Stage Select Start: MIDI Week Singles: "Hellwalker"

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

MIDI Week Singles: "Hellwalker" - DOOM (NS)

"Hellwalker" from DOOM on the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One (2016)

I decided on this song for today before I realized that this is also the music that plays over the menu, at least in the Nintendo Switch version (have not played others, but it makes sense if it is so). What I really like about "Hellwalker" is that I feel like this song depicts fairly well how I play DOOM on the Switch.

When I turn the game on, there will usually be a lull as the game loads up and for the first couple of seconds as I reorient myself to my surrounds, what I was doing. "Oh, my map is telling me that there is a secret over in this, and now I am being inundated by a horde of, nope, just a pair of imps and a Possessed Soldier. Okay, down this hallway and then turn, oh shit a pair of Possessed Security. Now that they are out of the way, let me enter this large room with that item in the back and an artifact sitting in the middle of the room, oh and there is a gore next, aaaaaaannnnnddd now there is the horde. Goodtimes." I am not a big fan of wiping a horde of hellspawn from an area of the map that you are enclosed in, only to take a short walk down a hallway to fight another massive horde, this time with 50% more Mancubus' and 100% more Revenants. I would rather have the map littered with enemies with occasional rooms full of demons, but that is just me I guess.

One of the other reasons why I chose to highlight this song, is that unlike a number of the other songs on this soundtrack, "Hellwalker" lets you catch your breath. There is a bit of definition in the song as it is not all horde all the time, but when composer Mick Gordon does bring the horde, it is pretty fun and exciting. Plus a 5:06 minute song seemed a bit easier on the soft pallet than one of the more intense 7+ minute songs. But seriously, if this song at all piqued your interest, the entire album is not only a great video game soundtrack, it is a pretty great (mostly) instrumental metal album, with occasional punctuations of narration.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Song of Thy Salvation