Akira Yamaoka continues to raise his profile with his latest Silent Hill soundtrack, this time for PSP game “Silent Hill Zero”, a prequel to the series. Here there are 26 tracks ranging from rock anthemic vocal pieces to ambient noise pulsating horror shows – more of the same then but it still feels unique as nothing else is quite like it and although the music has constantly swung slightly more and more mainstream and melodic with each offering, that’s not necessarily a totally bad thing.
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is back on-board for the third time as vocalist. She opens the soundtrack “Shot In Flames” a chugging painfilled grungy track in similar vein to the SH4 vocal songs. “O.R.T.” is much more trip-hop ambient which harks back to more early 90’s music where as “Blow Back” bridges the two in an empty song that works much better much only bare bug being the sudden stop at the end. Finally there’s “Hole in the Sky” perhaps the best vocal track which drips emotion and ranks up there with the best of the vocal tracks.
Of the rest, Yamaoka brings a mix of ambient noises that will haunt you forever to looping drums that plod and plug along which disillusioned guitar plucks. “Meltdown” slowly envelopes you in mystery while “Evil Appetite” is a creepy minimal piano piece. “Wrong Is Right” harks back to the SH2 days of swirling ambient trip-hop while the Silent Hill complete freakouts are present with “No Tomorrow 3 & 4” continuing on from the originals 1 and 2. “Monster Daddy” uses warped guitar wails to great effect and “Don’t Abuse Me” gives us warped flamenco like “The Last Marachi” in SH4. Other standout’s include “A Million Miles” with its eerie stop/start drums and chewed up noises, the electronic “Battle Drums”, the oriental sounding “The Wicked End”, the harsh percussive “Drowning”, the ethereal “Theme of Sabre Dance” and the dead church sounding “The Healer”.
Once again Akira Yamaoka delivers a fantastic soundtrack. It’s ambience transcends mood music and genre really, and it works best when listened to as a whole just like his other albums and you should do it with all the lights off for maximum effect. Superb
I’m so glad Akira Yamaoka was still able to work on the soundtrack. Even if there were new people to produce the game, The silent Hill series wouldn’t be silent hill without Akira doing the music.
Akira is my idol, definately the inspiration behind my music. Finally got my hands on all OSTs.. The best personal investment i’ve ever made. KUDOS and love from LOCISS. Long live YAMAOKA.