 | Album Title: The Evil Within Original Game Soundtrack |
| Record Label: Bethesda Softworks | |
| Catalog No.: N/A | |
| Release Date: October 13, 2014 | |
| Purchase: Download at iTunes |
Overview
The Evil Within was without a doubt this year’s highest-profile horror release, especially due to the fact that it was envisioned by none other than Shinji Mikami, the maestro of horror gaming who was responsible for the genre-defining Resident Evil series. However, I was a little concerned that there wasn’t much chatter about the game’s music. In general, horror games tend to have some of the most beautiful and memorable tracks, because they are filled with emotion, scary or otherwise. So it was a bit unfortunate to hear that Mikami wanted the music to take a back seat after his incredible soundtracks to Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4. That said, the audio for the game was handled by two veterans from the industry: Tango Gameworks’ sound director Masafumi Takada (Killer7, No More Heroes, The Umbrella Chronicles) and sound designer Shuichi Kobori (Metal Gear Solid 4, Zone of the Enders, Terror of the Stratus). With talent like this, what did the under-publicised The Evil Within soundtrack sound like?
Body
In horror composing, it is conventional to psychologically affect listeners with tense textures and creepy phrases. However, only the soundtracks that feature experimental scoring techniques (e.g. Silent Hill, Resident Evil 4, Alice) or strong melodies (e.g. Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 2) tend to particularly hold up on a stand-alone level. Perhaps unfortunately, the soundtrack for The Evil Within is all about dark ambient soundscaping. Melodies are barely anywhere to be found and the stylings are generally too understated to leave a lasting impression. The end result is a soundtrack that suitably adds atmosphere to the game, but basically falls short on a stand-alone level.
Melodies are what this soundtrack severely misses. The most melodic track isn’t even original, unfortunately, and is instead Claude Debussy’s ever-so-beautiful “Clair de Lune.” While a somewhat clichéd choice of music, its integration in the gameplay is effective: it points you towards mirrors in the game, which are basically portals to Sebastian’s inner psyche where you can save your progress and upgrade your abilities. I might as well just say that this pretty much acts as the game’s main theme from the beginning till the end. Anyone who has played Flower, Sun and Rain will know that this composition is a favourite of Takada’s, and its use here is generally a highlight.
Blurring the boundaries between music and sound design, most tracks are basically one sound-effects collection progressing to the next in front of dreamy-sounding pads. The likes of “Lurking in the Dark” and “Don’t Be a Hero” are pretty effective as threatening soundscapes, adding to the atmosphere and tension of an already terrifying game. However, they’re not so interesting as stand-alone listens, given their lack of melody and indeed musical structure in general.
The highlights for me are those that have some form of organic aspect to them. Most notable is the Graves-esque “Crude Contraption”, which uses an alarming string rhythm to really raise tension, and the lengthy “Retrieval” with its dabs of Hollywood-styled orchestration.
While Shuichi Kobori mainly focused on sound design for the game, the Metal Gear Solid composer composed one track that made it to the soundtrack release, “Cold Corridors.” It sounds pretty good, as the samples employed mix well to give a very stylistic horror listen. I especially like those small static noises at times, which remind me of The Evil Within’s twisted world, crawling with small insects. I wish there was more of that from Kobori on this soundtrack. Takada’s “Don’t Be a Hero” fortunately sounds similar in its use of hectic samples and is one of the soundtrack’s more exciting moments.
We do at least have something thematic and original in the form of “Code 3: En Route.” Playing during the game’s beginning, it does its job well in making the scene stylish and stands up somewhat on a stand-alone level with its mixture of electro-acoustics and ambient noises. Still, it’s too brief to really be a massive highlight. It is disappointing, however, seeing how much Mikami has been talking about our protagonist’s importance in the game, that he didn’t even get a theme. It would’ve been certainly interesting to hear him translated into a musical format. None of the characters or bosses, including the iconic Keeper, Laura, or Ruvik, have their own themes.
Summary
All in all, there isn’t much to talk about with this soundtrack; in my opinion it was best suited to the actual game. Sure, there may be a few tracks like “Crude Contraption”, “Cold Corridors” and “Code 3: En Route” that are pretty interesting to listen to, but the majority of the tracks don’t contain anything memorable or entertaining on a stand-alone basis. That does not mean it is bad, however; it works great for the game’s ambiance, but you can clearly see that there wasn’t much heart in the composing, probably because Shinji wanted it to take a backseat. Should you still wish to make the plunge, the soundtrack is available for 10 USD through digital retailers.
