Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.
August 16, 2010
Game: Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Song: Hell March
Composer: Frank Klepacki
Above: Hell March, Red Alert's signature track
Red Alert is the only game I've ever considered paying homage to with a tattoo, so this is a pretty obvious entry for my fanboy ass, but so be it. I'll get to the obscure stuff some other time - first, you must hear Frank Klepackti's kick-ass industrial-electrofunk-metal soundtrack. Above is the game's most well-known song, Hell March, a great track created with a simple idea in mind: "a rock tune to marching boots."
Klepackti has cited Nine Inch Nails as an influence, and you can probably hear it. Funnily, Klepackti's work was awarded Best Soundtrack of 1996 by PC Gamer, beating out Trent Reznor's Quake soundtrack from the same year (Reznor's work was also excellent, but I'll save that for another GMOTD). Oh, and if you're familiar with the pioneering German industrial band KMFDM, I hear a little of their flavor in the tracks too, among other industrial influences.
But Hell March is only the beginning. My favorite track, Roll Out, is an electro/prog rock anthem full of candy-coated synth bass. Who knew tank rushes could be so funky?! And what the hell does "candy-coated synth bass" mean?! I don't know, just listen:
Above: Kraftwerk meets The Alan Parson's Project! (You can't write about music without saying that something met something... it's actually nothing like that)
Surprisingly, you can still buy the whole soundtrack online. All of the songs are great stand-alone listening, but the experience is so much better overlaid with the bling bling bling of freshly acquired ore, the wooshes of rockets, and the lovely news that REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED. If you didn't hear those sounds coming from my bedroom in 1996, I was either asleep, at school, or dead.
Aug 16, 2010
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