Nerd Tunes #5: Fear Factory

Have you ever been playing a video game started a new level and as the music begins to play you think “Oh man, this just got real.”? Fear Factory from Donkey Kong Country is one of those levels. The music that the legendary David Wise created for this level is heavy, intense, and just gets you blood pumping.

https://youtu.be/v18pEFQb3EM

On Nerd Tunes, we normally look at our favorite soundtracks from games, anime, etc. This time, though we are going to do something a little different. We are going to list our favorite covers and remixes of the Fear Factory track. This is a pretty popular track so we had a large number of possibilities to choose from. These aren’t listed in a particular order, but together they consist of what we considered the best. Without further delay let’s get this started.

FamilyJules7x – Fear Factory Donkey Kong Country Guitar Cover

We are starting our list with a guitar cover from one of our favorite artists. This one is just plain awesome, and really shows what someone can do with this track. Sticking very close to the original sound while injecting a healthy dose of his own style, FamilyJules7x creates a very solid rendition of this excellent track. We could listen to this one all day, but we have more to check out so sadly we must move on. If you want to hear more of his work though be sure to check out his YouTube channel found here.

bLiNd – Industrial Fear

Changing things up a lot, we have one from another of our favorite artists. bLiNd has given us some seriously amazing mixes over the years. His remix of Fear Factory is among the best we have heard and so it easily makes this list. The track itself is classic bLiNd, and as such has a lot of layers to it. Even though there is a lot going on though it never sounds cluttered and comes through quite nicely. If you are curious about the rest of his work be sure to check out his website here.

Vincent Rubinetti – Industrial Hysteria

Vincent Rubinetti brings us this simple yet elegant remix of Fear Factory. This doesn’t stray very far from the original, but brings a very clear and solid sound. Overall this is just a lot of fun to listen to, and we would certainly add it to many of our playlists. Of the tracks on this list, this one is probably the closest to the sound that David Wise was going for, and that makes this a very strong piece. If you enjoy it as much as we did be sure to check out Vincent Rubinetti’s website for more of his great work.

DarkSim – Focus

This is DarkSim’s remix of Fear Factory, which he says is done is the prog house genre and is inspired by “deadmau5 – Strobe”. This one goes through some interesting changes in it’s nearly 8-minute run-time. It’s worth listening to… I mean if it wasn’t though it wouldn’t be on this list though right? You can find more of his work here if you are so inclined.

DirtyDelay – Fear Factory (Dirtydelay Remix)

From DirtyDelay, we have this very pleasant sounding remix. At first, we were sure about this one, but it really grew on us. The guy writing this honestly isn’t a big fan of synth/techno/dance stuff, but I did enjoy this one well enough. The rest of DirtyDelay’s work is also spot-on, so be sure you have a listen here.

That’s it for this list, we know it could have easily included another 5 or 10 entries, but we wanted to keep it at 5 for this edition. We would of course like to thank the artists posted about, without them there would be no list at all. If you have a cover or mix of Fear Factory that you feel should have been on the list but wasn’t please let us know in the comments. For the next list we are thinking about doing the same thing but for a more prolific track, maybe the Super Mario Bros. Theme or Schala’s Theme.

As always be sure to check out the rest of The Nerd Stash for other great articles and news to keep you informed. Thank you, and good day.