mills.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune and video game music with hardcore punk and/or heavy metal. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, An Albatross, The NESkimos and Minibosses pioneering the genre.
Thomas Böcker is a German producer. He is the founder of Merregnon Studios and creative director of his orchestral music projects Merregnon and Game Concerts.
Infinity Blade was an action role-playing game developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games and released through the Apple App Store on December 9, 2010. It was the first iOS video game to run on the Unreal Engine. In the game, the unnamed player character fights a series of one-on-one battles in a derelict castle to face the immortal God King. When in battle, players swipe the screen to attack and parry, and tap the screen to dodge and block enemy attacks. Upon defeat, the player restarts the game as the character's descendant with the same items and experience level.
One-Eyed Doll was a gothic rock duo based in Austin, Texas, which was voted the Best Punk Band in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at the Austin Music Awards at SXSW. One-Eyed Doll officially retired on May 21, 2021, after a lengthy hiatus.
Random Encounter is an independent American video game music cover/inspired band from Orlando, Florida that features an accordion as the lead instrument. Dedicated to the creation and performance of high energy music, they are known for playing songs based on video games and for their covers of songs from popular television shows and movies.
Hiroshi Kawaguchi is a Japanese video game music composer and keyboardist who works for Sega. He is among the oldest of the Sega sound team members, and one of the few from the 1980s still active today. He joined Sega in 1984 as a programmer, but quit the job and became a composer the following year.
Brendan Becker, known by his stage name Inverse Phase, is an American video game composer and chiptune musician, using Atari, Commodore, and Nintendo hardware. He also speaks and hosts workshops on video game music, chiptunes, and composing.
Grant Henry, better known by his stage name Stemage, is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for his video game and television soundtracks, including Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe. He is also known for his involvement in several video game cover projects, including Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar.
