“The demons are scared of you. They’re running away from you.”

November 19, 2016 11:01 PM

Doom Composer Mick Gordon: A Chat About Dissonance, Making Music Responsive, and How Doom 2016 Ended Up Getting a Metal Soundtrack. [PC Gamer] “Back when Bethesda and id Software were making announcements about the recently rebooted Doom [wiki], one of the hints that it might end up decent was confirmation that Mick Gordon was onboard to compose the soundtrack [YouTube]. His work on Wolfenstein: The New Order and Killer Instinct is cherished among those games’ playerbases, and the intensity of both owe a lot to his anarchic (but still impressively subtle, when it needs to be) approach to getting visuals and music swinging to the same beat. Based in Australia, Gordon’s been around for a while. He’s worked on two Need For Speed games, as well as Shift 2 Unleashed and ShootMania Storm, to name a few examples. Currently he’s working with Arkane Studios on its Prey reboot, which—as he relates below—will mark a departure from his recent, foot-to-the-floor audio rampages.” [Previously.]
posted by Fizz (8 comments total)

Doom... is good.
posted by Sebmojo at 11:30 PM on November 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

And the music too.
posted by Fizz at 11:46 PM on November 19, 2016

Doom is fun. So is the soundtrack. Here's what you shouldn't do, though: listen to it while running.
(Oh I was fast. But I must have looked like a complete maniac to everyone passing me.)
posted by bigendian at 2:17 AM on November 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Here's what you shouldn't do, though: listen to it while running.
(Oh I was fast. But I must have looked like a complete maniac to everyone passing me.)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has run to this OST and also thought that I must look insane. Though, to be fair, I have paused mid-run to engage in some air guitars from time to time.
posted by Fizz at 5:41 AM on November 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I kept seeing DOOM OST on the Google Play charts and had some credit, so bought. Doom 2K16 is one I'll return to soonish. It may be a beautifully hellish macabre metalocalypse, but it's also a goofy, wise and rocking one.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 9:16 AM on November 20, 2016

I'm actually listening to it right now. It is SO good. And it's kind of a shame that Bethesda took so long to actually release the music. A lot of the discussion I read about the game, which is also SO good, was asking why they didn't have the OST ready to go from day one.

And while it may not be great for running it is absolutely perfect for drowning out my roommate's banjo music.
posted by Neronomius at 9:49 AM on November 20, 2016

Listening to this at work today...such coincidence! Still haven't played the actual game but it's like twenty bucks for Xbox One so it's hardly going to hurt to pick it up even if it sucks (which I get the impression it doesn't). Didn't much like Shadow Warrior, however, and I see them compared a lot, but I have faith.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:25 PM on November 20, 2016

I loved the new Doom.

With work and family I don't have masses of time to play games. It's frustrating when you return to a level on Lara Croft after a couple of weeks to find you have no idea what you're doing, where you're going and what the hundreds of controls are. With Doom it's always "run around and shoot the demons, using these 4 buttons".

I don't usually listen to heavy metal, but the music in Doom was great. I don't know if it was cheesy or camp, but I did find myself laughing at the choirs overlaying massive guitars and drum beats. The synths in Vega's core were an amazing match to the visuals.

I'm a bit of a wimp so the first few levels of Doom were faintly terrifying, and the music was a big a big part of that. You can't even pause the game to relax, since the menu has equally sinister music.
posted by milkb0at at 12:59 AM on November 21, 2016