BloodRayne -Betrayal- Official Soundtrack

	Album Title: BloodRayne -Betrayal- Official Soundtrack
	Record Label: Ubiktune
	Catalog No.: UBI039
	Release Date: September 13, 2011
	Purchase: Download at Ubiktune

Overview

You could hardly say that the first BloodRayne game looked like a prime candidate for spawning a burgeoning franchise. It was a competent third-person action game, but not much more. Then again, dressing your protagonist — a female vampire chick — and her assets in tight leather was undoubtedly a sound business decision. It certainly created enough attention to prompt the release of a sequel (BloodRayne 2). What’s more — or rather worse — BloodRayne inspired German schlock-master Uwe Boll to create a whole trilogy of movies loosely based on the game. Under these not very promising circumstances, wiping the slate clean and starting afresh certainly looks like a good idea. And so developer WayForward Technologies created 2011’s BloodRayne: Betrayal as a stylish retro-2D side-scroller that prompted more than one reviewer to compare the game to Konami’s classic Castlevania series. However, those comparisons referred more to Betrayal’s gothic design rather than to its actual quality, as reviewers were sharply divided over the game’s punishing difficulty level.

Much less alienating was the game’s soundtrack that Jake Kaufman (aka virt) wrote. Having established himself as one of the foremost Western indie game composers, Kaufman had worked with WayForward Technologies since 2001’s Shantae and was naturally drafted to work on Betrayal as well. Kaufman went for a clean break from the musical direction of previous BloodRayne games and followed the directions by game director Sean Velasco to create “a combination of super-classy gothic elegance, and raptors jet-skiing through lava while shredding on guitars.” More practically, the game developers used music from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and tracks by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish as temp tracks during development. Kaufman finished the soundtrack within three months — and then suggested to the developers to include an unlockable NES soundtrack in the game. The result was a substantial soundtrack of almost 80 minutes that was released in digital format via ubiktune and Bandcamp. Safe to say that it was greeted with more praise than the game it had been created for, as Betrayal won the Annual Game Music Award 2011 for Best Game Score – Independent.

Body

The terms “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” and “Nightwish” give you a very good indication of what Kaufman’s BloodRayne: Betrayal has in store for you. This is a symphonic metal album with a Gothic twist, capped off with retro-styled melodies that make this album a glowing love letter to the Castlevania games of yore. Don’t mistake Betrayal for a hackneyed copy of popular role models though — it’s anything but. While Kaufman’s inspirations are clear and omnipresent, he fills the formula at hand with new life, mixing symphonic, metal and game music influences to perfection. Just listen to second track “Dusk Falls”: from the moment the cascading piano lines open the track against choir vocals and a powerful metal background, you know you’re in for a treat. Like most other pieces on Betrayal, “Dusk Falls” is a fully developed song that flows perfectly from one bombastic segment to the next, stirring up more than one impressive climax along the way. Kaufman handles both metal and orchestral elements with absolute assurance and seamlessly merges the two sound worlds to create music that is as amazingly varied and multi-layered as it is loud. Symphonic metal is a genre that’s notoriously difficult to get right — take the whole epicness too far and your songs will sound tacky and overblown. But Kaufman never takes a wrong step, his compositions filled with so many strong ideas and melodies that they never strain under the weight of their grandiose ingredients.

Speaking of the melodies: like fellow indie metal scores Alpha Squad and GunGirl 2, BloodRayne: Betrayal combines a contemporary presentation — live instruments and a sampled orchestra — with melodies that anchor the music squarely in the world of 8- and 16-bit game music. And as on those two soundtracks, the retro-inspired melodies not only faithfully emulate their role models, but also compare favourably in terms of their memorability and catchiness. Not only is the melody lead on “Dusk Falls” passed on seamlessly between metal ensemble, sampled orchestra and synth instruments. The melody’s upbeat, motivating tone set in a Gothic environment also captures that feeling of ‘another vampire-hunting adventure starts’ a tee and awakens sweet memories of classic Castlevania scores. “Betrayal” features more sanguine melodies that make the track an instant winner, even before its knowingly show-offy, high-speed guitar solo set against bouncy metal drums kicks in. Yes, while Betrayal avoids the tongue-in-cheek approach that GunGirl 2 applied to its similarly Gothic scenario, Kaufman always makes sure to write music that is not only big and enormous, but also tons of fun.

The best interplay between contemporary and retro elements shows up on “Sanguine Nightmare”. The cue opens with a claustrophobic passage for heavy guitar riffs and hammering piano chords, before it segues into a simple but instantly memorable, anthemic two-note synth motif that determinately soars and opens up the composition. And Kaufman doesn’t fail to milk the contrast between these two segments to its fullest. Underlining the inventiveness behind Betrayal’s music, electronics and metal sounds collide yet in a different way on “Poisoned Halls”. Again, the riffs are heavy and thick, but now they’re complemented by various sorts of unnerving sound effects and synth layers. In the second half of the track, these electronic elements turn more melodic and ease the track’s spooky atmosphere to imbue it with haunting, melancholic overtones. Not only is “Poisoned Halls” a perfect mix of heaviness and subtly evoked atmosphere, but it also skilfully sets the scene for the following final boss fight by underscoring the protagonist’s determination with incessantly chugging guitar riffs.

Speaking of the boss themes, it’s of course here that the score’s stirring in-your-face aesthetic is taken to its extremes and the amplifiers are turned up all the way to 11. “The Crabpuncher” is an impressive first example of the frantic metal energy flaring up in each of Betrayal’s boss themes, all of them first-rate headbangers that would give many genre bands a run for their money. But what “The Crabpuncher” also proves is how well Kaufman manages to mix orchestral elements into a composition even when the rhythm guitars and double bass drums are working overtime and fire off one raging rhythm after the other. Brass fanfares push the drama even higher, the strings get to take the melody lead every once in a while, and there’s even space for some impressively virtuosic, dissonant piano work. “Kagan” manages the unlikely feat to top the theatrics of “The Crabpuncher” by ramping up the density of the orchestrations, before “Zetagama” blows off the roof. It’s a fantastically energetic, furious battle track with some of the most frantic drumming in Western game music; a positively heaven-storming track that underpins its metal excess with tastefully inserted choir vocals and orchestral ornamentations. If you don’t have a stiff neck after this jaw-droppingly intense track, you’re doing something wrong.

As strong as Betrayal’s metal tracks are, they’re only one facet of the soundtrack, albeit the dominant one. Firstly, there’s a handful of shorter cinematic tracks that are carried by the sampled orchestra alone. While these compositions feel more purely functional than their more sprawling metal brethren, they get the job done on “Castle Rising” and “Escape”, mainly due to their turbulent orchestrations that rely heavily on lively percussion. And to take the comparison with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night one step further, “Escape” certainly has the upper hand over that soundtrack’s monotonous ‘flee-the-crumbling-castle’ track “Black Banquet”. “The Crimson Demon” is a cut above “Castle Rising” and “Escape”, casting its Gothic orchestral trappings in the shape of a surprisingly powerful march.

More surprising — and certainly in the spirit of 1990s’ genre-hopping Castlevania scores — are those compositions that refrain from the sound and fury of the metal tracks. Instead, these cues explore less testosterone-driven territory while maintaining the score’s lush Gothic stylings. The album actually opens with one such track, as “Title” is carried by the arc-romantic combination of piano and solo violin against a warm string orchestra background. The short composition’s extensive development and mix of various moods already highlights that Kaufman is able to conjure a lavish piece even when using smaller forces. That skill is even more obvious on “Raven”, a ravishing piece for solo piano (and the occasional string accent). Its emotionally resonant streak drives the twilit piece from introspective beginnings to richly romantic, agitated textures in its middle part. Kaufman displays his impressive compositional skills further with this full-bodied, gushing piano ballad. “Vampires’ Ball” and “Peaceful Moon” build upon this elegantly decadent atmosphere and add more instrumental forces. Solo violin and string orchestra (on “Vampires’ Ball”) add to the exquisitely luxurious mood and will make you swoon in style as much as the metal tracks made you bang your head. And the melodies on these seductive compositions are just as strong as on the metal cues, their ebb and flow just as meticulously planned and executed. The acoustics on “Vampires’ Ball” are a bit mushy and the piano could do with a touch less reverb, but otherwise there’s no blemish on these pieces.

Just like the boss themes were the apogee of the score’s all-guns-blazing approach, “Cursed Dawn (End Credits)” is the culmination of the piano ballads’ emotionally charged demeanour. Kaufman brings ballad material, metal elements and orchestral sounds together in one enrapturing song capped off by a charismatic delivery from vocalist Jessie Seely. Again, comparisons to Nightwish (and their former lead singer Tarja Turunen) are inevitable. But Seely’s performance is powerful and accomplished enough to highlight that this music may be similar to the output of other bands, but that its quality is second to none. After this metal ballad ends on an imposing note with doomful unisono hits from orchestra and band, “Bonus Gallery” shifts gears into light jazz territory — a jarring change only if you don’t read the cue as the tension-relieving bonus track it’s intended to be. A flute reprises the vocal material from “Cursed Dawn (End Credits)”, Kaufman’s piano chops translate into this more relaxed environment perfectly well, and while the track is laid-back, it’s not slight in the least, pulling off its easy-going shuffle with utter charm and panache.

If all this was everything that Betrayal had to offer, it would be an outstanding album that both pays homage to and update its stylistic inspirations of yesteryear. But what catapults Betrayal into ‘best-score-of-the-year’ territory is the fact that it essentially delivers not just one, but two amazing soundtracks. The second half of Betrayal’s soundtrack album holds the game’s unlockable NES soundtrack, which consists of chiptune versions of the fully instrumented tracks on the soundtrack’s first portion. One might wonder how well these neo-classical metal tracks and piano-driven ballads translate into the much sparser sounds of an NES chiptunes set. But it’s particularly here that the melodic strength of Kaufman’s compositions pays off in spades. Even when you strip all the layers of booming orchestral lines and churning metal guitars away, you’ll still find a strong tune at the centre of each composition, often already with a playfully gamey sound. And it’s these melodies that the chiptune tracks can reliably fall upon.

This way, “Dusk Falls (NES)” and “Betrayal (NES)” fire the gamer up for the adventure ahead just as much as the fully orchestrated originals, due to their infectious rhythms and memorable melodies. More than just charmingly chiptuned versions of existing compositions, these tracks are stand-out 8-bit tunes that can perfectly well stand on their own. The interplay between metal and electronic elements from the original version of “Sanguine Nightmare” is obviously less pronounced on the track’s NES version. But the contrast is still effective and turns the cue into a rising and falling chiptune epic. Not only on “Sanguine Nightmare (NES)” does Betrayal’s chiptune half surprise by how faithfully it maintains the mood of the original pieces. It’s impressive how much punch the deep chiptune chords have in “Poisoned Halls (NES)”, as they stand in the original’s guitar riffs. The composition manages to maintain its gritty, determined mood, and the eerie electronica bits are even more abrasive and effective on the NES version. Even “Vampires’ Ball (NES)” retains its melodic richness and the elegant yet tense air that the underscored situation calls for. And while the NES boss themes obviously can’t match the originals in sonic power and impact, they’re still spectacular 8-bit action tracks.

The only two chiptune tracks that differ significantly from their original versions are “Peaceful Moon (NES)”, which now sounds — fittingly so — more like a funereal dirge, and “Escape (NES)”, which is actually longer than the original. And for good reason, as the composition’s sparser material actually works better when boiled down to the NES’ three channels, as opposed to having to carry a quasi-symphonic piece. On the other hand, “The Crimson Demon (NES)” feels a bit insubstantial, mainly since the original relied not so much on a strong melody, but rather on intricate orchestrations, which are difficult to replicate or replace within the limitations of a chiptune set.

Summary

If anybody still thinks that indie game scores aren’t worth their while or that these soundtracks by necessity ‘feel smaller’ than their bigger-budgeted mainstream cousins, this is the perfect album to silence these concerns. Jake Kaufman delivers the best score of his already distinguished career, a soundtrack that takes its inspirations and transposes them on as large a canvas as possible. Astoundingly well-written, positively bombastic symphonic metal blares out of your speakers and grabs a hold of you with an exuberant mix of raging guitars and drums, orchestral elements and game music-inspired melody leads. The boss themes couldn’t be any more powerful and will send metal fans right into heavenly (or maybe make that hellish) bliss.

At the same time, the music never goes over the top, rooted in strong melodies and confidently shaped Gothic stylings. And Kaufman shows himself to be a truly multi-talented composer, churning out metal ballads, darkly romantic chamber pieces and light jazz tunes with equal aplomb. And then there’s of course the whole second half of the album, which effortlessly transposes the original pieces into standout chiptune cues and finally marks this album’s as one immense homage to the Castlevania series. There’s never any doubt that BloodRayne: Betrayal is a labour of love, a bow to some of game music’s classic sounds, and a confident update of these traditions. And most importantly, it’s just as good — maybe even better — then the scores that it pays tribute to. Simply put, if you have any fleeting interest in larger-than-life game music, this one’s unmissable.

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Simon Elchlepp. Last modified on January 23, 2016.

About the Author

Simon Elchlepp A former German film student now living in Melbourne, Australia and working at the University of Melbourne's Architecture faculty - and a passionate music lover with an eclectic taste. Specialising in Western game music, I'm here to dig out the best scores Western video games have produced in the last thirty years.

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