Devil Crash / Alien Crush
The CD Front Cover. See below for more pics of the CD's leaflet.

The Lost Soundtrack CD

Here's a real rarity... and sort of a lost Ark of the Covenant for me.

It all started way back in 1992 when I caught a glimpse of this CD's cover in a one-page advert for two game music CDs (I think the other was for some RPG) in a used 1990 copy of a Japanese anime mag called Newtype that I had just bought. (Whew! That was a long sentence.) The image above was rather small on the page, and had a Japanese description next to it, so I couldn't know for sure what it was. But since these looked to be audio CDs, not game CDs, I was very interested. I loved the sophisticated, rockin' musical score to Devil's Crush, and I would have loved to have an arranged version of the main theme -- since it's obviously an all-out heavy metal tune written on a computer chip.

Well, this was still 1992, and I was just 14 years old, so my dream would have to remain just that.

Fast forward to 2005, and after two years of searching (in Japan, no less) at music shops and auction sites, I actually found one of these CDs for sale. It seems that this CD is "mega-rare", perhaps due to low production numbers -- I can't imagine it would be due to low popularity. Well, needless to say, I bought the CD at an exorbitant price, but spreading out the cost over the thirteen years that I had been searching for the CD, it becomes worth it.
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Back Cover

So, it would seem odd to some, then, that the first desire I had upon receiving this CD was to put the CD audio on the internet for others to enjoy. It's strange behaviour, to pay so much for a thing then to want to give it away for free. But perhaps it's just that I don't want others to search fruitlessly for so long the way I had to.

Anyhow, someone else has already put up the CD in MP3 format on the internet. So all I'll say is: look around!

Anyway, as for the music itself... it is great! Published in 1990 by T (Tokuma) Game Music, it contains 11 tracks and 53 minutes of arranged music from the Devil Crash and Alien Crush games. Considering the age of the CD, the music quality is very good. It contains four different arrangements of the main DC theme, with two rock/metal versions, a slower "disco" version, and a symphonic version. Some of the bonus stage music is here, and it kicks ass. The Alien Crush themes are also well-arranged, but still sound quite close to their chip versions. This is definitely something I will listen to a lot from now on.

The only downsides to the arrangements are that they use 1990s-era keyboards for some instruments rather than real musical instruments (like pianos, guitars), and it is noticeable. Also, in both rock versions of the main theme, the climax of the song, which is very powerful in the chip version, is muted in the arrangements. The climactic part dies down and returns to the first part of the song; that's not how I would have arranged it if I had the chance. I would have let a guitar wail during the climax, slicing the song to bits, as I always imagined it while playing Devil's Crush. Well, anyway, the last gripe I have of the CD is that I wish it would have included the original chip versions of some songs... that would have been a nice way to end the CD. All in all, however, my 13-year dream of listening to this CD has finally been realized!

Audio Clips (Of course you were waiting for these!) Here are just a couple of samples of the music so I won't be charged with copying the CD wholesale.
Track 1 - Theme
Track 5 - Devil

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