31 Songs of Halloween 2017, Day 16

Castlevania is probably my favorite video game series. It's certainly the one I have played to completion and collected the most of. It is a series that is worth talking about at length, but all that is needed to be known for the purposes of today's post is that it is a series full of kick ass music, and one of the deservedly best-loved tracks is "Bloody Tears".

Bloody Tears has appeared in various mixes in multiple games in the Castlevania series, but made its debut in 1987 on the famicom disk system in Japan as part of the soundtrack for "Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest". As far as I have been able to ascertain it was composed by one Kenichi Matsubara. Japanese video game studios were unfortunately very reluctant to credit staff in those days. Whoever composed it, they deserve congratulations and recognition for composing such an adaptable tune that can be thrilling, haunting or both depending on the arrangement. The equipment used to compose and play music in video games may have gotten more sophisticated, but "Bloody Tears" is a song that has truly stood the test of time. Here's a piano rendition that has long been one of my favorite versions of the song.

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