How Doom's combat evolved with modern metal music
Blog Andrew Joseph 26 Jan , 2025 0
Doom has always had a close relationship with metal music. Hearing any rapid burst of doom soundtrack, or even just a quick glance at the series' persistent demonic imagery, will tell you this. Its habit of piling up flames, skulls, and demonic creatures isn't far from any Iron Maiden stage you've seen (past or present). This relationship with the heavier aspects of the music has progressed step by step with the series' gameplay, two elements that have been reinvented a few times over the 30-plus years of Doom. Beginning with thrash, Doom has explored multiple metal subgenres over the decades and continues to this day doom: dark ages Its crunchy metal hammer blew.
As early as 1993, primal doom The driving soundtrack is influenced by the big metal bands of the late 80s and early 90s. Co-creator John Romero freely discussed how the chains of characters like Pantera and Alice were heavily influenced, and this can be clearly heard throughout the score. For example, “Untitled,” a track for E3M1: Hell Holds Level, features a riff that's nearly identical to the one heard on Pantera's “Mouth of War.”
The broader doom score borrows aspects of the thrash subgenre, recreating the likes of Metallica and Anthrax in digital form. This cacophony of sound propels players through the narrow corridors of Mars, whisking them from A to B while sprinkling in demonic enemies that, like Kirk Hammett, turn guitar solos into any possible song. Thrash is fast and hits between the ears with its urgency, like shotguns and bfg as Romero's creation bursts onto the scene. Composer Bobby Prince's score remains as timeless as a shooter's soundtrack, matching the rhythms of the unforgettable gunplay.
For more than a decade, Doom and its music have continued with a similar attitude, matching the speed of its bullets with the speed of its chopping scores. Until 2004, experiments doom 3 Emerging from the darkness. This reimagining of a terrorist attack took risks, and not everyone succeeded. A controversial flashlight mechanic that prevented you from shooting while holding a gun was the opposite of Doom, and was eventually adopted by modders and re-released in 2012, but no one can deny Doom 3 Was Try new things. Slower, more deliberate speeds required new sounds, and so ID Software drew fresh inspiration.
It was reported that the talent of Trent Reznor was meant to orchestrate Doom 3's entire sound design, but the plan never quite came to fruition, as explained in the ex-Nine Inch Nails: Nails with 'Nails' Together, you know, we work on Quake. I know Trent was involved with the project early on and then stopped being involved with the project. It's actually Vrenna himself who will instead be taking over the reins with Clint Walsh to write Thirquel's themes. Their approach reflects the “Thinking Man's” metal costumes, tools. Doom 3's main theme may actually be its 2001 The 2018 masterpiece “Outside”, with its own sewn time signature and bonus tracks of remote landscapes, provides the perfect accompaniment to the horror shooter's sci-fi set-up.
While Doom 3 was a huge success for ID Software and the studio produced its best-selling game to date, its survival horror design is now considered an anomaly among its series peers. But that's not surprising; FPS gaming was undergoing an evolution in the early 2000s, with Call of Duty and Halo arriving on the scene, ushering in the era of console shooters. It's only natural that Doom changes alongside those Titans. It was an equally awkward time for metal music. For every stellar Slipknot and Deftones outing, the remnants of Nu-Metal explosions casually settle the matter. Artists like Limp Bizkit or Mudvayne certainly do interesting The influence on Tweaker (Vrenna and Walsh's band) was heavy, to say the least, but their final instrumental direction was undoubtedly the right move. Doom 3 won't go down like the classic relics of the tool's outer reaches, but it's certainly an experiment worth trying, and it features an unsettling soundtrack that fits its tone perfectly.
After Doom 3, several years passed with no sign of new entrants. Behind the scenes, the series went through an awkward period of development. After scrapping the Call of Arms-affected Doomsday 4 project and starting over, ID Software realized its hallowed shooter needed a complete makeover, and that's exactly what it got when it returned to stunning form in 2016. Directors Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin Held return to Mars in a Slayer that fully embraces the momentum of '93. Shotgun clicks punctuate the score's chainsaw guitar rhythm, and bullets ring out from the chainguns like double bass pedals hitting hard. Composer Mick Gordon created a heart-wrenching soundtrack with layers of white noise and levels of bass frequencies that even a Meshuggah might call bass.
An album that defines boundaries with irrepressible speed (a progressive and rhythmic metal genre), presenting itself as a playable djent (progressive and rhythmic metal genre) album, Doom 2016 A desire for new extremes merges in both the shooter and metal worlds. It's become one of the most famous video game scores, perhaps even eclipsing the original itself, to the point where it's impossible to imagine playing Doom in 2016 without it. The thing is, once you've written something that sounds as good as The BFG Division, where do you go from there?
Well, this is where things get a little complicated. Gordon returns to making music in the 2020s Doom Eternalbut a messy back-and-forth led to his soundtrack. It's unclear what happened, with the story disagreeing with his eventual layoff. His fingerprints are clearly all over it, though, as the tracks feel like versions from four years ago with a more modern edge. Eternal's soundtrack further leans towards Metalcore, this A popular metal genre in the late 2010s and early 2020s. It's probably no coincidence that around the time Doom Eternal was released, Gordon was also producing songs and albums for big British names in the genre, which brought me Horizon and Architects.
Of course, Gordon's work can be heard on these bands' mixes, especially on BMTH's Humans: Survival Horror (an album that, incidentally, is laden with video game references). But the bands' sound has also found its way into a timeless score, particularly its propensity for more depressing breakdowns and increased electronic splashes. It's undoubtedly still heavy, but its platforming and puzzle pieces reflect that in Eternal's gameplay, with more experimental game design sprinkled in between punishing shootouts than its predecessor.
Doom 2016 remains my favorite Doom game. I appreciate Eternal Hell, but like the metalcore bands that influenced its soundtrack, I prefer the original, more polished work produced a few years ago. Architect's album All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us is also my favorite metal album from 2016. It's a sonically and lyrically formidable piece of work that, like Doom's landmark reinvention of the same year, hits a sweet spot. Timeless, like the Architect's recent outings, is a very good, adventure that can never be missed, but this didn't hit me the same way. Sometimes less is more, but I know many who remain eternal in higher regard would happily disagree.
Now, Doom: Dark Ages finds itself in an interesting place. During the recent Xbox Developer Direct, we got a good look at how its refresh combat changes things in quite a big way. So if the historical record is any indication, it will need an appropriate soundtrack to be relevant to this brutality. We may have only heard snippets of it so far, but it looks like the new composer's completed moves (Borderlands 3 and Callisto Protocol) are drawing inspiration from the past and present, just as Dark Ages' gameplay references the original Doom's The way is new and twists.
Dark Ages is slower than Eternal's whiplash vertical platforming and arena bouncing, instead arming you with a Captain America-like shield that encourages you to balance it against enemies big and small and barrel into them. enemy. This head-to-head nature mirrors the original Doom design, which had you making your way through corridors and enemy gangs, but Dark Ages takes that philosophy and amplifies the attitude a hundredfold, with 30-story-high advanced mechs and The breathing dragon arms you.
This kind of combat demands a malleable soundtrack; it feels heavier, if not heavier, than anything that's come before, but it's also light on its feet as you swoop down on the winged beast. The former can be found on the track with one of the preeminent heavy bands in the world right now, Knocked Up. In the context of what has been shown so far in the game, what sounds like a seismic collapse and plunge into halftime is just a serious squeal of pigs squealing from the Kentucky native's output. But this is combined with more traditional, almost thrash-like moments that echo 1993's proto-doom and even early metal, which borrowed a lot from dreamy, satanic and medieval inspirations.
We don't fully understand the breadth of Dark Ages' suite of games yet, but I'm hopeful that ID Software is building on everything that's come before, not just in the Doomsday series, but from within its own walls. The growing number of mythical creatures and piloting giant machinery are exciting additions, something one wouldn't necessarily expect from a traditionally seen “boots on the ground” shooter – but a surprise nonetheless. Titanfall 2 appears to continue to influence campaign shooter design beyond its signature mobility and wall running. In many ways, this shift is similar to the evolution of modern metal music in recent years, which has proven fertile ground for experimentation within the genre, whether it's a larger exploration of electronic, hip-hop, or over-the-top trap. Horizon n can be implemented freely, or like the smiley reggae-like beat that made Lose's “Choke” hit.
It's an exciting time for heavy music, which in turn is an exciting time for doom fans. In every realm the series has played in over the years, Dark Ages has stirred, But naturally, when it comes to ID software shooters, marksmanship will always be king. In fact, if Doom were a packed-arena metal concert, its battles would be center stage, its soundtrack (somewhat confusingly) the dressing-gown of a demon suit. When it comes to Doom: Dark Ages, we've only had a small peek at what's in store for both of our items, but it's safe to say that I'm excited to potentially have a new favorite Metal album to play possible.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editorial Producer who can be primarily found surrounding the Open World Games, obsessed with Korean cinema, or despairing at Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him at Bluesky @cardy.bsky.social.
