The Icon of Sin is a 500ft tall (estimate) monster, that appears in DOOM II as well as DOOM Eternal as a creature that is sent to destroy Earth. In this game he is the final boss battle that you encounter in the game, the fight is between you and the Icon Of Sin, this is also the most intense fight in the video game. The encounter has a music theme that plays through the entirety of the encounter, this music is very heavy metal and terrifying matching the intense scale of the final boss battle. Without the music the boss battle would not be as fun as it is, this is because the music fuels the gameplay and encourages the player to make quick decisions in the heat of battle due to it’s fast riffs and intense drum beats
Composition analysis
The opening of the composition is very ambient and intimidating, the introduction to the song is made up of distorted synths, found sounds and vocals. The noise parameter is used in the synths distortion for the song, this creates a untamed and aggressive tone to the instrument. To build tension in the end of the introduction Mick Gordon used strings rising in pitch, the strings have a glide effect making the transition between the notes happen in one seamless flow. In the middle of the introduction we begin to hear short bursts of aggressive energy, they have a static and rough tone to them. These aggression spikes are made up of multiple distorted synths playing the same note as once, to create the rough texture they use effects such as noise, which creates a static effect in the music. These bursts of distorted synths play on the beat of the kick drum. After the short burst of sound we can hear a synth play 2 notes instantly afterwards, these have a glide effect to make the notes seem fluent and connected resembling the sound of a air raid siren.
After the rising strings in the introduction we move onto the next part of the compositions structure, which resembles a verse, or pre-chorus. This part of the song has a very strong rhythm which dominates the composition. The rhythm is made up of the same technique that was used for the bursts of aggression in the introduction to the song. But the bursts of sound are used every bar to conduct a strong and heavy rhythm. Found sounds are also casually used such as screams, sirens and chants. This is to communicate how terrifying and powerful the Icon Of Sin is. The composition builds up tension mostly through risers, these are effects that increase in pitch constantly which causes our ears to want to hear it stop rising. The rhythm doesn’t change in the music, but more elements of music get introduced or altered in some way, whether this be with effects or rhythmic variations. An example of this is the heavy metal choir, which get’s introduced after a synthetic riser at the half way point of the music.
A synth riser leads us into the outro of the composition, the final riser brings all music to a halt of silence. But from the silence the 2 synth note with the glide effect returns into the music, these notes replay on cycle 3 times. After these notes have been repeated 3 times the music fades into silence and ends. This composition has a BPM around 160, which is average for a DOOM composition. The structure of the song is: introduction, A-section, B-section and then it ends with an outro.
Gameplay And Audio Cues
In this finale of the game you must fight the Icon Of Sins on top of a skyscraper in the ruins of a huge city. Before you fight the Titan you must journey your way through a destroyed city on Earth, this city is infested with Demons and is completely wrecked. There is rubble of the destroyed buildings everywhere, there’s roofs and walls missing off of each building as well as untamed fires. As you journey through the level you can see The Icon Of Sin striding through the city destroying everything it walks by, you must follow it through the city in order to fight it face on. After following the Titan you will eventually meet him on a high skyscraper where the fight takes place. In this fight you must destroy all of his armour with your weapons while also avoiding his powerful attacks and other Demons that the game throws at you. Once you destroy his armour you must then attack the beast flesh on, after you do that you have completed the game and destroyed the Icon Of Sin.
Introduction
Before the boss fight begins there is nothing playing but a heavy distorted synth playing a single sustained note, this creates a very ambient a dark theme within the music as the Icon Of Sin is slowly revealed. The same 2 synth notes are cued to play in a loop until we enter the first cut scene for the boss fight by punching a breakable wall in game. During the first cut scene for the fight the game plays a medium tempo synth lead to introduce us to the boss. The synths in this small introductory piece of music are distorted to give off an unnatural and intimidating atmosphere. The synth lead is only made up of three notes and some disturbing sound effects such as screams and atmospheric wind sounds, before the synth plays there is a very subtle and short riser synth that is used to create tension before the fight.
Phase 1
The music in the cut scene and gameplay are very different from each other, but the music has to switch quickly and effectively. That is why for a short moment you can hear a palm muted guitar shred, this stops the music in it’s tracks and allows it to play in a new composition without sounding out of key or unnatural. The Music in the beginning of the phase 1 boss fight is ambient and intimidating, it creates this effect by using creepy and disturbing audio samples. These include sounds such as; breathing, hand dryers (similar sound), sirens and loud distorted bass synths. The music build tension using found sounds and synthesised riser effects. A riser effect is sound effect that constantly builds up in pitch, this creates tension because our ears want to hear the constant build up in pitch to end. Risers are used a lot in this soundtrack as a technique to build tension, In phase 1 of the boss fight it uses a riser to progress to the more intense part of the track.
After the first riser in the track finishes the music becomes more intense and aggressive. In the music you can hear a dominant distorted guitar shred that plays on beat in a very strong rhythm, this sound is very powerful and makes the track very intimidating. In the soundtrack of this Boss battle you can occasionally hear a percussive rhythmic pattern, such as the one at the 2 : 30 marking. In multiple cases at the end of this pattern we are introduced to a new instruments or sound effect. At the end of percussive rhythm at the 2 : 30 mark we can hear a female screaming, this rhythm is used as a way to naturally and smoothly introduce new instruments into the music without sounding rushed or unnatural. Risers are often used in this track to build tension and to transition smoothly through the different structures of music while introducing new elements. At the 1 : 53 we can hear this riser introduce us to the intimidating siren sample. This riser is placed in a significant location in the gameplay, this is where the Boss reaches the half way point of his health bar. This tells us the music moves with the gameplay constantly tracking the progression within the boss fight, the riser is used to build tension in the music when the gameplay begins to get more intense.
Phase 2
When Phase 1 of the Boss fight is complete the same music that played in the introduction of the boss fight will play again, acting as a cool down period between the 2 sections of the boss battle. This synth lead will repeat until the player enters the portal that leads to the second stage of the Boss battle. As soon as the player spawns into the second arena the synth lead ends with a long sustained note, from this sustained note a loud a powerful bass drum plays on every beat. After the bass drum begins to play a synthetic riser, similar to those of dub-step, begins to arise. The riser build up tension to the point where our ears want a beat drop, after the synth riser is released the song becomes heavier than it was previously. After the beat drop the heavy guitar comes back in to bring more aggression to the music. But shortly after another riser comes in, building even more tension. After this riser effect is released we can hear demonic grunts from the Heavy Metal Choir come into the music as well as scream sound effects and siren samples, this makes the music sounds more evil and aggressive than it ever did previously in the music. A short while later in the music a third dub-step riser comes in which introduces us to demonic chanting. This chanting is a language that was constructed by Mick Gordon designed specifically for this game.
Outro
When the Icon Of Sin’s health bar is depleted the music all ends on a sustained beat that leads to the music fading into silence. When the Icon Of Sin is being defeated the synth lead from the beginning of the boss battle plays once again, the instrumental has a triumphant tone to reflect on the victory over the Icon Of Sin. This instrumental repeats until the Icon Of Sin falls off of the tower after the crucible lade has been driven through the Titans brain. The music ends with a long a distorted synth note that fades out into silence, this note acts as a sweeper. From this silence emerges the Iconic E1M1 DOOM (1993) riff. This riff is played on a very low in pitched guitar, this acts as the games outro music. The music gets heavier when the camera begins to pan away from the DOOM Slayer, it does this by adding another guitar which plays thrashed chords, distorted synths and bass instruments. DOOM’s outro music plays until the end title sequence appears on screen.
Reading List
Jeffries, H., 2020. Icon Of Sin. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKWAR1h0A2k> [Accessed 16 March 2021].