By George Hendrickson

My project was inspired by the “Top Ten Most Brutal Deathcore songs” type of YouTube videos in the Myspace era. These were fan made videos of the pictures of the bands with their songs usually made on programs like Windows Movie Maker. While my music taste has evolved since those days, my favorite kind of music has changed very little. So, I thought it would be fun to do my own little version of one of those videos.

Considered the most brutal section of a metal/metalcore/hardcore song. The breakdown is characterized by a beat much slower than the main verses and chorus of a song, the primary ingredients being a steady beat from the drums (with lots of cymbal and sometimes double bass) and a chugging rhythm from the guitar. When played live, breakdowns are usually responded to by the audience with high-intensity moshing (slam dancing).

Doing this project was fun and frustrating at the same time. I enjoyed playing around with the songs and software to see what I could do. However, some of these songs (especially one) are old and it certainly didn’t come out as well as the other ones. Still, I had a good time scratching the surface to see what I could do with Premiere.