Coalescence and Segmentation

Dance with me

[courtemanche]

Everyone else: "Soulless"
Me, an intellectual: "Amalgamation 2"

[ExileLord]

This will probably be the final audio but I might do some tiny tweaks with the volume as it's a pretty loud song (some places are probably clipping). I intended to release the chart for this before Christmas but charting 4 instruments on 4 difficulties for a 20 minute song was more than I was capable of. If you know anyone that would be interested in helping please let me know in the comments. The charting of Soulless 5 was largely a community effort so I am hoping I can find some of that magic here too. Thanks!

Also, these are two songs with a fairly obvious break in the middle. They are intended to be played together for the first time but I will be releasing charts for just Coalescence and Segmentation as well.

[darkerbit]

Notice how Beethoven hasn't released anything after this

[xilefm-]

TIMESTAMPS:
<[Coalescence:
[0:00] A Whisper Never Made
[0:26] Once Upon a Time
[1:12] Needle and Thread
[1:34] Hope
[1:56] Promise
[2:20] Dark Places A
[2:46] Dark Places B
[3:14] Conspiracy A
[3:30] Conspiracy B
[4:00] Reflection
[4:39] Carrion
[5:17] Ultimatum A
[5:30] Ultimatum B
[5:43] Longing A
[6:09] Longing B
[6:35] Brimstone A
[6:59] Brimstone B
[7:25] Dreams
[7:50] Legends
[8:39] Riders of the Hopeless
[9:23] A Familiar Foe
<[Segmentation:
[10:28] A Familiar Face
[11:17] Call of the Unforgiven
[11:50] Legends Forgotten
[12:35] Dreams Unmade
[12:58] Hellfire A
[13:22] Hellfire B
[13:46] Cherished A
[14:10] Cherished B
[14:34] Regret A
[14:46] Regret B
[14:58] Unwelcome
[15:34] Resignation
[16:10] Vengeance A
[16:34] Vengeance B
[16:46] Dark Rituals A
[17:10] Dark Rituals B
[17:34] Conviction
[17:58] The Greater Good
[18:20] Weaver
[18:43] Writing in Reverse
[19:28] A Cry Outside of Time



(might not be the best timestamp wise; just put them in by ear.)

[eelfucker]

Anyone notice how exilelord’s pfp becomes steadily more obscure and cursed with every passing year?

[calypso.]

Nothing better than Exile's music in the morning

[Alex-czte]

When the world needed him most, he returned

[jeanmouloude]

in 70 years when soulless 8 comes out it will be 5 hours long

[francosierra]

Even though Soulless 5 was a major step up production wise, this tops it, can't wait for the charts and can't thank you enough for the full difficulty.

[Martok]

Everyone: 2020 has been such a boring year, I hope someone can make it a bit better.
Exilelord: fine, I'll do it myself

[CoingamerFL]

He protecc
He attacc
But most importantly
H E ' S B A C C

[TheTrueEcho]

Soulless 3 was the proof of concept. Soulless 4 was the working prototype. Soulless 5 was the official release.

This?

This is the culmination of decades of hard work, and is technically a side project.

Everything learned here will go into the next one, like an ever evolving neural network slowly clawing its way into the same status as flesh.

Keep on Upgrading.

[Gaswan]

Exile: *Upload his new Music*
Comment: "Whomst has summoned the almighty one"

[justinder]

I can hear some soulless references in here

[Stoopis]

this sounds like the physical embodiment of chaos and mischief.

[litessbu]

I feel obligated to leave a comment letting the world know that this is far and away my favorite song. I’m so glad this exists because previously I had know idea what it was because I knew so many good ones, but this is just too good. I have very strict rules for what I consider to be a masterpiece in music, but this meets all the criteria by a mile. Most of these rules have to do with the song showing beauty, and keeping the piece of art pure.

1. Emotion: The song must invoke emotion and make the listener feel something and imagine something while listening. Extra points if that feeling isn’t something you can describe using conventional language, because then the song is speaking to your soul rather than your mind.
2. The song must demonstrate the following: Passion for making music and the song, a high level of talent, and a high level of skill.
3. Length: The song must not overstay it’s welcome, and it must not be too short so that the concepts that the song plays with don’t get fully explored, or that the song feels incomplete. Also none of the sections in the song can feel too long or too short. Having a sense of progression as the song gets closer to the end helps immensely with this.
4. The song must be pleasing to listen to, with very little to no imperfections or sections that do not meet the quality standard that the rest of the sections set.
5. Achievement: The song must achieve whatever goal the artist had in making it, though that goal cannot be one of the following: To make money, because the artist was bored, to be funny, to make the listener feel good and want to dance, to send a political message.
6. Not AI: The song must show creativity and originality. Masterpieces often leave an impact on the listener, and if the song doesn’t feel special, then it isn’t a masterpiece.
7. Storytelling: If the song has lyrics, then those lyrics must have depth and meaning. The songwriter can’t just make the singer spout out random nonsense; there needs to be a coherent story being told in the lyrics or at least they must considerably contribute to the vibe of the song. If the song does not have lyrics, then it should still be possible to imagine a scene that follows a story being told in the song, or create a vivid image in the listener’s mind. Art is expression, and a masterpiece is the pinnacle of art.
8. Timelessness: The song must withstand the test of time, and leave an impact over generations if it is popular. If the song isn’t popular, than it should be remembered in the minds of those who have listened to it for a long time. It also must have depth, and even if you listen to the song for hundreds of times, it must still be just as good as if not better than the first time the person listened to it.
9. Cohesion: The song must have a sense of direction, and it can’t feel like the artist is at a loss for what to do in the song. This applies to a lot of bridges in pop songs, where they just do the melody again but softer. That’s having a bridge for the sake of having a bridge, and then not knowing what to do with it.
10. Clutter: The song cannot be over cluttered. You should (you don’t always 100% of the time have to though, but as a general rule yes) be able to hear the melody, if there is one. Drums or white noise are not substitutes for melodies. You can lead into things with drum fills, and you can cut to white noise, and you can very occasionally make a melody out of drums, but regular drums are not substitutes for real melodies.
11. Completion: The song can’t make the listener feel like it’s lacking anything. This largely relates to finishing melodies and sections. I
Little snowflake: The song has to feel special and unique. Songs that are very similar to other songs the artist has to offer are much less likely to be considered masterpieces.
12. Songs are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and a song that meets all this criteria is not necessarily a masterpiece. This rule is to ensure that becoming a masterpiece isn’t just a checklist of requirements that you have to meet. There are also a very very select few songs that are masterpieces that don’t meet 100% of the criteria on this list. Revolution 9 in my opinion is a masterpiece but it’s not very pleasing to listen to. That’s by design. Same with Everywhere at the End of Time and the Speak to Me section of The Dark Side of the Moon. They are exempt from the clutter, completion, and pleasing to listen to rules.

Other songs I consider to be masterpieces: In the End (Linkin Park), Da’at: Ueno (ATLUS Sound Team), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen), Don’t Stop Believing (Journey), Revolution 9 (The Beetles), Sweet Child O’ Mine (Guns N’ Roses), One-Winged Angel(Nobuo Uematsu) My Ordianary Life (The Living Tombstone), all six albums of Everywhere at the End of Time (Leland Kirby), The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd, yes I consider the entire album as one song), and Viva la Vida (Coldplay). Songs that are on the edge: Boulevard of Broken Dreams(Green Day), Free Bird(Lynyrd Skynyrd), Daredevil(Lyn, ATLUS Sound Team), One More Light(Likin Park), Malediction(Shadow of Intent), God Shattering Star(Fire Emblem Three Houses). This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s just to give some context as to the level of quality that a masterpiece(in my opinion), needs to have. The strongest of these examples that represent what a masterpiece is supposed to be is Bohemian Rhapsody. Thousands of people all across the world strive to make a beauty as impactful as Bohemian Rhapsody.

Not every artist will release a masterpiece in their lifetime. In fact, almost every artist out there won’t. A masterpiece in a sea of random songs should stand out as much and be just as rare as finding matter in a random location in space. I think that this list ensures this.

Just as a note, not all songs that are really really really good are masterpieces. I Want It That Way is an example of this. It’s really good, but it doesn’t in my opinion(notice how I keep repeating the phrase “In my opinion”) represent beauty in a song. Other songs that are in the same vain of this, with reasons(reasons given are not the only ones, but just one example that disqualifies them) are: Fallen Symphony by Lucidin(length), Everlasting Eternity by Lucidin (Length, clutter), AO Infinity by Seiryu (Emotion and Consistent Quality), Papercut by Likin Park (Emotion), every Soulless song by Exilelord (Consistent quality, emotion, storytelling), Amalgamation by Exilelord (Consistent quality, emotion, and storytelling), Epidox by Exilelord (Storytelling and emotion, plus some sections are way better than others), Supernovae by Archwk [Consistent quality(the sections with note spam are way worse than the sections without)], Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses (Length), Ov Sacrament and Sincest by Infant Annihilator(Emotion, storytelling, timelessness, originality, passion for making the song), Beneath The Mask by ATLUS Sound Team and Lyn [Timelessness (if you listen to the song long enough, you’ll like it less in my opinion), storytelling and emotion], Battle - Abdiel by Atlus Sound Team (Timelessness, Length), and many, many, many, many others. Keep in mind that art is subjective, and so my opinion may very well and probably won’t line up with yours.

[Landjrin]

This popped up in my auto play at 3AM and the background image no cap scared the shit out of me.

Thought my auto play sent me to some weird back alley youtube shit lmao

[jacobkohl]

Hey man, I've been listening to this track pretty frequently over the last few months and I just wanted to say thanks for making such amazing music. I remember first discovering your music when acai was grinding soulless 4 on stream. I decided to go back and listen to some earlier soulless songs and I was blown away by the fact you were making tracks with similar melodies and riffs ever though they were totally different songs. Then once you released soulless 5 my brain truly melted. Your music led me down a rabbit hole of looking for a similar style of music and led me to finding the genre of progressive metal. And now you've released coalescence and segmentation and it just brings everything full circle for me. Sorry for rambling but I just wanted to say thank you for showing me a new genre of music I had no clue even existed <3

[CmoiFlo]

I just wanted to visit the channel back to listen to the soulless series again and I come across this gem, I don't regret my visit.

[sunnaki]

Hot Christ this is probably the most drastic evolution in your sound so far from my own listener's perspective. I love it as a standalone work itself but the little motifs and callbacks sprinkled along the way are such a fun icing on the cake for those that have been around a little while. Thanks for sharing a bit more of the madness with us, Exile. Incredible stuff.