Doom has grown to have the reputation of the first truly gory video game and was known to stir up a commotion about being violent and influencing players to act violently, though long-term fans will tell you it’s more than just a violent game. As it has grown, the graphics, story and music have all evolved to be what they are today. In 2014, the musical development of Doom’s reboot game began. Mick Gordon was introduced to the 2016 soft reboot of the modern doom game through being told to play it while it was still in development while visiting the studio – though he had played previous doom games before. This was crucial, as the only other times he had access to the game was through gameplay videos.
Work began between 18-24 months before game release, though several demos were released with the intent of gaining feedback on both game and music development. In the beginning explorative stages, Mick was told that they ‘really didn’t want heavy metal in the game’ as they didn’t want it to feel cliché, though one of his main priorities was to respect the legacy of the game and put it on a high pedestal, so respecting what the original soundtrack and how ‘metal’ was emulated with midi was key. The plan was to stick to the overall theme of doom but not so much so that the music was fixated on one particular sound and stuck with it for most of the soundtrack. This was done successfully by referring to previous games’ midi music and taking parts of the main theme and other well-known songs and making it his own through changing the pitch and experimenting with analogue synths. From this point, a demo was sent out on the low-down for feedback and the feedback was mostly that it was good but didn’t feel like Doom. Mick and the team started introducing guitar into the mix, and from there it began to sound heavier and heavier, pushing the limits of what is ‘too much’. (NoClip. 2016)
There was a hierarchy that decided how themes for each piece were allocated. At the top was the overall theme of Doom, on the layer below there were three themes; mars, industrial and hell. Underneath that would be the specific scenarios in the game. Using this, music can be decided by, say, where boss battles happen what themes combine within that scene. Some general side themes that were explored were isolation and demons as a whole. A major perspective theme was that ‘you are the enemy of the demons in the game’ rather than the saviour of the survivors, so the music leans towards more of a chaos bringer and destroyer sound rather than a heroic sound while still maintaining a positive moral feeling to prevent guilt. Hence, the soundtrack is the motivator throughout the whole game. You should never feel afraid or vulnerable because of the strong, aggressive and powerful feeling the soundtrack evokes. The end results sounds like it was influenced greatly with this narrative. Other parts of songwriting were decided through watching gameplay videos, and using the hierarchy and decided themes, as from there there’s a theme. BPM and emotion are decided through watching gameplay. (NoClip. 2016)
When playing Doom, you are supposed to feel completely immersed. Mick looked back at the games that came out around the same time as the original Doom game in 1993, as well as the original itself, and decided the music being front and centre was what he wanted. This was because of the in-your-face feeling it created. If you listen to the original Doom soundtrack, you can comfortably picture action and danger right in front of your face, even with the old graphics. In comparison to the majority of recent big first-person shooter games, music is used to fill in an empty space and to entertain the brain as a background occurrence while the gameplay audio is focused on, even if the music is intense and signalling danger.
Doom’s Gate, the main theme, was reconstructed to be an example of how technology can be used effectively in metal music. This was done using various second hand and strange guitar pedals in experimentation with each other and different things, like using old cassette tapes and various synths with varying character and abilities. Mick favoured one particular synth. It was an old soviet synth that he claimed ‘operating it was kind of an adventure’, since he doesn’t speak Russian and the possibilities of what sounds can be created through it were a mystery, and loved it due to it being packed with character. One song that it can be heard clearly in is Hellwalker where the lead line in the second half of the piece is played on this synth. It was able to have a gritty techno kind of sound alongside various other sounds (Gordon, M. 2016b). It was Hellwalker that also used audio samples of a chainsaw merged with a guitar part to really emphasise the gritty and enraged theme and feeling that Mick stated he was going for. The aggression of a chainsaw and the noise is perfect for the sound of Doom. (Gordon, M. 2022)
Going back to Doom’s Gate, there are many changes from the original E1M1 theme, starting with the melody changing to a lower pitch. The main goal was to make it way bigger and way bolder and so much more immersive than the older games (Gordon, M. 2016a). Both versions were written in E phrygian, but the Doom 2016 version was brought down an octave. Throughout the soundtrack, Mick Gordon used the idea of pure energy from visual inspiration when shown the concept art and chose to experiment with it and distort it. He took noise and sine waves and distorted it in different ways, like pulsing rhythms of both through various analogue equipment to corrupt everything for a desired sound. It sounds like the opening of Doom’s Gate was created using this, as well as the parts alongside the main theme fading in and out in the opening section as a few examples. (Gordon, M. 2016)
Having modern technology at arm’s reach meant Mick was determined to use everything he could to really display how technology can make metal music and exactly how extensive everything can be in comparison to the original music, where there were minimal layers and there were no recordings of authentic instruments because the technology in 1992-1993 wasn’t capable of capturing such a wide range of sounds. Additionally, the technology that the game was released on, the MS-DOS, was limited in its capabilities to run games and audio. (NoClip 2016)
Something truly magical that Mick Gordon brought to the game’s sound was the incredibly varied and professional-composed metal choir, with the intention of enhancing the personal connection between the players and the game, as voice is a way to communicate on a more emotional level than instruments might because of all of the little tone indications and emotion that voice can include. The choir was a mix of an open application and invitation from people that the sound team knew would be capable of performing good metal vocals, and the group ended up being roughly twenty or so people with almost an equal split between female and male with a variety of different styles and voice types from people with vastly different backgrounds. The recording method was that there would be two microphones a large distance apart from each other, so that the group could spread out across the span of both microphones and be comfortable and heard well. Another way they recorded vocals was using an omnidirectional microphone with the whole group stood spaced out around the microphone. In both cases, it looked as though there were chants written on a board in front of the group and Mick was conducting them, giving them signal as to the rhythm of the chant and the timing in relation to the already existing track. The chants have connection to the story of the slayer’s origins. The end result of the metal choir was seen in Gladiator, Kar En Tuk and Cultist Base. (Playstation EU. 2020)
Some game music specific effects were used for immersion. In gameplay, there is such thing as a glory kill, which is when the player kills a demon with a special animation in accordance to the timing of the kill. During this, the music fades out and snaps back in once the animation is finished so that the game audio and the gory sounds of demons being ripped apart by hand or using various weapons has time to shine. This is really effective, it drags you into the moment of the glory kill and then resumes the murderous rampage. Throughout the whole game, there are a variety of different zones with different themes and boss battles are set in completely different areas and situations. The music was purposely made for this movement, everything that Mick Gordon composed is dynamic and fitting to the game and reflects situations appropriately to maintain the player’s emotion and interest. (NoClip. 2016)
References:
Playstation EU (2020) Doom eternal: Soundtrack behind the scenes: PS4 (2020) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/qlK9Hra53mU (Accessed: 29 January 2024).
Gordon, M. (2016a) Doom: Behind the music part 1, YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/ua-f0ypVbPA (Accessed: 29 January 2024).
Gordon, M. (2016b) Doom: Behind the music part 2, YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/1g-7-dFXOUU (Accessed: 29 January 2024).
NoClip (2016) Mick Gordon on composing doom’s soundtrack (2016) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/Bthei5ylvZ4 (Accessed: 29 January 2024).
(Gordon, M. 2022) The making of hellwalker’s riff (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/o0WygaYFn6M?si=USG5F0iaPdMI3OEK (Accessed: 28 January 2024).
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