In-Game music - do you like it??

[Reclusegamer]

My only hot take on the music is how it is APPLIED in some areas. I enjoy a lot of the music in this game, and as a fan of the main series I was not disappointed at all, but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off". Like they sound like songs that don't belong in that kind of atmosphere, like Fiend, Scream, and Close in the Distance, for example. I remember Ravana's song sounding extremely weird too.

I'll take the benefit of the doubt if the lyrics from songs like those actually say something about the lore of the fights but I'd have to google them outside of combat and I am just too lazy to care about it.

[Cleretic]

My only hot take on the music is how it is APPLIED in some areas. I enjoy a lot of the music in this game, and as a fan of the main series I was not disappointed at all, but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off". Like they sound like songs that don't belong in that kind of atmosphere, like Fiend, Scream, and Close in the Distance, for example. I remember Ravana's song sounding extremely weird too.

You've jostled some trivia knowledge out of my brain: Ravana's current theme was actually the second idea for Ravana's theme; the first one was moved off of Ravana and became Locus. We don't really know how much of what we know as Locus came into being after Ravana aside from... well, obviously the lyrics changed.

But ass for all those, I might be able to help you trace why exactly they fit the story of the parts of the game they're in. I don't really know what exactly your sticking point is for each of them, but it might resolve things for you.

Fiend: Sephirot was specifically envisioned and summoned in rage by his summoners; there wasn't really a 'Sephirot' before the tree-people that summoned him were forced to come up with something to defend against the Meracydians. That's likely why his song's so punchy and angry: he's always angry. The lyrics are mostly an ass-kicking anthem combined with scorn at a female-identified goddess of some kind; common theory is Hydaelyn, but I personally like the idea that it might be Sophia and we're getting a glimpse into a conflict that was over long before we turned up.
Scream: Fair warning that with Pandaemonium's story unfinished and the lyrics so far unpublished we don't have a full grasp on it. Musically it borrows a lot of progressions from Hic Svnt Leones to give nod to the fact it's different angles on the same organization/events, though, it borrows a lot of female-vocals 'goth/emo metal' stylings to better suit the bosses it plays for. It also shares a lot of Leones' lyrical elements of 'might be about vampires, or about wild animals eating prey'; it's definitely painting Pandaemonium as a godless, cruel and terrifying place. It's also vaguely plausible its lyrics might be more from Athena's perspective, but again, incomplete story.
Close in the Distance: The song's basically saying 'we've gone a lot of places, things look dark, but there will be a tomorrow we'll live to see'. I think it's very deliberate that so much of the lyrics can apply to the WoL, to Meteion, and potentially even to the dragons and Omicrons. It's very serene and peaceful, no real anger to it; I think that combined with the lyrics referring to a 'you' without any clear distinction is where people get that 'Christian rock' flavor. It definitely suits the part of the game where it starts playing... perhaps not so much the fact it keeps playing in Ultima Thule afterwards.
The Hand that Gives the Rose/Unbending Steel (Ravana's themes): So we've got a combo of a waltz and something plausibly close to Mongolian throat-singing here (it's not at all, but I can see where people get it). The lyrics are very much an ass-kicking theme, but there's some extra in that in the Extreme, the lyrics actually sync up to moves that share their name; mostly just a bonus, but it really underlines that Ravana is practiced, that he's leading a dance, and that he really wants to kill us.

[Carin-Eri]

My only hot take on the music is how it is APPLIED in some areas. I enjoy a lot of the music in this game, and as a fan of the main series I was not disappointed at all, but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off". Like they sound like songs that don't belong in that kind of atmosphere, like Fiend, Scream, and Close in the Distance, for example. I remember Ravana's song sounding extremely weird too.

I'll take the benefit of the doubt if the lyrics from songs like those actually say something about the lore of the fights but I'd have to google them outside of combat and I am just too lazy to care about it.

In terms of 'Close in the Distance' I'd have to firstly say that your comment - "but some of the songs in a majority of the trials and even some normal raids just feel..."off" doesn't apply to 'Close in the Distance' as it wasn't used in that context. It plays in the background at Ultima Thule and during the 'Final Walk' but I don't recall it being used during any form of combat.

And the song in itself is usually interpreted as being about overcoming, and having reasons to look beyond, the very thing that we were fighting against in Ultima Thule - Despair.