Silent Hill 2 (Video Game Score)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

The game scores that are coming out these days carry two styles. Either it is a score that approaches it like actual film music, supporting the scenes with a melodic touch that makes it intriguing on CD and actually easy to enjoy or you have the more background approach, covering in the end equally ideas but setting the mood first that it makes the game experience just downright fitting. Of course, film music soundtracks often give both styles in numerous examples but game scores more often than not have to give the mood in the most fitting manner and Silent Hill 2 is an example of mood gone too far. The score is still capturing some melodic thoughts but all is presented so that melodic listeners will simply bore their way through the soundtrack. Silent Hill 2 is a game I don't have to explain since it is a Resident Evil clone but more drawn to the mysterious moody settings then the gore and violence (which often appears through the game equally) of the RE series. And so composer Akira Yamaoka gave it a downright fitting score, at least for the game. On CD it works but again a length of this size can only do one thing, make you hate it the moment it keeps returning with the stuff you don't like and easily a bit too much is found in Silent Hill 2.

Nonetheless the game score of Yamaoka starts and ends with the perfect music. A rock track with guitars and a healthy doses of theme fits just so well with the nature of the game and becomes 'Theme of Laura' and 'Promise', easily the two tracks that capture a moment of your time, both thanks to its rocky beat and melodic tone. From track 2 however, the score changes to its more moody background tone, capturing effectiveness in a rather unique approach (Yamaoka uses bells, drums, flutes and whooshes of the synthesizer to repeat constantly an idea of the track) but all is explained here in these lines. It works for about 6 to 7 minutes but it just keeps repeating the obvious flaw. The mood needs to be set and it is not horror music (never a loud bang is heard) but it bores the hell out of anyone wanting a thematic idea to treasure. Of the sole tracks that pick up your attention we have these few; 'Forest' and its later returning theme on piano 'Magdalene' is simply the Daylight piano theme of Randy Edelman, especially you will notice this in the latter track. 'Angel's Thanatos' is simply heavy metal music but with a really rough edge and 'Block Mind' is completely disturbing because it uses a heartbeat and pure synthesized noises through it. 'Love Psalm' offers even a brief sign of the better rock music from track 1 but it doesn't appear furthermore in the score. Actually from track 12, the music becomes extremely boring because mood piece after mood piece returns to make you realize that it will not stop until the end.

Actually that is not true, the last tracks (from track 24) are rather more horror cues with mysterious ideas behind it. And apart from a synthesized cello or piano work, it all involves a bit more color. While not as horrendous as tracks 'Terror in the Depths of the Fog' or 'Betrayal' (which are simply synthesized clangs like heard in Terminator 2), it equally doesn't hold its ground, just because you have lost your will to really interest you to the music. 'True' covers some better piano play, a synthesized cello and a light choral touch and 'Overdose Delusion' uses again the electric guitars and drums to set up a rhythm, yet fails to interest me. Yet luckily 'Promise' with its 4.40 equally the longest track does it right with the best sign of melody, especially notice how well it comes close sounding like the song "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne. For the purpose of the game itself and through the world it guides you, the music is just fitting. Yet as a standalone listen it doesn't lose its effectiveness but rather its intriguing quality of interest, because it remains background music not related to any sign of theme or motif. Small motifs are used but extremely sparse. Silent Hill 2 by Akira Yamaoka is effective yet boring and loses its appeal to appear regularly in my CD-player. Because it offers of the 73 minutes perhaps 15 minutes that interest me, and another ten that offer better mood horror music. Place that on a 30 minute score and you might've got a ***, a 40 minute album **1/2 but 73 minutes is way too much to make you listen to it again. This makes the point clear that this is not bad music but just boring stuff that only needs to do one thing. And it isn't pleasing me or any other as musical score on album. Effective yet boring apart from several quality moments.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Theme Of Laura (3.24)

2. White Noiz (1.23)

3. Forest (1.43)

4. A World Of Madness (1.47)

5. Ordinary Vanity (1.40)

6. Promise (Reprise) (1.44)

7. Ashes And Ghosts (3.08)

8. Null Moon (2.50)

9. Heaven's Night (2.04)

10. Alone In The Town (2.19)

11. The Darkness That Lurks In Our Mind (1.15)

12. Angel's Thanatos (3.18)

13. The Day Of Night (1.13)

14. Block Mind (1.11)

15. Magdalene (1.53)

16. Fermata In Mistic Air (2.16)

17. Prisonic Fairytale (1.54)

18. Love Psalm (4.26)

19. Silent Heaven (2.13)

20. Noone Love You (1.32)

21. The Reverse Will (3.33)

22. Laura Plays The Piano (1.55)

23. Terror In The Depths Of The Fog (4.31)

24. True (3.07)

25. Betrayal (2.30)

26. Black Fairy (1.11)

27. Theme Of Laura (Reprise) (1.51)

28. Overdose Delusion (4.31)

29. Pianissimo Epilogue (1.37)

30. Promise (4.40)

Total Length: 73.19

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