by benduhamel and benbieri
What is the single coolest thing you have ever done? Was it donating an afternoon to volunteer for a charitable cause? Going on a cross country road trip? Jumping off a cliff at oakledge into the lake blasted off some cheap liquor? Sure, these things have merit, but in all honesty they kind of pale in comparison to playing the modern Doom games. Imagine the art of a heavy metal album. Skeletons, demons, all sorts of badass shit. Doom is like being teleported into that album cover. Above all else, the game makes you feel like an unstoppable badass, ripping and tearing demons apart with an arsenal of weapons, a suit loaded with killing tools, and quick movement mechanics. You control the Doom Slayer, a person so driven by hatred they are LITERALLY immortal because of it. This hatred fuels their unyielding and unending quest to rid the world of the forces of hell. And by cleanse out the forces of hell, I mean launch into a jump pad so that you’re soaring over an arena of hellspawn to then take out a double barrel shotgun with a grappling hook attached to it (the hook also lights the demons on fire), grapple onto a fucking GIANT ASS DEMON THAT IS A BRAIN ON MECHANIZED SPIDER LEGS, LAND ON IT, AND STOMP IT’S BRAIN WITH YOUR BOOT, only to move onto the next of countless demons. That is Doom. However, this badassery is only heightened by some of the best music put into any piece of media.
Ask yourself: ‘What would hell sound like? What would guts sound like? What would rust sound like?”. All of these things kick ass, and composers Mick Gordon and Andrew Hulshult commit to the ultimate goal of producing some of the best metal tracks I have ever heard. Yup, you heard that right, the soundtrack is almost exclusively metal (with the exception of chants in a demonic language performed by a choir of fans), but not just your ordinary metal. Mick Gordon loves to incorporate sounds not inherently musical in nature. For the song “Hellwalker” off the first games’ soundtrack, Mick Gordon uses an idling chainsaw combined with a kick drum to create a steady and heavy percussive beat. Gordon creates these expertly arranged syncopated bursts of unconventional sound that drives the player into feeling like a god of destruction. The duo is able to get this invigorating rush through the music, explaining that “if the machine gun is going ‘pop, pop, pop’ and the music underneath it is doing like ‘da da da’, it’ll come through right and it sorts itself out in a way and the way we think about it is like throwing a lot of short energy bursts at the player.” Similarly, the track “The Only Thing They Fear is You” features a recording of a literal lawnmower. Just imagine fast-paced heavy metal blasting in your ears, the screams and cries of demons gathering and flying all around you, the droning sound of a literal chainsaw (which the gameplay incentivizes you to use, as sawing demons restocks your ammo) as you use a chainsaw in-game to sever demons in half from their forehead to their groins.
This game is as gory as it gets. There are hundreds of animated “glory kills” (special kills activated when a demon is wounded enough) that vary depending on where you are aiming on their bodies for different kills. For example, glory killing a standard zombie soldier can show the Slayer crushing a head into their torso comedically, like a whack-a-mole, or a large round flying cyclops demon having it’s eye skewered and fed to itself, or grabbing a demon by the ankle and shoving its own foot into its own face, crushing it, countless others. This shit kicks complete ass, especially when paired with pounding fast metal.
So basically, Doom is a $60 album that comes with a free (really fucking amazing) game.
do you like getting your motherfucking ass ate? Okay, go listen to blood swamps right now. if that doesn’t put you in the mood to go kill a fascist and develop a healthy relationship with your father you are completely insane. Doom is about loving yourself. it changes you for the better. doom is the kind of game that you have to stop playing because it is fundamentally changing how you experience emotions. I could say something of value but why would i? doom is doom. and doom, to steal a phrase, is boom. also if you think the marauder is a bad enemy you are a loser.
go listen to blood swamps right now and go seek out a healthy and positive friendship which changes how you think about what platonic relationships work, who you were and are becoming as a person, and when you find yourself sobbing and learning to love yourself again, PUT THE FUCJING SONG BACK ON GOD DAMN ITS SUCH A GROOVE!1!!
Categories: ben duhamel, may 4th 2021, samantha stillman, tunes