DESCRIPTION:
I feel bad for just using a static image of the MQ-133C for eight minutes, but I didn't exactly want to use the image of Raiden on the beach with the bright sun behind him. The song's called "Dark Skies", after all. xD

And here we are, my favorite vocal and non-vocal tracks of the normal battle themes in the game. And they play in the same mission, fairly close together! That's pretty convenient for my purposes. Granted, they aren't so similar that their synergy can rival Sundowner's Garden/Endurance, but they'll fit together all right.

This particular iteration of the songs centers around the bridge after the fight with LQ-84i, although I'd imagine it being populated with a lot more soldiers if this song's length was representative of the amount of enemies in the area. Like the other normal battle themes, I wanted to incorporate the instrumental and vocal tracks in such a way that it was structured basically like the Platinum/Maniac Agenda boss mixes on the Vocal OST, with a few embellishments and personal touches.

I had originally planned on having Hammerhead fade into the middle of the song and then switch perspectives to R-02 and the Raptor fight, which is easily the most iconic fight that this track is used for, but I couldn't really incorporate it without an awkward amount of silence in between, so I chose to use it as more of an outro, kind of like Tour de Force in the Red Sun mix. Then I just added in some of Abkhazia's music in the beginning, and voilà!

...Oh, and I got a little cheeky in the vocal transition again. That's the end of the instrumental portion being played backwards in there, in case you're curious. If it sounds a little jarring and off the beat...that's because it is, lol. I always found the guitar riffs at the beginning of the vocal portion to be alarming, like someone just pressed the "oh, shit" button, and I wanted to reflect that in the transition, as well. I think it went all right personally, but I'll let you be the judge.

All in all, I'm satisfied with this mix, and I think it's an adequate finish to the normal battle themes of the game. Now I just have to mix It Has To...oh, that's right! The GRAD mix! I almost forgot! And I should probably put up an extended theme for Sam, too...we'll do those first, and then move on to the grand finale.

"Sukhumi - Coastal Area ~ Downtown", "Dark Skies", and "Hammerhead" were composed by Jamie Christopherson, as a part of the OST for "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance". I claim no ownership of the original works, but I do claim responsibility for mixing them all together to create the final product that you're listening to.

Hope you enjoyed the mix! :)