ReMix: Doom 'The Dark Side of Phobos'
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- Game: Doom (id, 1993, WIN)
- ReMixer(s): Daniel Baranowsky
- Composer(s): Bobby Prince
- Song(s): 'Suspense (E1M5)'
- Posted: 2005-08-08, evaluated by djpretzel
In the beginning, there was Relics of the Chozo. Then came Kong in Concert, and the people saw that it was good. Next came the blue pill, Hedgehog Heaven, followed soonafter by the pink pill, Rise of the Star. Now, on the 8th day of the 8th month of the year of OCR, 2005, project coordinator Mythril Nazgul (Navid Azeez) and company bring you The Dark Side of Phobos, "a 23 track, two disk album with remixes of music from the original DooM game for the PC". OCR's fifth site project is our first from a computer as opposed to a console title, and tackles Bobby Prince's beloved soundtrack to the game that vaulted id to worldwide fame and fortune (even though Wolfenstein deserves some lovin', too); with a name nod to the classic Pink Floyd album, DSoP features work from 19 artists, many of whom are no strangers to the premises of ocremix, and while not every track may end up here, as always we can start you off right with the title track from Mr. Baranowsky, whose menacing, cinematic orchestral arrangement would be right at home in, say, a Doom movie - at least this way if it suffers the same fate as most game-to-movie translations, we can vicariously dream up the film that might have been while listening to this arrangement, no? The pulse of the piece is the deep, running strings, at least up until the three minute mark, bearing a thematic resemblance to Elfman's intro to Beetle Juice, only much more ominous and aggressive. Dynamics are key, as rhythm is established via accentuation rather than note length. We intro with an ambient, breathing cloud of sound, as strings enter and build up to the first hit at 0'23", joined afterwards by tremolo articulations and then some psycho-esque string lines. Snares comes in around 1'04" and things continue building, as stark, heavy percussion dots a legato and staccato string landscape. Piano begins to play a bigger role, and then around 2'30" the pulse begins to abate and we segue into a somber, ivory-led, percussionless, melodic ending; beyond just punctuation (although there's a bit of that, too), this final section is almost like the eulogy for whomever fought and hypothetically died in the first half of the mix, and the two distinct areas of the composition serve as complimentary thematic foils, without sounding cliched or smashed together. This mix injects the dark, hell-infested world of Doom directly into your cerebral cortex and intravenously feeds you both apocalypse and requiem in lethal doses; Dan's done an excellent job of providing the project with a memorable and appropriate opening mix. There's more where that came from, so head on over to doom.ocremix.org to get the full story, or start downloading (please help us seed!) the torrent right now, site unseen, like the greedy cacodemon you know you are. Welcome to Mars, soldier.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the I also like the piano work here.
Nicely done.
- 42 on January 20, 2009
- DJ Skratch 'n' Sniff on May 30, 2006
- Ecnalubma on December 28, 2005
There's a bit of repetition to the main pulse, but all that does is add to the suspense, and at the points where the music gets going, I can almost [i]see[/i] a conflict between a hero, or a small group of soldiers, fighting something they can't see, hear, or understand.
The last part, the piano solo, seems to me to be a quiet respite, as our heroes calm down, or survey the carnage they're due to witness. Possibly a couple have died to the attack. Then, finally, when their guard is down, the enemy returns for one last go... and that's all we see of them.
Maybe this isn't a moving piece, but it invokes plenty of emotion, anyway.
- Jered Cain Denton on December 28, 2005
I love the mix, as per usual with Mr. Baranowsky. I guess it's about right that all my favorite mixes are usually by the judges. Mostly because they know what the hell they're talking about, hence the reason why they're judges to begin with.
Great mood setter and definitely a frightener. Let's put it this way. I have a playlist that I keep under fifty songs at all times from OCRemix. I always...ALWAYS...listen to this playlist as I fall asleep seeing as the computer is right next to my bed. I tried putting this track into the playlist and while I was lying there, this remix came on. I immediately realized what was happening and got up, took the song off the playlist and put on Shnab's "Anachronism" (cheap plug) and went back to bed. There was no sleeping to that shit. lol
- Wicked on September 10, 2005
- Txai on August 20, 2005
Seriously, dude... you've outdone yourself.
- Fusilliban on August 18, 2005
Just reencoded?
- ckain on August 18, 2005
[img]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/11/11_12_11.gif[/img]
- Sam Ascher-Weiss on August 11, 2005
Thanks Dan and thanks to everyone else who worked on this project.
- Zutnunzor on August 11, 2005
It reminds me of Friday the 13th ,whenever Jason approaches/chases his victims down right before the kill.
And there's a lovely little finish punch to the song also :twisted:
Great job there, Daniel !
- RimFrost the Tourianist on August 10, 2005
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