Written by George Buzinkai, Arrangement by Michael Guy Bowman
The first really ‘epic’ end-of-act Flash track. It’s a great combination of chiptune (the main melody) and rock. It works brilliantly: it feels like neither a piece of video game music, nor a radio play. It’s something else entirely. Each verse adds a new layer, whether it’s an accent to the melody, a more elaborate drumbeat, or distorted power chords driving the anthem home. My top track for the album.
Written by George Buzinkai. Produced by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell and Michael Vallejo
For the record (a snarky web-blog counts as ‘the record’, right?), I don’t hate this track. And I know many people are a fan of it, being the inspiration for many songs on follow-up albums. I think that’s why I can’t get into it on its own: the melody is much more effective as an accent for something bigger.
When combined with other songs, the two become much greater than the sum of their parts. I’ll explain more about what I mean later on, when we start hitting some of the songs that incorporate Doctor as a part of their structure.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox. Original (Doctor) by George Buzinkai
Source: Homestuck
I mentioned in an earlier review that I preferred Doctor as part of a greater composition, rather than as a stand-alone piece. This is the song I had in mind when I mentioned that. Doctor is a big part of this song, and it’s even better for it.
The song begins on a low note, like a music box desperately trying to squeeze out a few more notes before it reaches the end of its winding. From there, it builds progressively, in steps, before cooling off again near the end.
There’s another original song that’s part of Savior of the Waking World: Penumbra Phantasm by Radiation. That’s the flute melody that begins around halfway through the song. In fact, I didn’t mention it earlier, but Descend ends with a fragment from this same song. There’s a few Flash animations where Penumbra Phantasm has been used as a sort of coda, and it can’t help but be memorable. Yet the song has not been released on its own, and it may never be. It’s the white whale of the Homestuck catalog: many other tracks are made better by featuring it.
By Steve Everson. Original (Doctor) by George Buzinkai
My favorite stand-alone version of Doctor. Planet Healer comes close, but I like the instrumentation a little better on Plague Doctor.
By Malcolm Brown. Originals “Doctor” by George Buzinkai, and “Savior of the Waking World” by Toby ‘Radiation’ Fox
Awesome. Just awesome. Rises from a sober melancholy chorus, through a hopeful pizzicato rendition of Doctor, to a ridiculously energetic, driving overture. The song would have a completely different feel without the power-chords backing the main melody.
Technically, this version of the song is not used as part of a Flash animation (though it forms one of the main sections of Cascade). The coda is a bit different from the version used in Cascade: it doubles down on the energy with strings that smack of the shower scene in Psycho, until dropping just a little too abruptly.