"Nothing but flames, nothing but flames."
Apr. 9th, 2008 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nano_mooseFor this month's lessons, I will be posting Video Game Music What I Think Is Awesome. First post: Thief: Dark Project, Metal Age and Deadly Shadows.
A caveat: None of this stuff is all that musical because of the way sound is set up in the game; if anyone wants to get a single mp3 for a specific mission they have to pull the various loops and effects from the files and try and sew them into a roughly coherent whole. The result is generally a sort of 'soundscape', and while Thief has some pretty damn badass soundscapes by necessity, it's an acquired taste. I am gay for the series, so I like them. I totally understand if you guys think they're weird or boring.
Sneaksie Thief
This is basically a medley from the original Thief; it does a good job of cycling through the different moods and styles without much of a break in flow. I'm pretty sure a lot of the loops are from briefings rather than actual missions, but that's okay, they're still cool. Very steam-punky.
Das Horn
So you're in a tomb. Don't worry, you're sure you'll be able to get out, but you have to find this horn before you do, and it's looking less likely with every empty room, every narrowly-dodged trap. The only other things here besides you and the dead are burricks and the undead. It's dark, and cold, and quiet, and all you've seen so far are oppressive tunnels and dank crypts, with the occasional unpleasant interlude of a fellow and...less successful intruder.
Then you crawl out of a fissure in the stone, stand up from your crouch and gape at the sight of catacombs with ceilings so high they vanish in the dark, built in grey-gold stone and spiderwebbed with delicate walkways in between pillars. It's eerie, but not ghoulish; the space is as solemn as a church, and echoing, haunting, you hear the sound of the horn, at first so far away you can't be sure it's really there.
And that's why I love the Bonehoard!
The Metal Age
This is almost the same thing as Sneaksie Thief, except for the Metal Age and more professional-sounding. It also exhibits how the music developed between the games, which is interesting (or to me it is anyway). Dark Project was less...elegant, and less focused on a specific mood, while this cycles through tension, opulence, sadness...
Okay, shut up. I think it's fascinating.
Eavesdropping
Those first whispers you hear are the Haunts - dead Hammerites whose graves have been desecrated - whose laughter gave me nightmares. Then you hear the Servants, crying to themselves and desperately begging for help, for release, for death, and their sobbing laughter once you grant it. The rest is the ambient for the Mechanist cathedral itself, and I love how it's a bit like the Hammers' theme but smooth and dark and creepy.
South Quarter
It's the music for where Garrett lives! Which means that somehow it's become inextricably linked with him in my mind. Although a lot of the music in Deadly Shadows does that anyway, especially considering the factions all have their own particular themes. Erm, in any case, I'm pretty sure I'm not crazy, seein' as it does turn into the ending music.
The Overlook Manse
In my opinion, Brosius is at the top of his game in Deadly Shadows; this is one of my favourite tracks and an entry in my Personal Triumvirate of Awesome (those being Life of the Party, House of the Widow and Robbing the Cradle). It's from a mission wherein you rob the house of a recent widow, during a vicious storm, while the woman herself sits in the tower mad with grief, and her servants fight over her possessions. I love the ambience of it - steeped in sadness and pain and tragedy.
Deviginti
When Thief music isn't being all eerie and low-key, it tends towards shredding guitars for some reason. I'm amused, but not complaining; this track is completely awesome. Try wearing a long coat and walking down a city street while listening to it sometime. You may well spontaneously do a Bad Ass Power Walk once it hits 2:04.
(The Dark Mod, incidentally, is long-running fan project to create a tool, texture and environment set for Doom 3 based upon - note, not actually from - the world of Thief.)
And that's it for this time - next time I might do either Bioshock or Planescape Torment. Preferences?
A caveat: None of this stuff is all that musical because of the way sound is set up in the game; if anyone wants to get a single mp3 for a specific mission they have to pull the various loops and effects from the files and try and sew them into a roughly coherent whole. The result is generally a sort of 'soundscape', and while Thief has some pretty damn badass soundscapes by necessity, it's an acquired taste. I am gay for the series, so I like them. I totally understand if you guys think they're weird or boring.
Sneaksie Thief
This is basically a medley from the original Thief; it does a good job of cycling through the different moods and styles without much of a break in flow. I'm pretty sure a lot of the loops are from briefings rather than actual missions, but that's okay, they're still cool. Very steam-punky.
Das Horn
So you're in a tomb. Don't worry, you're sure you'll be able to get out, but you have to find this horn before you do, and it's looking less likely with every empty room, every narrowly-dodged trap. The only other things here besides you and the dead are burricks and the undead. It's dark, and cold, and quiet, and all you've seen so far are oppressive tunnels and dank crypts, with the occasional unpleasant interlude of a fellow and...less successful intruder.
Then you crawl out of a fissure in the stone, stand up from your crouch and gape at the sight of catacombs with ceilings so high they vanish in the dark, built in grey-gold stone and spiderwebbed with delicate walkways in between pillars. It's eerie, but not ghoulish; the space is as solemn as a church, and echoing, haunting, you hear the sound of the horn, at first so far away you can't be sure it's really there.
And that's why I love the Bonehoard!
The Metal Age
This is almost the same thing as Sneaksie Thief, except for the Metal Age and more professional-sounding. It also exhibits how the music developed between the games, which is interesting (or to me it is anyway). Dark Project was less...elegant, and less focused on a specific mood, while this cycles through tension, opulence, sadness...
Okay, shut up. I think it's fascinating.
Eavesdropping
Those first whispers you hear are the Haunts - dead Hammerites whose graves have been desecrated - whose laughter gave me nightmares. Then you hear the Servants, crying to themselves and desperately begging for help, for release, for death, and their sobbing laughter once you grant it. The rest is the ambient for the Mechanist cathedral itself, and I love how it's a bit like the Hammers' theme but smooth and dark and creepy.
South Quarter
It's the music for where Garrett lives! Which means that somehow it's become inextricably linked with him in my mind. Although a lot of the music in Deadly Shadows does that anyway, especially considering the factions all have their own particular themes. Erm, in any case, I'm pretty sure I'm not crazy, seein' as it does turn into the ending music.
The Overlook Manse
In my opinion, Brosius is at the top of his game in Deadly Shadows; this is one of my favourite tracks and an entry in my Personal Triumvirate of Awesome (those being Life of the Party, House of the Widow and Robbing the Cradle). It's from a mission wherein you rob the house of a recent widow, during a vicious storm, while the woman herself sits in the tower mad with grief, and her servants fight over her possessions. I love the ambience of it - steeped in sadness and pain and tragedy.
Deviginti
When Thief music isn't being all eerie and low-key, it tends towards shredding guitars for some reason. I'm amused, but not complaining; this track is completely awesome. Try wearing a long coat and walking down a city street while listening to it sometime. You may well spontaneously do a Bad Ass Power Walk once it hits 2:04.
(The Dark Mod, incidentally, is long-running fan project to create a tool, texture and environment set for Doom 3 based upon - note, not actually from - the world of Thief.)
And that's it for this time - next time I might do either Bioshock or Planescape Torment. Preferences?
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-10 02:26 am (UTC)...Maybe someday. When I have time again.
Stupid classes. DX
That is really neat music, though!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-10 11:16 am (UTC)Ah, classes, I now know well the pain of them. I've got this ridiculous pile of stuff that needs to be done and stuff that I want to get done. And a slowly mounting heap of unplayed games, unread books, unwatched DVDs...apparently one of the side-effects of growing up is losing all your time.
I've got a whole bunch of it, acquired from various sources. You would not believe the struggle I had deciding whether to put in 'Eavesdropping', 'Framed' or 'Trail of Blood', but 'Eavesdropping' won because it's so beautifully structured and something about the crescendoing mass of sobs and whispers...gets me. It's a creepy-ass mission. I do love it so. Happy to share it!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-11 12:48 am (UTC)I really like all the different moods The Metal Age moves through, all slow and graceful and smooth and creepy.
Oooh, and I have no idea how to describe The Overlook Manse, but it sure is pretttty. (I'm wondering, too, if it's a reference to the Overlook Hotel from The Shining.) And Deviginti is awesome! Gotta love of a good Bad Ass Power Walk.
I have no preferences!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-12 09:54 am (UTC)it'll start playing when I've got my iTunes on random, and I'll have this sudden, terrible feeling of dread and foreboding
I'm sure Eric Brosius would be pleased to hear it.
I can identify just about all the loops in Metal Age and which mission they're from. It is due to this that I will never form a meaningful relationship with anybody.
...You know, I wonder. It wouldn't be the only one - there's an Evil Dead reference in T2, and a Lovecraft one in the original. Deviginti is PUREST BADASS and I get this mental image of Garrett walking along with his cloak flaring around him and his face edged in red shadows from Hammerite forges every time I hear it.
I'm so glad you like them!
I think I might do Bioshock next, because pretty! And psychotic strings! And heartbreaking pianos!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 06:44 am (UTC)...okay, I was going to say, "I feel like I'm in T:DS," or playing it, or that it felt like reality had slightly shifted so that Garrett could actually be sneaking around, but the more I listen to it, the more I sort of... it's really beautiful. How do I never notice this? And it's so -- agh, I can't even describe it. It kind of calms my heart, puts everything to ease, but there's this vague darkness underlying it too. It settles into your bones.
Words are totally failing me.
Deviginti is awesome and I love how beautiful it is while it's being awesome and bad-ass and powerful.
The first bit of Sneaksie Thief sounds really close to a song from T:DS. I guess it just has really similar chords and instrumentation. (And the title itself makes me think of Gollum.)
And it's just amazing to me how these songs can all have so much building tension in them, even though they're all so quiet and have these gorgeous, bell- or piano-like tones. It's all the stuff in the background, though, that you can barely hear.
ALSO EAVESDROPPING IS KIND OF REALLY CREEPY. In parts. Man, okay, Eric Brosius is, like, a master at the subtle background noises and whispering and barely-heard sounds being used to create atmosphere. And, uh, using music to create atmosphere. (ARGH LAUGHTER.)
And then I started listening to Shalebridge Cradle, because it was there, hanging out with all the other Thief music. You can just feel the chill go through you.
Bioshock please! Though I'd love to hear some stuff from Planescape Torment too.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 08:51 am (UTC)Oh man oh man I love South Quarter, you're right, it is beautiful, and for me it recalls the ending, which - totally avoiding spoilers I adore completely. But it also reminds me of South Quarter and Garrett's place and returning somewhere safe after creeping around with my heart pounding and "It's not much, but it's home." In any case, underlying darkness describes a lot about Thief, I think. Including the protagonist, heh.
I know you only ever hear me complaining about the fandom, but it really does have some awesome, talented people - just about every one of these tracks wouldn't have happened without them (except the TDS ones, which Brosius uploaded himself. This is because he is made of awesome).
it's just amazing to me how these songs can all have so much building tension in them
Oooh, I hate how this is really all I had time to upload, there's others like Framed, which is just pure tension in mp3 format. As well it should be; it's the music for breaking into a police station. One day I need to upload the music from Assassins and Auldale for you as well. I think you'd be interested in hearing them.
Eavesdropping is really my favourite of the T2 mixes, because I have assigned all sorts of ridiculous ideas to it. Seriously I hate the Servants and man if I ever send Garrett to Silent Hill there's gonna be Servants all over the place. ("Okay, so the thing he hates above just about all else is being controlled, right, and this is a procedure that makes you capable of nothing but being controlled, right, and he'd never be alone even in his own mind and the kicker is, it's horribly painful and the only escape is death! It'd be the best way to torture him ever! Yes, I think about ways to mentally destroy my favourite characters all the time! Where are you going?")
...Although the Haunts really do present some serious competition, with that laughter. And nothing will ever equal the Cradle. (It's that - what is it? It's like a tick, or a rattle, or, or something.)
One Bioshock music post with bonus starry-eyed babble, coming right up!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-17 05:10 am (UTC)BUT I TOTALLY WILL. Because it's an awesome comment and deserves it and mostly I just wanna babble about Thief and its musics.