Here's my submission to the RPG Elements Compo.

Lyrics:

They seized our land and stole our dreams

and hope was dead or so it seemed.

Then from a desperate heart and soul we swore no more.

Through pain and tears we scraped and clawed

and with the strength and grace of God

we walk the path that blood has bought for us - we must....

Carry on for the sake of our children.

We must stand strong, crushing evil.

Oh Petra! You are rock and fortress.

Now we are free and free indeed!

My nation is one born out of rebellion from a tyrannical goverment. The people there had to fight to start their country over again. It celebrates this and also looks to the future with a strong resolve to stay true to all they are and keep their country truly free.

Not the typical vocal performance for a National Anthem, I know. I recorded the vocals while I had a pretty severe cold. My eqipment setup is fairly minimal and I have had little experience in mixing and recording vocals...so considering these two factors, I'm glad it turned out as well as it did. I learned a few things in the process.

I stumbled upon this and I just had to download it.  It's short, sweet, and to the point like any national anthem, but it isn't cheesy or overly simplistic...it more resembles soundtrack styles.  Great job!  And props for singing it with the head cold!

Thank you very much for listening. I'm grateful for your comments.

I'll start by saying that I liked the instrumentation plenty, and the production wasn't bad, either. However, the singing seemed too poppy for me, like in a Beyonce singing the Star-Spangled Banner kind of way, and I didn't like that much. The other things that detracted from it for me were the lyrics being pretty cheesy (although props for having lyrics in the first place) and that the ending wasn't very conclusive or cadencial.

This song went over any expectation that I had for an entry in this compo.

Right from the get-go you have two very engaging elements: first, a simple, yet powerful, melody, and second, singing and lyrics.  We know exactly what kind of nation you're establishing from the melody and instrumentation.  Now, this anthem doesn't sound traditional to me, but as it's supposed to be for a video game, I can see how this would fit in a fictional realm.

I don't care how good or bad you sound; a point of a national anthem is that everyone in the nation can sing it and be proud, right?  So, as even the most common citizen would sing the anthem, your decision to sing really brings out the right feeling (and, by the way, the singing is convincing; I wouldn't doubt you loved Petra).  I also don't care how bad the lyrics are, particularly because we aren't all called to be songwriters.  Not to mention, I have been replaying Final Fantasy VII recently and readily remember some Shinra anthem music with text that seemed like it couldn't possibly fit over the music scrolling across the screen.  The cheesier the better, really.

Oh, yes, and though I'm not a stickler for resolution, you've got to get it done at the end.  Too much is hanging there, I think--especially for a national anthem.

It was very easy to be excited about this entry, and I found myself hitting my head against the wall because I couldn't stop wanting to sing "O, Petra, you are rock and fortress now" at work.  Excellent job.