Jam of the Day: Rockman X Opening Stage by ROCK-MEN (We are ROCK-MEN!)

You can’t swing a bat without hitting a thousand remixes from the original Mega Man series. Strangely enough, that isn’t the case with the offshoots. That’s a real shame since (for the most part) they have music that’s often just as good and occasionally better.

The first Mega Man X in particular is one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. It’s pretty rare that it gets any love in the remix scene, and when it does it’s almost exclusively Storm Eagle.

Fortunately, the ROCK-MEN gave Mega Man X the proper treatment with a couple tracks on their recently released We are ROCK-MEN album. Their take on the game’s opening stage is exactly what I wanted to hear. It takes the high energy of the source and adds some original flair without abandoning what made the song great in the first place. The entire album is great, so much so that I’d argue it might just be the best Mega Man album out there (and there are lot).

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Original Composition: Setsuo Yamamoto
Guitar & Arrangement: Masahiro Aoki
Bass: Yasumasa Kitagawa
Drums: Mitsuhiro Takano (Hokkyoku Men/ホッキョクメン)

The following may or may not apply to this track:
Keyboard: Azusa Kato (Guest Musician)
Guitar: Reo Uratani (Guest Musician)

Jam of the Day: Armored Armadillo Stage by Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takehara, Toshihiko Horiyama and/or Setsuo Yamamoto (Mega Man X Soundtrack)

When people think of Mega Man soundtracks, their first thought is commonly Mega Man 2. Don’t get me wrong, the Mega Man 2 soundtrack is great. But when it comes to Mega Man soundtracks, none of them rock my face off as much as the first Mega Man X.

Armored Armadillo is a high energy track. Like many of the songs in the early X games, it has a guitar solo that, while limited by the SNES hardware, still has face melting powers.