FMP Composition plan 1: Genre influences

My main idea for my composition piece for the game was an almost futuristic sci-fi theme as fits the general feeling of the game, however, I felt that I could make the piece more interesting if I added a heavy metal element to it. This idea has been executed in a few various successful titles in the past that mix and match elements of electronically produced sci-fi, as well as heavy metal guitar riffs, stacked.

Valfaris is a sci-fi indie shooter title released in late 2018 that does this idea extremely well and was one of the first sources of inspiration I thought of when considering this idea.

Valfaris’ OST was composed by Curt Victor Bryant, lead guitarist of Swiss metal giant Celtic frost. Curt uses classic heavy guitar riffage throughout the OST accompanied by complimenting underlying synths and stings, programmed drums and disorientating effects. The OST works perfectly for the fast-paced platforming side-scroller type game that is similar to the plat-former I am working on.

Other good sources of inspiration of this genre include the popular 2016 release of DOOM, composed by Mick Gordon who has appeared in other works such as Wolfenstein, Borderlands and Destroy all humans. Whilst he is known to excel in creating metal compositions, in a youtube interview with Noclip gaming he expresses that a pure metal soundtrack was not what the directors of Doom wanted from him and so he spent a long time in preparation experimenting with synthesis to create a Doom OST that puts its intense synthesis and heavy guitar riffage at the forefront of the game in an attempt to drive the player as opposed to work act as background complementing music.

I also looked into artists who create and release synth metal as music artists rather than composing them for games. A few artists came into mind when thinking of popular power metal bands who use synthesis and keys players, "Dream Theatre" and "Gloryhammer" are a couple of my personal favourites in the power metal genre, however, both rarely put synthesis at the forefront of their sound and use it in more of a supporting melodic role. Therefore I had a deep search in artists who favour the use of synthesis in front of guitar sounds and came across artists such as "Dance with the dead" and "Lazarhawk". These two artists put synthesis and drum machines front and centre accompanied occasionally by your standard metal guitar and drums.

I would like to take inspiration from all of these examples but favour a driving synthesis sound with supporting underlying metal guitar tones. I will also evaluate and experiment with electronic drum machines or a true realistic drum kit sound in later posts to determine which would better suit my composition.