EVER LAST by Hironobu Kageyama is a song that plays during the opening sequence of the NIS and HitMaker game Last Rebellion. The song starts out with a slow violin lick that would not be out of place in a movie like House of Flying Daggers, but once the drums and guitars kick in, the song takes on a driving cinematic quality. Toward the end, the song gave off a bit of a Wild Arms vibe to me, and for good reason: Junpei Fujita and Noriyasu Agematsu composed and arranged the music and their tunes were my favorites in the Wild Arms XF soundtrack. The other song, "Bonds of War," is the penultimate boss theme from the game and is the type of catchy pop rock piece I expect to hear in Japanese video games. Personally, I thought this song was much better than the final boss theme.

The off-vocal versions of the songs stand up well on its own, though the vocals definitely give them that extra dimension. Speaking of vocals, having heard so many songs like this with female vocals, it was a nice change to hear a solid male vocal. Although most players out there think Last Rebellion is a terrible game, these songs are pretty good, and easily some of the better music in the game.

Reviewed by: Neal Chandran