2016-06-04 4:01:03 ¶ ●

Reviews for the new fanmade album Beforus, coming up next!

2016-06-05 4:00:46 ¶ ●

By Dallas Ross Hicks
A new take on ‘Nine Lives One Love’, off of coloUrs and mayhem Universe A (also written by Dallas Ross Hicks). I try not to directly compare different variants of the same musical theme, but this is such a solid step up, I think it’s worth talking about.
'Nine Lives One Love’ has a really diffuse, layered sound to it, and it feels muddled. Bells, bells, and more bells. It drags on a bit.
MOG^3, on the other hand, flies by. It’s an even longer song, and there’s so much more to it. The song’s anchored by the same musical motif, but new instrumentation choices and new variations on that theme really hooked me in.
Most of all, the song’s flow is much improved. The deep, synth-distorted bridge around 1:45 gives that same starting motif a brand new sound. New wrinkles after that (at 3:10, 3:45, 4:30, etc) keep the track interesting and well-paced, all the way to the end.
I like this song a lot. I think it demonstrates an awful lot of artistic growth.

2016-06-06 4:00:55 ¶ ●

By theh0nestman
A chill, early-rock-style guitar track. This could work great as the intro track for Sherriff Horuss’s Western TV serial (in which he beats crime itself to death with his bare hands).

2016-06-07 4:00:57 ¶ ●

By Nate Tronerud

Very, very Harry Potter. The instrumentation’s a dead ringer – I had to flip back and forth a couple times between John William’s theme and this song to convince myself that I wasn’t listening to the same orchestra. The first minute wins the Grammy for style-apeing. After that, it takes off into its own thing. The gothic electric guitar is a nice twist on the standard symphony background.

2016-06-08 4:00:50 ¶ ●

By James “Flutterwhat” Fischer

Best hook on the album, especially when it’s pounded out by that Legend-of-Zelda-esque horn section.

2016-06-09 4:00:59 ¶ ●

By circlejourney
A warm, smooth 2X COMBO of slow keyboard in the foreground and sugar-hyper synth in the back.

2016-06-10 4:00:59 ¶ ●

Written by Anna Marcus-Hecht
A live piece! The performance is a little bit wobbly, especially in a couple spots where the xylophone part gets challenging. But that doesn’t distract: it adds character (my definition of ‘character’, of course, being ‘an off-note here or there that makes me like the song even better somehow’). I especially like the high-energy ‘overture’ bit that starts around 1:20.

2016-06-11 4:01:08 ¶ ●

By Daedalus Dog
The first half’s kinda slow, kinda has a hard time finding its rhythm. But this track finds its groove in the second half.

2016-06-12 4:00:44 ¶ ●

By Dallas Ross Hicks
I like the sampled saxophone on this one; it’s tough to pull off sax artificially like that. The song’s a pre-rock 50’s croon (think Enchantment Under the Sea dance in Back to the Future).

2016-06-13 4:01:10 ¶ ●

By Ducky Senpai
Thumping drums and rave synth. My favorite bit is the dot matrix-y hook starting at 0:15.

2016-06-14 4:01:16 ¶ ●

By Nate Tronerud

A little overlong, but man, do I love those moddish horns in the intro. This song would make for an awesome walkthrough or overworld theme. It’s a close thing against Let Me Dance, Let Me Glisten and MOG^3, but this is my top track for the album.

2016-06-15 4:01:15 ¶ ●

By Nate Tronerud
A mix of sweet and sour. Wait, not sour… soul-gripping terror. Yeah. A mix of sweet and terror. The first half sets up a cool jam starting around the 1:15 mark.

2016-06-16 4:00:58 ¶ ●

By Not-Terezi-Pyrope
It took me a few listens to put the pin on this one. I don’t really dig the melody, or the subject matter, or the instrumentation. Then it hit me - the Kankri monologue in the middle, coupled with those droning organ notes, make for a really bizarre ASMR-inducing section. I doubt Kankri ever expected that kind of response from his ramblings.

2016-06-17 4:01:03 ¶ ●

By violasarecool
A simple song, and with such wonderfully off-kilter vocals. Meshes really well with the light ukelele-and-piano melody. The lyrics are an interesting combination of fluffy and dark.

2016-06-18 4:01:01 ¶ ●

By Nate Tronerud
The wvorst troll by a nautical mile gets his own cheap 70’s sitcom theme. Happy Days, starring Cronus as your favorite leather-jacket-wearing greaser buddy. *shudders*

2016-06-19 4:00:59 ¶ ●

By Oliver Hendricks
A good beat led by that droning synth line. Kinda Strider-esque. Well, not Strider, I guess, but like, Dark Strider.

2016-06-20 4:00:58 ¶ ●

By Laurent DS
For what’s ostensibly a Latula track, this one charts a pretty dark course. Cool, crashing percussion, with the extraterrestrial melody carried on the off-beat.

2016-06-21 4:00:50 ¶ ●

By theh0nestman

I thought Homestuck music couldn’t surprise me anymore. Not so far as genre goes. But I was wrong. I didn’t expect to hear a ‘Rumble’-esque 50’s rock jam buried in the middle of a Homestuck fanmusic album, yet here we are.

The vocals have that husky, just-finished-a-set-in-a-smoke-choked-bar tone to 'em. Who would have thought that one of Cronus’s joke titles from Openbound 2 would prove inspiring?

2016-06-22 4:00:50 ¶ ●

By Dallas Ross Hicks
I could have sworn I had heard this one before. It’s more of a consistency of style than melody, though; it shares the same vibe as MOG^3. I like the bassline that underpins the whole track.

2016-06-23 4:00:59 ¶ ●

RATING: 8 / 13 – hitting on my signature sound
At long last, THE BEFORE TROLLS get an album to call their own.

[S] Collide and Act 7 notwithstanding, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a new, proper Homestuck-themed album (the last one was LOFAM 3, another free fan-driven effort, over two years ago). There’s a lot of new names on this anthology, a lot of new, unique directions. The songs are almost entirely original, without relying upon Homestuck’s long list of established motifs and songs.

And it’s long: well over 4 hours of music. I think it’d be a tighter compilation, an easier listen, if it were shorter. But that’s a pitfall common to anthology albums (especially one in which many, many people submit songs), and I understand the rationale, especially for an upstart project like this one.

Projects like these are a great way for new artists to try out their music-making chops. And it’s free! Download the whole album here!

One more passing thought: how the fuck did Cronus of all characters get a plurality of good tracks on this album? Maybe it’s because 50’s surf-style rock is a heretofore unexplored niche in the fandom.

Fuckin’ Cronus. He doesn’t deserve music this good. He doesn’t deserve anything good.

Click here for individual song reviews for Beforus.