If any metal band knows video games, it’s Machinae Supremacy, and if I know our audience, uh, I assume that you are a heavy metal fan who plays video games. In addition to Machinae’s newest 8-bit inspired release Into the Night World, the band has been actively involved in video game scoring throughout their career, including producing over 35 freaking songs for the Jets’n’Guns soundtrack. So they’ve been around the block
We reached out to the band to get their take on the greatest video game soundtracks of all time, and they gave us a pretty diverse list of classics. Check it out!
1: Metroid Prime
A melodic and dreamy soundtrack with a completely unique sonic signature. Nothing else sounds like it, and the moment you hear these songs after having played the game, they take you back into the game world in a way that few soundtracks ever do.
2: Last Ninja 2
An epic soundtrack that has all the ingredients of great melodic metal, only supremely stylized because it was constrained by the computer limitations of its era (8bits, 3 channels).
3: Final Fantasy 6, 8 and 9
Nobou Uematsu’s best work. Period. How someone can write so many pieces of awesome music really boggles the mind.
4: Ori and the Blind Forest
An emotional rollercoaster by design. Powerful, organic, and with a fantastic recurring motif that many times help you wanting to continue pushing on through its often very challenging sections.
5: Donkey Kong Country
Goofy, melodic and dips into an incredibly broad range of genres. For its time, it challenged the limitations of the hardware like no game before, making it sound more professional and expensive than what had come before it.
6: World of Warcraft
The soundtrack for each and every bit of content is carefully crafted to enhance the experience of playing. Blizzard takes great pride in its soundtracks and quite rightly so, since they are carefully and lovingly crafted. Here are a few things you may not have known about the music of World of Warcraft. TBC was announced on Blizzcon, for easier WoW gameplay, players should buy WoW Shadowlands Gold.
7: Doom (original and 2016)
The original Doom came with a set of unique songs and riffs that were already trying to be metal and with the new Doom those same ideas (and a few new ones) have been supersized by Mick Gordon and dialed up to 11. It’s one of those soundtracks that, if you replaced it, the entire game would feel completely different.
8: Chrono Trigger
Nobou Uematsu passing the torch to a younger generation — Yasunori Mitsuda. This was his rite of passage, and the result was incredible.
9: Jet Set Radio Future
Even though this soundtrack contains mainly licensed music and remixes it is so expertly crafted into a whole that it really does create a feeling to this game that is unlike any other. It paints a futuristic image of the world that is both weird and wonderfully unique.
10: Banjo Kazooie
A rare classic that is remembered just as much for its music as for its amazing gameplay. Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope have made a soundtrack that fit the game like a googly-eyed, funnily-talking glove.
Machinae Supremacy are on tour in the US with Urizen and Danimal Cannon. Catch em’ at one of the remaining dates:
January 17, 2017: The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
January 18, 2017: Southport Hall – Jefferson, LA
January 19, 2017: BFE Rock Club – Houston, TX
January 20, 2017: Grizzly Hall – Austin, TX
January 21, 2017: Trees – Dallas, TX
