When my band played this at competition, we had the marimba fall apart and clang to the floor at the perfect moment - exactly after the winds' eigth note falls at 1:46. It was epic.

I live for the day that a marching band does this on the field for competition.

Playing the marimba part on this in high school made my life just that much better.. All other band-aids understand what I am talking about ;)

I LOVE BRIAN BALMAGES!!! He was my clinician in SC's All State band. We premiered one of his new pieces, "Arabian Dances". It was epic.

I like how Brian makes almost every instrument in his songs have the melody in it

i played this freshman year and ever since nothing has matched how much fun we had with this song

Brian Balmage's most underrated song.

@joemoma184 though brass were important and center pieced here, woodwinds play an important role. Brass come off as the evil world conquering machines and the woodwinds are the human emotion. Panicking at first, morning loss, and then starting a new calvery to combat the machines. Some of the woodwinds also play the busy parts, giving the effect of machine parts rotating and working.

starting at 3:55 i picture a bunch of bastions all firing furiously at a bunch of reinhardts protecting foot soldiers and the start falling, then they retreat into a fallen city and start hiding. the bastions follow and they start killing the bastions 1 by 1 stealthily

Bass Trombone part for this was satisfying AF.

My Wind Ensemble got one its first Superiors in a long time and this is one of the songs we played, loved playing this on my trumpet. :)

God, the bell part is insane in this song. So fun to play!

You can't say you've truly played this song until you play the first trumpet part

My band just got this song today, and we have to play it for a concert in a week and a half. I LOVE the sound of this song, it's probably my favorite song out of everything I've ever played in band before.

Because of our Band's playing of this song at Nationals it is now one of the "required" pieces!!

excellent piece love the visuals i get in my head when i hear this music :)

I played this at my region's music festival a month ago. Bass clarinet. It was fun to play it, along with dodging the bassoonist's constant wiggling around and nearly hitting me in the head. This was definitely the crowd favorite. We also played On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss by David Holsinger, and Fate Of The Gods by Steven Reineke, both amazing pieces which I encourage all of you to look up.

I saw this live along with the premiere of Joshua Harris' new peice at Farthing Auditorium. This song inspired me and also made me cry haha. I will be attending Hayes School of music for preformace.. thats what I decided to do the second I heard this piece because I was going through a tough time with family telling me what to do with my life and I was just so frustrated.. then it all became apparent to me after this concert.

i heart this song so much!!!especially the timpani part!!!and the flute trills!!!yea!!makes me happy

this song sounds like it'd be awesome for a marching show!

The Rivera High School Band played this piece for their 2010 marching band show. I marched this piece in my senior year. A great year it was!

Raging Machines=Trombones

such an epic song, played this a year or so ago in band at school

This is truly incredible..

My high school band played this last year. My absolute favorite!!!

wow. this is the third song i've heard from this composer and i'm really amazed at what amazing music this stuff is! balmages definitely = much win. thanks for posting :)

brian balmages sure loves 6/8

Trombone is awesome. I am going to love playing that solo in our concert band!

Played this at the Western NC All-District 11/12 band. Soooo AMAZING!!!!!

Rehearsed this without any trombones, sounded like a totally different song

Conducting a combined band and this is one of our songs.

This song is AMAZING ! Played 1st trombone .

That high d tho #trumpets

playing this in HS. Amazing song. Basically the most fun thing I have ever played.

omg love this music my marching band (the Mustang Oklahoma Nightriders) is doing our show based off of this and i LOVE it!

this is brilliant...great job :))))

The Morris Knolls Marching band used this song in there 09' show. It was awsome.

We got this music at blue lake camp, but we didn't end up playing it for our concert... it is such a great piece :'(

My band played this for a concert! Its real fun to play and mysterious! Go flutes!

This song has balls. Absolutely amazing trombone part. I listened to this song over and over again while reading the climax of "The Cry of the Icemark". The music fit perfectly with the mood of the story. Where'd you get the recording?

yeah my marching band definately pulled this off. 3rd best concert band song ive played behind trittico and eternal father!!!

I really love this song, by the way, I've met Brian Balmages, I got his signature on a piece of music he commissioned for my band, and he conducted our band, in which, he helped us with the piece. The song is called "Whale Warriors", and is being published in summer, 2009. The song is on my profile, so check it out(:

Nice that sounds awesome!

Played 1st trumpet on this, and in case you can't hear it, it sounds awesome!!! Love this song.

Okay, if there are any percussionists watching this, and if you've played this piece before, I need your advice. I'm the lead percussionist in my school's senior ensemble, and we're going to perform this piece for the end of year concert. However, since we're only 3 percussionists, the conductor gives all 3 of us every single part for percussion, and we have to sort amongst ourselves who plays what. I would like your opinion on which percussion part is the best/most difficult. Thank you.

Did 3rd Trumpet (and the 2 note trio lol) - SO fun!!!!!

I love being a band geek...haven't played this song but it sounds epic :O go f horn :3

timpani part kills me everytime, it's crazy

Playing this as a first alto sax was a pure nightmare 0_0

The euphonium part was so easy but its fun to listen to when the whole band plays!

The friggen baritone part makes my face want to slap me every time we play this up to speed.

I play clarinet, too. We just sight read this today in my college symphonic band and it went ... interesting. This is a fun piece, though! Good luck with your performance :)

Yes BRASS SECTION!! I wonder what the Euphonium part is like

part of my marching band show!!

I think like in some movies with like showing planes or rockets, and like using them like in the movies, except in music form. But hey, that's a theory.

It's wonderful!! *_*

Ugh, I miss Raging Machines, probably the best song I have ever played.

im a percussionist and ive sightread this piece, my advice is to try to cover as much of the parts as you can, but you definitely need timpani, snare drum and marimba. Play as much of the other parts as you can, but don't miss and parts for these 3

this is so cool!

I love the trombones

This was the closer for my Maching Band Show

Ive played Moscow 1941 by Balmages, FREAKIN EPIC SONG! I play trumpet, and he has some kick ass trumpet parts

I'm literally switching to mellophone to play the slow part but I'm first chair French horn and my high school is playing this and now I heard it finally it makes me feel like I'm doing a superman movie soundtrack epic stuff

*mind blown*

this is the inspiration for my schools next marching band season....im not plaing this year cuz im doin color guard...but i kno we are getting 1st place...like erry year....not too brag lol :]

Imagine marching drill with this song...EPIC

also, it was incorporated in one of the movements of my school's marching band show last year lol

We played this song oh damn.

We're playing this for graduation and literally have until June 26th to learn this -__-

@metalheadrmania09 depends on your skill set. I played snare and really loved it--its a bit repetitive but has some cool licks. Xylo/marimba is difficult and fast, timpani is really great too--all the parts are a challenge.

We're playing this right now and I'm so tired of my timpani part.

Yeah the timpani part is fun. played it in band. it repeats a lot tho but i like the timpani solo.

the timpani part is so much fun and not too challenging either

man i cant believe that we are playing this at a competition. we are gonna need a lot of practice

It makes me thing of Space mountain in Disneyland.

We did this for our last concert of the year and I made an animation with Transformers (Old school cartoon and Newer Movies) for the fast part and Wall-e for the slow part. Pretty epic if I do say so myself.

Ok trumpets

@hp71196 that's funny because a few years back we had someone do that at our school. If I'm not mistaken, that person did get drum major for our marching band.

I love the keyboard parts

omg it does! i am just thinking about spiderman fighting green goblin

@randomjohn13 Its a high level high school piece, I just played it in my high schools wind ensemble.

Playin' this at the Kansas State tournament.

Can anyone else see this song being paired up with the machines from 9 and G.L.a.D.O.S.?

Small bands sometimes equal a unique sound from the group. I feel late but I wish your luck in you band endvours

our band is working on this song. It is totally epic

i COMPLETELY agree with you!

dude if you play trumpet ur awesome i play it to in my jr high band

Best to luck to you

@metalheadrmania09 Based on what I've been hearing in the percussion section of my band (I'm a trumpetist) the marimba part is a lot of fun and you play nearly begining to end with some funky changes to the key to contend with, Hard to chose a best though...

@joemoma184 yeah for real. like, if you ask a woodwind if they like this song they'll say, " heck no! it's so repetitive!" but if you ask a brass player they'll say, "hell yeah! it's so badass!!"

este tema es muy vacano!!!

this reminds me soooo much of the music in the movie "Signs", anyone else hear that? :P

wait,....ur playin this for junior high? YEAHHHH

im marching this at state tomorrow

My maching band is playing this song this year :) It probably won't sound or look as epic, though, considering we only have 27 or so students. But, tiny band or otherwise, we will try our best and go for gold at the competitions. :)

I'm playing percussion 2 for this tomorrow wish me luck

PS I had that marimba part at 0:42 so awesome :D

I'm from holliday, I will be in seventh grade this year, and I'll be in high school band :) Arabian Dances :)

This song makes me think of Treasure Island for some reason.

@bigjohnftw Are you able to play the whole 2 lines that consist of High 'A'-'D?' Because I can't. I can hit them individually but not for that long. Trumpet is the way to go (: Especially if you live in Minnesota