You may have heard of the PS4 game Omen of Sorrows in your travels, either due to artist GENZOMAN’s character and cover artwork for the game or through curiosity. The horror-themed 2D fighting game akin to Darkstalkers, the AOne Games release features a darker tone as well as an interesting soundtrack courtesy of Chilean composer Francisco Cerda.
The Omen of Sorrows Original Soundtrackfeatures 16 tracks arranged by Cerda, along with a bonus track featuring a main theme written by Chilean thrash metal band “Straight Terror”.
An ambitious 16 track album, which combines the intensity of bitcrushed guitars and synthetizers along with the dramatic sounds of traditional orchestral strings. A musical journey that ranges from visceral experimentation to iconic industrial metal riffs.
Each fighter receives their own level theme, as is usual for fighting games, with the aforementioned industrial tones being featured heavily, though live guitars, strings and even french horn (performed by composer John Robert Matz ) are also highlighted throughout the soundtrack. This gives the music a heavier intonation, more like recent Killer Instinct games that older Darkstalkers, and helps set itself apart.
Released with help from Materia Collective, the Omen of Sorrows Original Soundtrack is currently available on Bandcamp and iTunes/Apple Music.
Last year, I did a artist spotlight on new VGM band Moiré Effect, highlighting the group’s foray into the VGM community. This year, Scott Wells & Drew Etterle from the band will see their first game soundtrack composition release for the new indie platformer, Chrono Ghost.
Chrono Ghost is a soon-released game from NITETIME Studios, featuring the titular character the player takes control of. As the “spirit of time”, you must make yours way through various levels using your chronomancer abilities to determine just what it means to have such a title. The game looks very artistic, with the music combining orchestral and synth elements to highlight the time-manipulating action players will experience. Wells and Etterle have created more rock-oriented compositions for their work on Moiré Effect, so switching up to suit an entire game with a certain tone can prove challenging.
“I met Kelly from NITETIME Studios when they were demo-ing Chrono Ghost at MAGFest 2017. They said they were still looking for music. Scott got a chance to meet them again at this past MAGFest and they were still looking and interested if we’d be a good fit. We came up with a few demo tracks and turns out they dug it.” – Drew Etterle, composer
The music features much in the way of piano and synthetic tones to accentuate the atmosphere of the game, with slow and sometimes somber build-ups that open up to rhythmic whimsy. It comes together to create a simple ambiance that doesn’t try to overplay its hand. It takes flavors of what Yasunori Mitsuda did with Chrono Trigger and shapes it into something with almost a spiritual tone to it.
The Chrono Ghost Original Soundtrack consists of 21 tracks, seven of which are currently available for preview on Bandcamp, with the album in pre-order mode until it’s release on December 21st alongside the game. Chrono Ghost will release for both Steam immediately and consoles early 2019.
It’s always a wonderful thing to see artists that made their debut in the video game music community with collaborations and fun album projects graduate to composing full game music soundtracks. Mark Benis, who in the past has collaborated on several fan projects including Materia Collective’s Pokémon Piano Collections and FATE: A Tribute to Majora’s Mask has now seen his first original game soundtrack released in the film noir-inspired video game, Lamplight City.
Lamplight City is a steampunk-ish detective adventure from the creator of A Golden Wake and Shardlight, putting you in control of private investigator Miles Fordham to find justice for his clients and track down his partner’s killer before his entire world comes apart. The music created by Benis is highly immersive, employing little details such as a high piano note for that flickering street light, tremelo and pizzicato strings for the dark alleyways, or an unsettling harp for the unbreakable bond between detectives Miles Fordham and Bill Leger.
“In a cathedral you visit in the game, you encounter the church’s choir director named ‘Singin’ Tom’ who is playing through a piece at the organ. The only problem is he hasn’t been practicing it, a chorale arrangement of ‘Down Among the Dead Men.’ Frankly he’s terrible at it. As the composer I had to figure out a way to create a believably horrible performance so I did it the only way I know how: I played the chorale myself. I stayed up until 2am, took off my glasses, and sight-read it hunched over my MIDI keyboard months after I had first written it. It’s the worst performance that I’ve ever given, but in context maybe it’s my best? On the album you hear the piece after Singin’ Tom practices quite a bit, but in the game… get your ears ready.” – Mark Benis, Composer
The 41-track soundtrack for Lamplight City is currently available on multiple platforms including Bandcamp, iTunes and Spotify.
There’s only a handful of games that I have gone out of my way to purchase while they’re still in earl access on Steam. One of them was Crypt of the Necrodancer, which played to my tastes in both cute macabre games and games with good soundtracks. While I originally took the loose risk of purchasing indie game Dead Cells because of it’s metroidvania offerings and promises of Dark Souls-like challenge, I was happy to find much like Crypt, it took sported a compelling soundtrack to it.
Unlike Crypt, however, Dead Cells features a far different type of soundtrack than the upbeat catchy rhythm of the former.
Back in 2013, Abbey Games released the indie “God Game” Rues, where you take the role of giants and are tasked with creating and nurturing a baby planet. It’s a charming game with a simulation strategy element not unlike SimCity or Stardew Valley, where you have control over some elements but things that can become out of your control that you must plan for. The game’s soundtrack was composed by Dutch artist Joni van der Leeuw, who now mainly works as a producer at the Dutch games studio. Now, 5 years after the game’s launch, he’s polished up the game’s music to release as a full album.
To accompany Abbey Games’ 2013 Indie God Game hit Reus, this soundtrack captures the mood of a young, but quickly developing planet. The combination of primitive, yet modern percussion beats, hypnotizing motives and charming themes set the tone for relaxed sessions of building a world and managing it’s inhabitants.
Included in the 25 tracks is all the music you hear in-game – specially remastered for listening pleasure outside of gameplay! – plus a couple of previously unreleased bonus tracks. And now, all of it is finally available to download or for streaming.
The soundtrack features simple instrumentation with drums, string plucks and other percussion to invoke a mellow feel while you go about the game creating the landscape of your planet. Joni van der Leeuw emphasized a folk-like quality to the music of the game to help create the musical backdrop.
The soundtrack to Rues releases this Thursday, May 17th on Bandcamp and can be pre-ordered now.
A new rhythm-based action game will be releasing this week courtesy of Moscow-based indie developer EvilCoGames. TERRORHYTHM, much like similar games such as Crypt of the Necrodancer, bases its beat ’em up gameplay on the rhythm of the music played.
In the middle of the 25th century the world has plunged into a totalitarian system of sound isolation that made the world absolute muted. In the world where silence is the only antheM, you should break the law to bring back the sound and the music to humanity.
The visual style of the game is very cyber-punk and reminds me of a similar style used in Furi, while the beat-based action looks similarly intense. Beyond using the music provided within the game, there is also a custom music mode for players to import and use their own music to play through the game’s multiple difficulty levels. EvilCoGames also promises future music-based achievements and rank challenges., as well as additional improvements.
Who doesn’t appreciate a good viking story? How about one that’s a little less on the fantastic side and a bit more realistic? Well, that’s what you get with Burly Men at Sea.
Burly Men at Sea, developed by husband-and-wife team Brain&Brain, is described as “A folktale about a trio of large, bearded fishermen who step away from the ordinary to seek adventure.”
The indie adventure game isn’t your typical viking romp, however. It’s a tale you craft from the story choices presented to you, or rather the Beard Brothers, based on something as simple as a chart stuffed in a bottle you happen across that starts the whole thing in motion. The game surrounds itself with stylist art and a subtle soundtrack that appeals to the wayfarer in all of us.
The music, done by Chicago studio Plied Sound, is simplistic yet appropriate for the equally simple and charming construction of the game. Plied, whose work includes commercials and sound design for companies like Apple and Google, make their first foray into game music composition and uses their previous experience with stylistic sound design to bring the story of the Bearded Bros to life.
“Adventurous Deeds” – Burly Men at Sea (Plied Sound)
Brian&Brian along with Plied Sound went the way of making it so all of the sound effects in the game is comprised of vocalizations. While sound effects are emphasized over the background music, the soundtrack is no less captivating in its creativity. Acoustic guitar and individual flute work highlight a good amount of the music featured in the game, with other more native-sounding instrumentation being featured to bring about a sense of an adventure on the not-so-high seas. While a good portion of the music features a unique classical take on northern European music, some of the more creative sounds featured in the game’s music invoked the slightest bit of a Scandinavian twist on some of the sound from Katamari Damacy with a bit of a Disney cartoon flavor thrown in for good measure. This is a compliment to Plied Sound, as in a world of indie music, it’s never a bad thing to be a bit different.
“Maelstrom!” – Burly Men at Sea (Plied Sound)
The vocalizations woven within the game’s sound to help emphasize the music truly help to bring a folklorish-tint to the overall sound of the soundtrack as a whole. It captivates the player as they venture through the storybook settings and basic gameplay without getting too heavy or clashing with the feel of the game.
Burly Men at Sea is currently available on Steam and the Humble Store, as well as for mobile platforms, with the Maestro Beard Edition netting you the game’s soundtrack alongside the game. You can also pick up the soundtrack separate on Bandcamp.
