The best video game soundtrack ever?
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When Brütal Legend, the upcoming video game with a metal soundtrack, was announced, I didn’t think much of it. I’m not a gamer, and the intersection of metal and video games (e.g., Guitar Hero and Rock Band) has not interested me. I’d rather play an actual guitar. But when I took a second look at the soundtrack, my eyes popped. Candlemass in a video game??? Coroner in a video game??? Ostrogoth in a video game??? Freakin’ Slough Feg in a video game???
Sanctuary – Battle Angels
Cloven Hoof – Nightstalker
Aside from the herculean task of licensing 108 songs, I’m impressed by the selection. Someone knows their metal (and has a soft spot for symphonic black metal). Behold these unburied treasures:
BROCAS HELM – Cry of the Banshee
BROCAS HELM – Drink the Blood of the Priest
CLOVEN HOOF – Nightstalker
CORONER – Skeleton on Your Shoulder
OMEN – The Axeman
OSTROGOTH – Queen of Desire
SANCTUARY – Battle Angels
SLOUGH FEG – Warriors Dawn
“Battle Angels”?!?! I love that song. Warrel Dane gets his Halford on and kicks major butt. Other choices are also striking. Overkill’s song is not from their classic early albums or even Horrorscope, but 1993’s did-anyone-care-by-then I Hear Black. What is Static-X doing in there? And why is there hair metal (Firehouse, Ratt, Whitesnake) when the producers had the juice and taste to get real metal?
You can see the soundtrack song list and game trailer here. But as Lars Ulrich would say, “That’s so stock.” It’s much more fun to view the song list in the video above. In it, the development company’s president, Tim Schafer, tries to solve a Rubik’s Cube before the game’s music director, Emily Ridgeway finishes reading the song list aloud. There’s something compelling about a pretty lady with an Australian accent reading metal song titles out loud.
