Black Mesa: Source - Soundtrack

Band / Artist: Joel Nielsen
Year: 2012
Genre: Independent Game Soundtrack

My Review:
Original half life, the game to change all first person shooters. It's the game that set the bar, creating the story driven first-person shooter genre. Originally it came out in 1997, winning over 50 PC Game of the Year awards. Like all 3D games from 97, it has the joy of being incredibly outdated now, but spawning a huge fanbase and an entire franchise.

And thats where Black Mesa comes in. Originally the project was called Black Mesa: Source because it was recreating the Black Mesa Test Facility from game 1, and using the new Source engine as the main way of building it. All of the work was done by a small team of indie modders, and I know that some of the reason for the incredible time drag in releasing it was due to the meshing of 2 separate teams that had both started on the same project, and decided to merge and pool resources as soon as they realized that they were competing against one another. the end results can be sort of seen here.



The updated experience goes for both streamlining elements of the original gameplay, and for creating a much more modern modelling for all of the characters. It is in its first official alpha release, but I've seen an incredibly promising mod addition..

..that I hope gets adopted into the next alpha release, which should also continue the storyline along into Xen.

I've played through the game twice as it is in this stage, and i've had a lot of fun doing so. I cant wait to see a version repacked that includes the updated sections from the secondary modding developer, as well as the finishes to the story.

As far as the music goes, it has a good sound that you can tell was very much inspired by the score work from Half Life 2, and the later two episodes extending the storyline onward into some pretty engaging places. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing where the Valve team is going to go with their story, I am incredibly grateful for this mod, and the music that come along with it, which is awesome desk music while I'm working.

So play the game, get the soundtrack, have a fun time.

Black Mesa Soundtrack

Free Studio Givaway: SALT Motion Picture Soundtrack

Band / Artist:James Newton Howard
Year: 2010
Genre: Film Score, Soundtrack

My Review:
SO excited that I could get to do this, especially since the blog still hasn't hit its 1 year mark yet. I've been chatting with some really interesting people over the course of the last two months, and I wanted to make some big things happen on this blog as much as possible.

One group I ended up in touch with was a pretty huge studio name, Remote Control Studios. They gave me a starter to see how well the attention I'd get from it was. LO AND BEHOLD, that starter is from James Newton Howard, who helped score The Dark Knight, The Hunger Games, Waterworld.. I'm very humbled and impressed. So what exactly would they give me? It all ties back to that lovely Angelina Jolie. Here's the simple IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944835/

This is a spy thriller through and through, with lots of action sequences, and the score reflects that. Its a mix of techno and orchestral pieces, that I really thought was under-appreciated by a lot of people.

So the hope is that enough people come through the site that the recording studio gets attention for giving away a soundtrack from a few years ago, and they in turn, spread my blog to other studios along with a good word. If that happens, who knows what kinds of artists might start giving away free music here! I'm so freaking excited I can't even begin to tell you.

So without any further bantering, I hope that you LOVE this one enough to share it with your friends.

SALT Motion Picture Soundtrack by James Newton Howard

Black Circle Records, TakeMeToTheMorgue!, Oddio Overplay, Silber Sounds of Halloween

Bands / Artists: Various
Years: 2011, 2011, 2006, 2007
Genre: Garage Rock, Electronic, Soundtrack, Experimental, Dark Ambient, Noise-Rock, Drone, Rockabilly, Sound Collage, Goth
 
My Review:

This one is all about the haunted house scores, although there is a BUNCH of other stuff here. Totally worth having a look.


Black Circle Records

Soundscapes, drones, score elements. This is an album perfected for playing in your haunted house that you REALLY should be making. This was probably my favorite of the creepy soundtracks I found, for how subdued and ominous it proved to be.

Apparently there are like 6 record labels called “Black Circle Records”. This one is located in the UK. I know very little more about them.

Watch out for that second to last track, its very loud harsh noise, whereas the rest of the album is most definitely not that.

Black Circle Records - Halloween in a Haunted World Remix Project


TakeMeToTheMorgue!

A lot of dark and creepy scores, and some really mean grungy techno and metal stuffs in the mix. There are a few tracks that I would cut before using the mix somewhere, but overall, this is a pretty solid addition.

TakeMeToTheMorgue! - This Dark Virus


Oddio Overplay

A good collection of creepy stuff. This one is a great halloween set, with more sound collages and classical sets in the midst of it than the others. Some of it reminds me of playing through Hell in Doom 3. You will probably want to edit some of it out and keep what you like most though.

Oddio Overplay - Calling All Fiends


Silber Sounds of Halloween 

I thought it hilarious that one of my favorite tracks from this was from a band named “Planet Cock”. This one is a much wider mix of genres, like the last one.  There is some really good garage spooky rock in here to be had, like the track from “Drats!”. Same as the last one though, I would probably go through it and pick out what you really enjoy to keep or use.
Silber Sounds of Halloween