Recently we sat down with Emily Ridgway from Double Fine, Music Director on Brütal Legend, so we could talk about a few of the songs selected to be in the epic soundtrack of Brutal Legend. We discussed the process of selecting music and the challenges and opportunities involved when you are selecting metal songs for a game inspired by metal and then explored a few key tracks and lyrics, discussing how they add to the Brutality of gameplay.

“When you add real metal bands to the incredible landscapes and stories in Brutal Legend, you have no choice but to just live in the game. The contribution real metal makes, is that good. It drags you in whether you like it or not, and makes the whole experience seem real.” Emily explains, “It’s not a parody about metal at all, it’s a tribute, to the bands and people that live and breathe metal every day.” She gave a few examples of how the metal fantasy taking place in many of these songs translates literally to the game. Racing down the roads / In a street machine of steel / Gears are jammed in full / Im a madman at the wheel. These lyrics from Anthrax’s Metal Thrashing Mad, selected to be on the Brutal Legend soundtrack. This is one of many songs you get in the Druid Plough Hotrod’s ‘Mouth Of Metal’. “There are lots of roads in Brutal Legend, you are actually driving a street machine of steel, you don’t have to worry about gears so technically you’re always jammed in full, and you’re more than likely mowing down druids left and right like some kind of crazed madman. It’s perfect. Driving the Druid Plough, listening to Metal Thrashing Mad, it’s like you’re living the song. That was one of our main goals with all our choices, to create that link between the songs and lyrics and the story/actions of player. The end result is just incredible immersion and fun.

However, the relation doesn’t stop there. Emily explains that Brutal Legend needed each of its in-game factions to have their own genres of music, specifically noting Ophelia’s faction is heavily rooted in symphonic black metal. “You know, I have to say that symphonic black metal works with Ophelia’s army so perfectly. There’s something about it, the musical fusion of elegance and opulence, combined with intense weight and darkness, it’s just so incredibly dramatic. The emotion of it is so overwhelming, and that’s what Ophelia’s faction is all about. Don’t get me wrong though, we have a healthy amount of traditional black metal and death metal that we reserve for the more, umm, “heavy” moments in the story.”

Finally, Emily gave us a little insight as to some of the hidden tracks within the game. “There’s so much amazing metal out there that is relatively unknown. One of the other goals we had was to expose some bands and songs that for one reason or another haven’t gotten as much attention as we think they should have. So in Brutal Legend, we turned the tables a bit. We start the player off with a lot of rare and cult metal by default, and we then hide the classics and well known songs around the world. It’s like the reverse of real life. So if you want to hear the full soundtrack to the game, it’s going to take a bit of exploration.”