“It’s a Doom game, of course the music has got to be metal,” says Brian Lee White, the co-founder of production team Finishing Move and a key figure in the creation of Doom: The Dark Ages’ ferocious, riff-tastic soundtrack.
And he’s got a point. Since the pioneering first-person shooter Doom was released in 1993, the series of demon-slaying games has been closely associated with all things heavy metal. Bobby Prince’s influential original score was a collection of bone-crushing thrash anthems that matched the intensity of battling your way through hordes of the undead perfectly, while 2004’s Doom 3 was almost scored by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. His rock star schedule scuppered that plan but former bandmate Chris Vrenna and multi-instrumentalist Clint Walsh were on hand to dream up a menacing, industrial accompaniment to the game’s ultra-violent antics.
Fast-forward through two more standalone titles, two DLC and two separate expansion packs – all with similarly apocalyptic orchestration – and we get to Doom: The Dark Ages. Released earlier this year, it took the action right back to the start of the series’ hench protagonist the Doom Slayer’s story for a medieval mash-up of murder and mayhem. With the celebrated soundtrack coming out on vinyl soon, Finishing Move tell us all about taking inspiration from the gods of metal.
The Dark Ages’ soundtrack is all about guitars
Id Software needed a new composer for Doom: The Dark Ages so the studio’s Lead Audio Designer Chad Mossholder reached out to Finishing Move to see if they’d be interested in pitching for the job. The collective had contributed music to Borderlands 3, The Callisto Protocol and Halo Wars 2 but what really sealed the deal was co-founder Brian Trifon posting pictures of his Fender Malmsteen on Facebook, a guitar modelled by Swedish rock god Yngwie Malmsteen. “We know, it’s very boomer,” jokes Lee White.
After they were shown a couple of early pieces of concept art including the new, Viking-inspired Doom Slayer, they knew they had to come up with something “totally different and wild” if they stood a chance of getting the job.
“Both the rebooted Doom 2016 and its 2020 follow-up Eternal had this futuristic, tech metal element to them and we figured we couldn’t do a better version of that, so why not look to the past? We knew [The Dark Ages] was going to be a prequel [to the series], so we took inspiration from classic ‘80s metal.” The Finishing Move team came up with four different tracks which ended up matching Game Director Hugo Martin’s vision perfectly. They spent the next three years working on the project. “Creating the music for a new Doom game is a huge honour but we knew we had to deliver,” says Trifon.
Finding the balance between loud and quiet was challenging
“We were constantly playing the latest build of the game to get the emotion and the intensity of the music right,” says Lee White. There are big boss battles that feel like “straight up rock concerts” in Doom: The Dark Ages but there are also plenty of quiet moments, with players encouraged to explore the vast levels.
“We had to pioneer a new sound that made sense in a bigger, more dynamic Doom game though,” says Lee White. As well as big riffs, The Dark Ages soundtrack features plenty of nods to its medieval setting. Finishing Move used classic orchestral instruments including the mandolin, cello and double bass in their music, alongside historical instruments such as nyckelharpa and the balalaika. “We had to find a way to blend those messy, organic elements without it feeling corny,” says Finishing Move composer Alex Klingle. It took them a year to really hit their stride.
This is a different kind of Doom soundtrack
The original Doom is one of the most influential games ever released and the reboot series has been praised by fans new and old. Much of Finishing Move’s team grew up playing the games and though working on a new one was “daunting”, they were determined to get it right
“Each game has been so different and id Software are very keen not to do the same thing twice. We’re all huge fans of the series and it was fun listening back to Bobby Prince’s original score after we got the job. We knew the only way forward was to do something different,” explains Lee White.
“What makes this game different to previous Dooms is that the Doom Slayer is more of a tank than a sports car. The demons are actually scared of you, so we had to make sure the music supported that.” This is where all that metal came into play. “[The music] just makes the player feel incredibly powerful.”
It’s a love-letter to the history of heavy music
Rather than take inspiration from one band, Finishing Move looked at the history of heavy metal for the Doom: The Dark Ages soundtrack. “I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, which gave the world Metallica as well as Exodus and Testament. You’ve also got the bands that came up alongside them, such as Megadeth and Slayer. There’s a lot of speed and thrash metal in this soundtrack,” says Trifon.
The group were also inspired by the OG heavy metal group Black Sabbath as well as groove rockers Machine Head and Pantera. “It was important for us to have different flavours for all the different areas of the game,” explains Klingle. The Dark Ages features Doom’s biggest and most eclectic map yet, with each area requiring its own soundtrack. “Some moments nod to the chunky riffs of Lamb Of God and Killswitch Engage. We were also inspired by Swedish black metal, [as well as] Children Of Bodom and Trivium.” For the more other-worldly moments of the game, Finishing Move looked to modern superstars Spiritbox. “We didn’t want the music to ever feel static.”
The soundtrack is part of an ongoing metal renaissance
The most important note Finishing Move got from big boss Martin was to make music he could sing in the shower to – and create riffs that would get stuck in his head. “Our goal was to create something that would have got us inspired and excited as kids, back when we were first discovering heavy music,” says Lee White. “We want to make it accessible enough for someone learning the guitar.”
“It’s also a really exciting time to be making music like this, because it feels like guitar music is fully back. You’ve got rock bands doing stadium shows and headlining festivals while Sleep Token are beating out straight-up pop stars in the Top 40,” he continues. “As a fan of heavy music since I was a kid, it’s amazing to be able to contribute something to the legacy of it.
‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ soundtrack will be released on vinyl this October. Pre-orders for the four-LP boxset and double vinyl collection are live here