Review: Immortal 2
Artists: Various/orginal composers
Price: EUR 15.95 (synsoniq) £10.99 (C64audio.com)$18.99 (Bjorn Lynne)

open_in_newImmortal 2 Website

Here we have it, the second CD in the series of Immortal. Ruben Monterio released the original Immortal, but this time Jan Zottman takes over the reign of producing and continues the series with Immortal 2.
Immortal 2

Immortal 2 has a very strong line up of musicians, which includes the likes of: Barry Leitch, Allister Brimble, Rudolf Stember, Tim Wright, Richard Joseph, Chris Huelsbeck, Jochen Hippel and many more.

The line up of tunes is very impressive too which the likes of X-out, Jim Power, Lotus Turbo Challenge, Battle Squadron and others. The musicians found on Immortal 2 are exactly the same musicians who created the original works back on the Amiga, with the exception of Fabian Del Priore who re-made Jim power. Though Fabian isn’t the original musician (in fact it’s Chris Huelsbeck) he can be found on many many other CD’s which include Merregnon 1 and 2, Back In time 3, and remix64.

The first thing that hits you is that the CD’s quality of sound is mightily impressive and it is very well produced. The tunes themselves are very good with some great ideas and nifty effects which don’t detract from the music. A good balance has been found here.

There aren’t any weak tracks at all, though some are better than others. Carchardodon is a track that has been very well re-worked and is very interesting, but I do get the sense that some of the strings in this orchestral type tune just sound a little too synthy and is slightly spoiled by a slight techno styled overlapping effect. However the tune itself is an exceptional and one of my personal favourites on the CD.

The inclusion of Guitars to Jim Power has worked wonders and has added a great overall sound picture to what was an already exceptional track.

Lotus Turbo Challenge is also exceptional, starting of technoey, before suddenly rip roaring into a great heavy guitar track. An excellent idea, which has worked very well.

Z-out is another great track which has some great drums and a pumping baseline, but is slightly let down by a dull lead instrument. The tune is well played non-the less but you just get the feeling that a brighter sound would have been more appropriate.

Shadow Of The Beast 3 was never a great tune and reading from the documentation Tim Wright acknowledges that fact. The exciting thing about this track is that Tim has rectified the problems the original had and re-worked the tune with some very tasty and atmospheric lyrics, which work really well with the main theme perfectly.

Robocod is kinda like a fairground type music, which is to be taken rather tongue in cheek, however it would certainly suit a Disney type of theme. Overall it’s cute but rather repetitive and nondescript.

Chris Huelsbeck’s X-out is excellent, showing not only was he a great musician on the amiga, but he’s still one of the best in the business.

Another particular favourite of mine is Battle Squadron by Ron Klaren. It’s main theme is particularly impressive in that it’s attacking and purposeful with some great choice of instruments and background effects with all the themes from the original in there too in a merged kind of medley.

As a bonus Jan has included one of his own tracks called Rain which is a mix of slow dreamy styled music and fast attacking tunes. Which in a way kinda spoils it. It works well as either a slow or a fast tune, but combine them together and you get a tune that looses direction a little and sounds misplaced. But still it’s no bad tune in itself.

OVERALL:
The CD has brought Rubens vision and taken it one step further… It’s a great CD and one I’ve enjoyed listening too immensely. It’s a very professional product right from the booklet, which has some great pieces of artwork to the tunes themselves. There’s many CD’s out there and many of them are well worth the money you spend, but here you’ll find a CD that is second to non-in the terms of sound quality.

Rating: 8.5

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