I have never heard anything like this Guilty Gear song before... (Let Me Carve Your Way) 

Thank you Sebastian Hanøy for the Patreon Request! www.patreon.com/drumrolltonyreacts

The one guy that's been asking for Zato theme forever is finally happy.

"Let Me Carve Your Way" is such a wild ride that it's easy to miss that it effectively bookends itself, it's just that the first time the jazzy bit shows up, it's muted and distorted. It's only at the end that you hear it clearly, as though the two halves of the song have finally come into sync.

“The guitars talk to each other it’s unsettling” BECSUSE ITS EDDY AND ZATO TALKING I never thought of it that way before and it’s so hype I got chills

Alone Infection❌ Armor Clad-Faith✅ Crawl❌ Drift✅ Extras❌ Find Your One Way❌ Hellfire❌ Just Lean❌ Let Me Carve Your Way✅ (Finally!) Like a Weed, Naturally, as a Matter of Course✅ Love the Subhuman Self❌ Mirror of the World✅ Necessary Discrepancy✅ Out of the Box❌ Perfection Can't Please Me❌ Play the Hero❌ Requiem❌ Rock Parade❌ Smell of the Game✅ Symphony✅ The Circle✅ The Disaster of Passion❌ The Gravity✅ The Hourglass❌ The Kiss of Death❌ The Roar of the Spark❌ The Town Inside Me❌ Trigger❌ What do you fight for✅

LET ME! LET ME! LET ME CARVE YOUR WAY! I'M A SHADOW ALWAYS WITH YOU~ 😭

Please don’t feel like you need to apologize for pausing to appreciate and analyze the themes, if it bothers people they can just skip ahead! Guilty Gear songs are always packed full of details about the characters and the story down to even the instrumentals, but not all of us are able to fully understand what’s going on, so it’s amazing to have someone as experienced as yourself break it down in a way we can digest!

Love your Guilty Gear videos to death, man. All your content is great, but I've listened to these tracks a thousand times with the full character context, and you're still showing me completely new details to love about them. Thank you for that.

this song always makes me tear up a little bit cause of the last part. the vocals and instruments sound so gutwrenchingly yearning kinda? idk how to word it

Fun little fact about Zato’s theme, the final section of the song will almost never play in a normal game match, it’s too long, even if you time out every stock (which is just under 5 minutes) it will just barely start the piano section. Knowing Daisuke’s style, that’s probably symbolism of Zato’s real thoughts never being able to come out

Finally haha, it was just a matter of time until you get to this point. (and yes! Stop apologizing for pausing to explain your thoughts and going back; it's what makes those videos more interesting!)

Please, stop a million and a thousand more times. That's what makes your analysis so good, you always find things I really can't find because I have no musical background. And that analysis makes me appreciate the music even more.

Man, please continue pausing all you want to analyze, that's what a lot of us come for. If I wanted to hear the song I'd just listen to it, because I absolutely appreciate your commentary, it helps me and a lot of other people understand songs beyond we could do on our own. Keep up the great work!

the sporadic riffs and stuffs at 0:40 paint a very cool visual image of life slowly flowing back into a corpse, making the muscles twitch, the drums, the heart slowly starting back up. (which considering zato's story is very fitting) Naoki really can tell stories by composition, its so insane

This theme is definitely a favorite! Ending kills me every time

Im glad you took your time with this song. Thanks to you I heard stuff I had never heard before, like the guitar in the background because i was distracted by the melodic/singing moments.

hearing the end for this song really makes me want to hear you review either "the name of heaven" or "freesia", the more tonal song from guilty gear

Guilty Gear music will never disappoint. I love this series.

I've been combing through your videos and I have come to EXPECT you to pause a bunch. Please continue to do so, I (and a lot of other people probably) learn so much just listening to you make noises and talk about sound design composition, etc. It like a seminar or lecture, very cool.

A SONG PARTLY WRITTEN IN A POLYRHYTHMIC TIME SIGNATURE

I don't know a whole lot about Guilty Gear lore, but I do know Zato does have this fight between dark and light inside him. And, I feel the major shifts between the metal sounds, and then the melodic, piano sections and voiclines represent the dark and light fighting within him for control. In the beginning, the melodic lines and piano, when they do appear, are buried under the heavy metal tones, showing how much the dark has control, and by the end the song has swung almost fully to the light side, with no more of that metal sound, and it becomes that really beautiful, melodic version again. It is absolutely a unique and different song, and I enjoy it quite a bit. Seems very fitting for the character too

Out of all the people i’ve seen cover guilty gear strive’s soundtrack, you have done a phenomenal job in comparison. I really appreciate your constant pauses to break down and analyze the music, you should not have to apologize for that. It really gives you legs to stand on instead of being someone who watches through it with little commentary besides at the end adding little beyond “i like it”. I’m gonna have to see what you have to say about some of the other songs because you really add to these.

You always manage to put proper knowledge and words to what I can only ever say "sounds amazing".

I’ve been waiting for this one. Great reaction as always!

I've played this game for a grand total of 10 hours so far, but I still consider myself a huge fan of this character and his theme. Something about Zato-1 just speaks to me. I love him.

The song is very in tune with what the character story is, more than usual. This guy was a pretty big villain, and he was an abuser towards Millia ( a character whose theme you haven't seen yet but echos this one a lot ). he died, and got resurrected. After these events, he has no memories ( Those sweet memories ), but feels unexplicably attracted towards Millia because she's the only person making him still feel any emotions. The first lyrics being muffled, and then redone at the end but very clear, show his progression in those events.

I loves this song since the release of the game mainly because it is builty magnificently: During the first minute of the song you get the two flavours of the piece, the vals and the death metal, BOTH AT THE SAME TIME AND WITH DIFFERENT TIME SIGNATURES. And it sound PERFECT. Ans as you progress through the song, you get to hear them again in a more developed way. Truly spectacular

The even craziest part to me is that every single detail in the songs compositions are always considering the character story and what they are going through, and I'm not talking just about lyrics.

Also dont ever be sorry for the longer videos, the longer the better!!!

if they wanted to just hear the song they can go listen we're here for ur opinion man

Alas, the best guilty gear theme

Absolute cinema

FINALLLY!!!!! Now we need Alone Infection (Faust Theme)

I'm rewatching this one several times just to bump up the analytics for longer stuff. Love the vids regardless of length but longer videos means more of your insight on the songs which is ultimately better than reactors going "oh that's sick!" without elaborating. You already mentioned how you pause a lot at the start of the vid so you don't really need to apologise for it. The fact that you do though is kinda endearing since you get so excited you feel like you gotta apologise just to geek out (don't gotta though)

Keep the Guilty Gear music coming, your reactions/first listen analysis videos are the best in both presentation and content on RU-vid! Love it when true music enthusiasts make reaction content

I'm here for all the pauses for analysis and commentary. It helps me appreciate and understand the music more.

Love your reactions. Helped me notice a lot more when I listen to other music. Thank you!

Extras, alone infection, requiem, subhuman...too many bangers in the ist not touched yet 😂

Your enthusiasm is infectious and your analysis insightful, keep up the good work!

This is basically unrelated to the video, but I thought I'd just point out that I really appreciate you pronouncing the name of the Japanese artists so well. Most people just say the names as if they were English words (which is totally fine, too, if you ask me), but you pronouncing them correctly really shows how respectful you are, and I appreciate that.

This is one of my favorites too, it’s a very complex and very different piece compared to anything I’ve heard before and by the end you’re feeling this emotional ballad that you wouldn’t see coming.

The muffled old-timey verse you heard at the beginning is your only foreshadowing for the end, it’s of course character related and a concept of romance made in song form - as it’s revisited in that last section but made clear and filled out! Really glad you enjoyed this one, I saw the video length and immediately knew you thought this one was cool!

And if you notice, the voice at the end is the same of the intro of the song, and sounds amazing. I think that the piece describes exactly how character is, with both personalities combined

Hey tony i would highly recommend reading the wiki for these characters before hearing the theme; the themes are heavily based on characters stories and emotions. Zato in particular, is possessed by a shadow beast who at first forcefully controls him (discordant opening) but by the end they are one and working together (the ending being in sync) and that is really scratching the surface

Because of this legendary track I got into GUILTY GEAR and the rest is HISTORY. Thank you Daisuke sama ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Let Me Carve Your Way, is definitely a chaotic song but it grew on me. I enjoyed how it changes so much, but this was after learning Zato's story, that I started to pick up the interesting sounds. It's a very challenging song to get use too. 😆 Keep up the work in breaking the songs down, I even pick up somethings that I missed from watch this. 😆

What always sold me on this song was the ending, it’s so nice. Another of my favorite tracks from this game are Alone Infection and Just Lean, both have permanent homes on my playlist

Yess!! thank you, i didnt expect this!!!

i feel like this song gets even better on the second listen, because the beginning becomes an obvious foreshadowing for the end part

I know this song is great, and I like it, but it was never one of my favorites. I think I now have a newfound appreciation for it, thanks to this video. Also, I love the amount of pausing, going back and explaining that you do. That's what makes your videos so great.

Hell yeah! I hope you react to Freesia at some point

I once had some sweet memories...

I'VE BEEN WAITNG FOR THIS AAAHHHH this made my day instantly better

Man I was so excited to see this one. Ever since you started doing Guilty Gear Strive themes this was the one I was waiting for, easily one of the more beloved because of that ending piece. I think context helps understand this lyrically and that kind of menacing vibe you picked up but it's not that beneficial vs. some other characters. Big fan of this review of guilty gear themes, not a ton left for strive which is kind of sad but there's a number of other vocal tracks somebody will hopefully kick in for. Love the Subhuman Self next!

Chills everytime with this one❤️

Finally! I have been waiting to see you listen to this, pauses included

"Complicated" is right. There are some Guilty Gear songs that vary more wildly, but I think Zato takes the cake for sheer complexity of stuff happening all at once.

The last minute of this song is pure heaven's material

LETS GOOOO HE GOT TO HEAR THIS

You've already reacted to "What do you fight for", but probably without realizing it's also one character themes, because what you watched wasn't the lyrics video by CloudDrop. I highly recommend checking that one out a second time, but with lyrics. They're pretty fire.

Fun fact about this song is that its one of the longest songs in the game. So much so that even if you play out the timer in all the rounds you won't hear it all

For context and without going in much depth, Eddie is kind of a parasyte living in Zato's body. When it comes to how the music represents the character, I feel like the instrumental has to represent Eddie with how violent and feral it is, and the lyrics must be Zato. It feels to me like this song tells us how their relationship evolved over the years and with that tonal ending indicating that they learned how to appreciate one another and to live with each other. I really wanted you to cover this theme, thank you!

Yes, "We're here to Listen to this shit foreal" 😂

Wow nice react to Zato`s song . Who are the next? **Love the Subhuman Self**, The Millia`s song? Millia have a relationship with Zato.

Definitely gotta do one of Aisha’s songs. Love the Subhuman self slaps.

Still waiting for the "Extras" reaction 😂

You say you talk a lot, personally it's what I'm here for!

great analysis

random request: an artist named potsu dropped a new album called "star-crossed" its really good and it'd be cool to see you react to the album

Man, this song slaps. Being polyrythmic it is quite interesting. Also fun fact. You can never hear the finale of the song in game, as the song is too long for the rounds.

IT FINALLY HAPPENED

Slayer's theme is coming right up lol

FINALLY!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAH IVE WAITED SO LONG!!!!!!!

Has he done the beast star op?

you should listen to A.B.A's theme

Bridget theme next!!!!

Another Guilty Gear Song: Love the Subhuman Self; please make a video about it

You have to react to Freesia from Guilty Gear Revelator. You have to do it

it finally happened, hellyea

sing my pleasure you should listen to this song is great from anime call Vivy Fluorit

This song is kind of tragic when you've got the character context. 😅 Still a jam though! 😁

Zato-ichi has a story that is just as nuts as his theme....

YESSSSSS my favorite 🎉🎉

please try Wozwald by Miyashita Yuu

I'd rather have someone take a moment to analyze the music and give their take than have someone that just sits on their ass and plays the music. If all I did was want to listen to the music on it's own I wouldn't want to see a reaction to it.

Who is gona tel this Guy to react on the 7deadly sins intro’s

Abas theme

As a pure listener this sounds half of the time like there are two different songs playing together and the vocalist is deaf, probably need to be a music nerd to appreciate this because, like you said, this is demanding a lot from the listener (and I dont have it).

I'm suprised that for once, you didn't comment on a massive part of this piece. That being the intitial 6/8 piano piece being muffled and almost drowned out and unrecognizable. And then as the song goes on, it gets a little clearer, then drowned out completely, only for it to suddenly dominate the entire track to end off. This being Zato-1's theme (a character ressurected from the dead with his only emotion left being the love he feels for 1 person), it feels very appropriate that his theme is essentially him singing about trying to drown out his sorrow, only to realise the thing he cares most for is still there somewhere deep within himself.

here we gooooooo. I wait for Elphet theme but Zato also my favourite

"Did anything suggest that we'd get the strong 6/8 feel at the end?" Interestingly enough, yes! If you go back to the beginning of the song you can actually hear the 6/8 piano line in the background along with the same lyrics as at the end. This is a nod to Zato still having a small shred of his humanity and emotions after what happens to him which is incredible.

something else to appreciate is that Zato's VA is also DIO from JJBA lol that guy's in everything

I know the analytics suggest that people don't watch your longer stuff, but I loved this being 20+ minutes long. Great stuff as always!

Hey DrumrollTony, I play Zato and your technical description of the song draws a lot of parallels with how he is played in game as we as his background story. Your videos allow me to appreciate the game in even more ways, thanks!

yes another guilty gear reaction. love it.

A short summary of who Zato is. Zato is the leader of a assassin's guild, using ancient magic, he summoned a living shadow named Eddie but he gives up his eyesight in the process. Eddie eventually takes over Zato's body and accidentally kills him. Zato is somehow revived, but he loses all of his emotions, but one. Love Zato us trying to remember what love feels like. By trying to protect his "lover" Millia Milla's theme is 'Love the subhuman self' Also at the very end of this song, you can hear the singer of millia's theme

That one guy who’s been asking is freaking our rn

The thing about strive songs in particular is that they are phenomenal pieces of music by themselves but get elevated even more when one is aware of the character's backstory and themes that they represent. I am sure someone will write out the background to who Zato (the guy this theme is for) is, but this theme perfectly encapsulates his tragic story using musical themes and clever writing. It's why guilty gear just has the best OST

Any Guilty Gear track is a welcome video - thanks for keeping em coming

The ballad at the end is the same lyrics as the out of place sounding lyrics that begin the song. They clash with the song in the beginning only to be overwhelmed but then come back front and center by the end. ArcSys recently had a concert at the finals of their tournament circuit and I so badly wish this was one of the songs they played, it would've blown the roof off the venue, especially the ballad at the end. There's a lot of songs that you could make an argument for being Daisukes and Naokis magnum opus, but of all of those I think this is the most appreciated one by most people and for good reason. Usually reactors listen to Love the Subhuman Self, and then get told to listen to this because Millia and Zatos stories are so closely connected to eachother, but in your case the opposite is happening lol. You should definently listen to Love the Subhuman Self either next or soon, it's incredible and also the only song you've listened to with Aisha on it so far is Necessary Discrepancy which she was only in the first 3rd of the song. Shes the lead singer of Love the Subhuman Self and it's probably her best work on the whole soundtrack. Zato was a member of the assasins guild, an organization created by a dandy vampire named Slayer with the intention of fighting for the people by toppling corrupt world leaders, but when Slayer left the guild Zato inherited leadership and the group took a darker more greedy turn. Zato was sadistic but very charismatic and a womanizer. He brought Millia into the guild and became her teacher and her lover, and they both invoked forbidden magic to obtain the power of forbidden beasts. In Zatos case he sacrificed his eyesight to wield the forbidden beast Eddie aka that shadow creature you saw. These forbidden beasts are like parasites and seem to be natual enemies to Gears, and Eddie is exceptionally ferocious even to Zato. Millia eventually escaped the guild and then later she killed Zato out of revenge for the abuse she suffered and the life he made her go down. Eddie controlled Zatos corpse for awhile but then was captured by a group called the conclave who experimented on them for their own goals, and ended up resurrecting Zato, except his emotions and personality are now shattered, and his memories feel only faintly there. That is until he encounters Millia again and the memories all came back. Now *he* follows *her* and helps her with her dreams and goals, hense "let me carve your way". His personality post-ressurection is so different than his old self that it honestly feels like it counts as a different person. To him it must feel like a normal person being dropped into the body of someone with immeasurable sin but also some sweet memories. Btw Slayer the dandy vampire is the next DLC character coming to Strive on May 30th and just from the trailer his theme titled "Ups and Downs" sounds fucking amazing definently check it out once it drops.