ReMix: Doom II: Hell on Earth '31 Seconds'

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Doom II: Delta-Q-DeltaDoom II: Hell on Earth

John's had his Oblivion mix posted since, but really made his OCR debut back on Doom II: Delta-Q-Delta. '31 Seconds' was a cool cut from the album that took 'Into Sandy's City' in a dark, postapocalyptic direction. That wasn't the initial approach, though - John explains:

"This all started a couple of months ago, when I got the chance to participate in Doom 2: D-Q-D project somehow. The first version of this was extremely acoustic, and even had tribal percussion... something that really didn't fit with the project's mood. The Orichalcon then recommended me a couple of bands, one of them Nine Inch Nails, which would be one of the references along the making of the mix.

I decided I had to PWN this damn thing, and make something truly awesome. So got into the computer room to not appear back until the day after, and this is what came out. I hope you enjoy the mix as much as I enjoyed making it."

So I'm just gonna come right out and say it: Some of the sound clips employed here, specifically w/ regards to "parental discretion", are a little hackneyed & trite by now. The "31 seconds" clip works well because it's woven into the texture more and also part of the song title, but any time clips related to parental discretion and/or a "journey into sound" are used, I feel like I'm back in the early 90s or even late 80s. Thankfully, John singlehandedly compensates for this by the very non-sequitir incorporation of the beloved "beaver" quote from the first Naked Gun. "Enrico Palazzo" does NOT close the mix out, but just working that in there earns Mr. Revoredo some djp bonus points++.

If you see the NIN ref and you're expecting something super-aggresssive, this is less about wall-of-sound industrial noisebeds and more about combining haunting piano riffs with pulsing drums and radio/static fx for a disturbed, dystopian descent. As with his previous mix, this one's shorter, but it develops nicely and goes somewhere, and the two pieces combined illustrate the artist's depth & breadth. Good stuff from John; check it out, check his other joint out, and go back and check DQD out for more Doom II action.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
My biggest problem with this song is that it moves entirely too fast. Each section of the song only lasts a short amount of time, so you end up touching on a lot of WONDERFUL ideas but they only stick around for a few seconds and then move on.
I guess that kind of reinforces the "time capsule" interpretation of the song though - you get a fleeting look at different concepts and vocal samples from throughout time, but you don't really get to stay and linger. I don't know if that was what you were going for, but I guess that's one way you can argue that the shortness of the song actually works to its advantage, conceptually.
Still my favorite from DQD, it's very loopable and brimming with excellence. Even if you think the vocal samples might turn you off, give this one a chance. You might find that they either grow on you or don't interrupt the song as much as you'd think.

- Emunator on December 3, 2009
The piano work was great and the voice clips worked nicely from start to the finish.

- metalsnakejuice on April 14, 2009
The arrangment is done very well and the voices that are heard are a nice touch.

- yosefu on April 14, 2009
The sound clips work for the intro, I'm not sure why, but they sound very good. . there. Sans ending clips I love this mix (piano wow!!)

I love the Naked Gun

- Mtlbro on April 13, 2009
Yo John, I love your music, but the voice clips ruin it for me.
Sorry man, no disrespect intended. :-(

- OA on March 13, 2009
The introduction gives an impression of the action of someone's life passing before their eyes, which, combined with the dire atmosphere, makes this mix effectively unsettling. For some reason it just captures a tinge of morbidness that comes from watching a video will or something like that, some weird, obtuse connection between the living and the dead.
Considering that this is all based from Doom where death and morbidness is the norm, this mix is amazingly effective and constructed extremely well.

- 42 on March 6, 2009
Very nice choice of instruments, and a very interesting arrangement. I feel that the voice clips are somewhat out of place; however, they're all "classics" and don't really stick out negatively or even annoyingly. It's strange that they are there, but that's not a bad thing.

- Martin Penwald on March 4, 2009
John Revoredo;514176 wrote: Dirge for the Follin project (Liontamer never answered!! )

I'm game for anyone doing something of Tim Follin's. You have to make something, THEN run it by me, but you don't need (and never needed) any permission to start. I'll hit you with some music to listen to if you're still interested.
On topic, there was a lot to like about this mix. I could see how the voice clips could annoy some, but I thought they worked well. The opening instrumentation was serene with a bit of a melancholy feel alongside that, and I really enjoyed how the instrumentation changed up during the different iterations of the source melody. Good, varied & creative approach that paid off nicely here, and a solid sophomore ReMix. Definitely looking forward to your next material.

- Liontamer on March 3, 2009
Thanks a lot for the comments. I feel pretty... honored.
Surprisingly, 31 Seconds became a popular favorite. Who would've known?
I made into the Doom 2 D-Q-D project by luck. By that time, I was trying to get into several projects. One of these was the Final Fantasy 7 project (Zircon kindly refused my petition), other was that Dirge for the Follin project (Liontamer never answered!! )... and last but not least, Doom 2 DQD. The Orichalcon was pretty "demanding" with the quality of the mix, and eventually told me to re-do the whole thing. However, I can say it actually helped the mix to take off.
And about the voice clips. I've always been a HUGE fan of voice clips in music. I remember listening to Zeratul's chrono trigger mixes back when i was 13 years old and sh*@#%*!g my pants because of their awesomeness. I wanted to do the same!.
So i did a bit of research, some sampling,... and it might sound a bit weird, but i didn't know where all the samples were from!!
Thanks a lot

- John Revoredo on March 3, 2009
Incredible. I love the idea of using voice samples from movies/tv in a mix, but the first few times I heard this, I didn't really think many of them fit. I could see a lot of these clips being used in music somewhere between the late 80's to mid 90's. But then, it hit me. Doom II was released in the mid 90's! So, perhaps the samples are simply referencing that period of time, and the whole "parental discretion is advised" clips are a commentary on how Doom II, along with other violent video games, triggered a lot of controversy in that period of time.
Hell, even if I'm completely wrong, this mix still sounds absolutely badass, and now that I've given this a good 5 or 6 listens, I think the samples are a nice touch, regardless of their intent.

- about:blank on March 1, 2009
Was wondering if this was going to get posted on it's own, this track got a ton of fanfare in the original "What did you think of DQD?" thread and with good reason; it's got to be one of the most unique remixes I've heard, and certainly from that album.
The old-school "message to the viewer" audio clips really give it a unique feel, it's lost somewhere in the 80s, maybe on a betamax video player, but that adds atmosphere unlike any mix I had heard before. At the same time the tune from the original is clearly there, in a somewhat more peaceful, less hell on earth way than it was in the original, but, that's the beauty of remixing.
I remember writing a lot more about this mix back in the DQD thread shortly after the release, but several months later, it's safe to say that while I loved the entire album, this track continues to be the one that stands out to me as something truly different.
Also glad to finally know what that movie quote towards the beginning was... I didn't recognize it, but it sounded old, much like the rest of the clips and blended in perfectly.

- ZealPath on February 25, 2009
It's a simple theme (though my favorite from Doom 2), but the way it's arranged, and the way the voice samples are worked, in gives it a great, haunting, ethereal quality that really adds to the depth of the original.
Now normally, I don't really like samples of spoken lines--but normally, it's not done nearly this well. This could perhaps be the archetype of how spoken-word samples [i]should[/i] be done. KF

- Kizyr on February 23, 2009
Let me just say this...
About DAMN time >.>, I LOVE this track from DQD and like to listen to it as I fall asleep (along with a lot of other music)... Now, my question is WHY 31 seconds? There's a lot of other things in the song that could make a little more sense then 31 seconds (I mean, it's not really 31 seconds =P)
Either way, great song, I love it :).

- Yuiopdude on February 22, 2009
"Nice beaver"
"Thanks I just had it stuffed." lol
I really like the piano and the spoken dialog throughout the piece. This song and Red Waltz are by far my favorites of this album.

- Velocifero on February 21, 2009
Probably the most popular track on DQD. This one was a surprise package for me. I wasn't expecting newcomer John to make something so serene, yet so haunting for the project. Much like djp's 'Red Waltz', and analoq's 'Adrian's Sleep', this track added a much needed quieter moment in the album amongst all the heavier tracks around it. The NIN reference in this is more towards the latter stuff Trent's released, such as the Ghosts I-IV album, where the idea was making more serene, yet still industrial sounding tracks. John took this idea and made it more friendly to the ears, which was a great undertaking that worked well.
It should also be noted that John took this track after it became open when I dropped The Joker and Luiza's track from the project, which is also now on this site ("No Man is an Island.") Another great track which was plagued by a few production issues that BGC fixed up, and is now also a great track.
But anyway, I look forward to more tracks by John. Even if he keeps using sound clips, it's all good. ;)

- The Orichalcon on February 21, 2009