Synth-Rock

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Skyshard – Hearth’s Warming Stories Vol 2: Skyshard in the Multigenre of Madness (Special Pony Edition) | Album | Multi-Genre

Editor’s note: better 2 months late than never!

Suppose you want to talk about a musician who has been on the move. Innovating herself, experimenting, and ever-expanding on her musical talents. Skyshard is known for her abilities in the orchestra brony community, highlighted by making a splash in 2021 with her impressive string of compilation album releases!

Hearth’s Warming Stories Vol 2 shows a different side to her talent pool. Building on her composing talents, we’re treated to a musical dive into mixing her orchestral core with various genres. The tracks are tongue-in-cheek tales of Twilight and her friends trying to plan a late Hearthswarming party highlighted by the Mane 6 poking fun at the brony music community with an amusing use of mane six speaking through 15.ai as a bonus feature in this version!

(Read about some select choices of songs after the break)

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Maddie Tourmaline – Princess Tiffany | Progressive Rock 

This is an awesome concept realized with breathtaking execution! Noble disagreement simmers amongst a group of Pony princesses on a boring, beautiful summer day in Paradise. The shared designs of the budding royals are related over a dreamy soundscape of gentle acoustic instrumentation which is paced by calibrated percussion, accented by light ambience, and crowned by silky sweet vocals. The instrumentation choices are ridiculously fantastic throughout the song, and the little nudges and rumbles of bass throughout hint at lurking danger. The progression percolates impressively to life, especially at the antagonist’s entrance. The arrangement darkens, and synth melodies swirl and soar before the bass-heavy downfall of the kingdom. I hope that you enjoy this journey as much as I did–I would love a whole album of this fantastic musical storytelling!
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BinExis – Distant Farewell | Progressive Rock

BinExis has gifted us a few wonderful Pony songs over the years (check out the innovative “New Old Beginning” with its awesome instrumentation (complete with flute) and the warm, dark sparkle of their first MLP musical foray, “The Night and Elements“), and now we get their most epic creation yet! This prog rock adventure launches quickly into full flight, a fantastically melodic combination of synths, guitars, and percussion. It combines with the amazing video art to set the table for some most excellent rock vocals (the full lyrics are in the video description! Woo!), which tell a tale of Celestia and Luna traveling through space in a search of a new home for all of the creatures of Equestria. The many parts of this composition feel so well-tuned to the others, calibrated and balanced for maximum narrative impact, which is highlighted nicely by the shift in tone midway through the song that is accompanied by a shift in the video’s artwork. I especially appreciated the great guitar work in the second half which was both accomplished and perfect for the story! This song feels like a snapshot from a sci-fi saga, and I hope that we get more of this story in the future!

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Vylet Pony – Scapeghosts (feat. PrinceWhateverer & Foozogz) | Synthrock

Strap in fellas today we’ve got ourselves a longer track by the wonderful Vylet Pony. The song starts out with a dreamy beat that really gives it a mysterious yet calming feel, and then the lyrics set in and really steal the show. Later the singing stops and we once more hear the amazing beat this time accompanied by some great guitar tunes until the lyrics set in once more and tell us some more about the scapeghosts but quickly the lyrics are once more replaced by a slightly different sounding beat that shows you even if this is a seven minute track it will not get boring whatsoever, after that the lyrics start once more and to end of the beat takes over once more accompanied by some more stellar guitar tunes. Overall this song might be the longest one I’ve ever done an article on but oh sweet Celestia it doesn’t get boring, in fact the switch between lyrics and just beat make this song feel even more lively than it already is.

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Bayanic – Hadron Sonata | Progressive Rock

In the means of revamping past songs for an improved effort of production, Bayanic has pledged to recompose his Equinelibrium album. Off to a great start with this really catchy song if you ask me. This one creates an OST-like sound by mixing some old school techno elements, along with pleasing keyboards tones and some really fun Prog Rock guitars and drums. The melody dances around to some extremely catchy music that you just want to go for a power walk while doing the grocery shopping!  I want to hear more! As always, this Qilin asks you  to judge for yourself. –

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StableTwoStallion – Böse Stuten (Koron Korak Remix) | Dark Synth

(Listen to the original here!)

Translated to “Bad Mares”. Korak said over a hundred hours were put into making this track. If you ask this metalhead’s opinion, I will tell you that everything going on here is awesome! The dark and hard goth metal sound was not replaced but integrated into the dirty and grinding synths, but that’s not all! We got chainsaws and this wonderful and chilling symphony organ at work here. The electronic elements complement the unsettling feel of this track so well, yet however with a hollow sounding choir in the background and those awesome lyrics in German. It feels like you walked into a buzzsaw of twisted MLP characters. This would also work out great in a fight scene in a grimdark fanfic honestly. Grimdark narrators, take note of this! As always, this Qilin asks you to judge for yourself.

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Drummershy – Everfree Flower | Synth Rock

Drummershy is someone that needs zero introduction in this fandom. Drumming is his game. He has however bought something new to the table. With Everfree Flower, Drummershy brings the skill of his drums with a lesser known talent of his, Electronic Music. Synthesizing a mesmerizing rhythm to a theme of the mystery of the Everfree Forest. The pulsing effects of the beats create a feeling of a tension filled atmosphere. Mixing in some mysterious vocal chops for more effect. The track breaks into a full on gallop of pace with the combo of his rhythmic drumming. It feels like you are running through the forest looking for Zecora hut in desperation. He has a degree as an Audio Engineer. He utilizes the skill for his first ever original track of music. This fandom wants some new flavor that is dynamic. Drummershy is happy to bring it for this unique experimental piece of music. Something I’m pretty sure he can run with, and keep being more creative with this combo of percussions and electronic music. As always, this Qilin asks you to judge for yourself.

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Remember Falling – Until Then | Synth-Rock

Remember Falling (f.k.a. Sights Unseen) has released her first album under her new alias, Monolith, along with a video for its single! With simultaneously dark and uplifting lyrics performed passionately and an instrumental that changes courses multiple times, this tune defies convention and genre. Don’t skip this one if you’re into genre-bending stuff!

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Sights Unseen – Ardent Light | Synth Rock

As a long-time fan of Sights Unseen, I just want to say how happy I am to see that not only is he producing brony music again, but also that there are plans for much more to come! Bringing his unique blend of synths and rock music, Sights gives us this brilliant, powerful song about the Princess of Friendship and her struggles in learning how to lead after being thrust into such an important role. The synths in this track are used to great effect as leading riffs as well as background chords that add a level of epicness to each other instrument playing at the time. Sights does an amazing job in keeping the theme of adversity front and center while bringing in “heavenly” musical elements to make the struggle beautiful. If you are unfamiliar with this artist, then make sure to check out this track (and if you are familiar, then you know I don’t have to tell you to)!

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Przewalski’s Ponies – Reroll | Electronic Rock

NB: This was originally posted on Equestria Daily on 12 April 2018.

I’m not really sure what this song is about beyond RPGs and dice rolls, but there’s a fun electronic and rock hybrid instrumental and plenty of crazy Russian vocals. Plus it comes with a neat typographic video full of ponies, which is pretty cool too.