Guitar cover of Castlevania: Vampire Killer

Castlevania took up a very large chunk of my childhood. The Castlevania games and Megaman were among the hardest video games available at the time, and they were and still are among the best in the side-scrolling video game genre. JT’s recent post reminiscing about video game music has reminded me to re-explore my video game memories, especially as regards the soundtracks that, in a lot of cases, could make or break a game.

On my own recent posting of a guitar cover of Duck Tales’ Moon Theme, a commenter covered the single best Megaman track, Megaman 2: Dr Wily’s Stage 1, so I figured I should take this opportunity — you know, having lots of stuff to do and no time to do it in — to post a cover of a tune from Castlevania. And naturally, no song better or more universally represents Castlevania than Vampire Killer.

This SongeLeReveur character is absolutely phenomenal. His arrangement of Vampire Killer is by turns soulful and blisteringly kickass.

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Guitar cover of Castlevania: Vampire Killer
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5 thoughts on “Guitar cover of Castlevania: Vampire Killer

  1. 1

    Let me recommend my local favorite: The Neskimos! They do a great set of Castlevania interpretations in a couple different styles (including a great medley from Simon’s Quest, including the unforgettable day/night shift). They also have versions of a vast swath of the genre — Bionic Commando, Kirby, Mario, Zelda, Megaman, etc.

    Their whole catalog rocks. FOR THE KIDS!

  2. 2

    I was never a huge fan of the Konami compositions back in the day, but Vampire Killer was always a good tune, and that’s a great presentation of it. Konami’s music these days, of course is quite good considering a large part of their operation revolves around music (Dance Dance Revolution).

    That said, they don’t really make game music like they used to. It all changed with Final Fantasy VI of course.

  3. 5

    If you like awesome guitar music, and Castlevania music, you should try to find a copy of the album Perfect Selection: Dracula Battle by “Naoto Shibata Project”. The bass player from one of the most popular Japanese metal bands at the time (Naoto Shibata of Anthem) got together with a bunch of his musician friends and Konami’s blessing, and just cut loose. They cover “Vampire Killer”, among others, although their version is much more hard rock than this; their cover of “Bloody Tears” is smoking. (If you’re going to search, you may need the Japanese names. The album is “パーフェクトセレクション:ドラキュラ・バトル”, and the artist name is “柴田直人プロジェクト”.)

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