Simon Zinzovski

MY NOTES ON DIABLO'S MUSIC

Added 2024-07-06 05:29:29 +0000 UTC

Yo!
I mention in my new Diablo video that I'll have my notes on the OSTs up here for people to check out if they like. Sooooo, here's that:

Let’s start with the OG Diablo 1

DIABLO 1 INTRO MUSIC

Pretty low fi vibes
It’s a dark cinematic build into the game. Bit dark fantasy

Cathedral / Dungeon

Got some spooky choral voices
A big fat kick drum (bass drum really)
Thunderous, like some really evil shit is going down. Makes me think of Black Skinhead
Sinister strings swirling around the high end
Rhythmic and frantic here. Very off-putting.
It’s that interplay between strings and aggressive percussion that works well. There also isnt anything to bright timbrally here, like there’s not a fuckin glockenspiel or something.
Around 2 mins there is some really interesting textural and timbral spooky work. Playing a lot with maybe a Gtr and some sfx. It’s unhinged, it doesn’t make much sense. Kind of sounds like bats, but it’s an aphorism.
Drums come in a bit before 3mins, but they aren’t really super beat driven, very weird stuff here.
Lots of early digital sounds here too, like big fat chimes.
We talk about through composed, this is that. The music just changes all the time, moves and moves and moves, it doesn’t settle anywhere normal.
Very experimental, very strange, very esoteric.

Catacombs

Guitar work is interesting here.
Some primitive beats, big drums, thunderous.
Big slow dissonant strings
Lots of strings, very much draws on Cinematic Horror scoring, while being more experimental. He talks about that in the liner notes too.
This one brings in some metal guitar work which is cool. Metal and the devil go together really well.
Much more of a rolling ostinato under Keith, with a big fat pedal point going on.
At 2mins the whole thing shifts totally again. We get warming six with wide 12 string star lines and probably a tape echo
- Bit of psychedelia going on here. Beatles, Pink Floyd
Reverse echos, strange sounds, lack of pulse, oddities
The 12 string sound is very thematic, draws back to the Tristram theme
Another sort of through-composed joint
We also get a crying baby at the end, over some
His approach is best described as “strange”. The music is very messy, thick and rich. It’s like wading through soup almost. There is a lack of clarity, and there is a lack of direction at times too. It’s really easy to get lost in the combination of so many timbres. There isn’t a clean approach of expression, there is a desire to do many many things, whenever you’d like.
There is a good connection here to art music, experimental music, sound art like Music Concrete and other similar histories.
But it isn’t truly far removed from popular music, the elements within the track are popular in origin, it’s just that their arrangement is so peculiar.
There are similarities here to Mark Morgan’s work on Fallout, but his approach was a big more clearly in line with 90s experimental ambient music.
This has that same experimental feeling, but isn’t so clearly definable.

Caves

More big bass drums. He really likes those. He also likes subby synths.
I think he likes that feeling of something being bellow you. Strange demons doing work underneath you, something incomprehensible, ancient, primal, evil.
More guitar work, more primitive drumming, more experimental sound design
This track is a lot closer to Nine Inch Nails. Aggressive industrial guitar like Big Black or something.
This drives forward a lot, very angry, very menacing. Plenty of Gtr based SFX fuckery
Again, seems pretty through composed. There isn’t a cohesive thread for each piece, they are all just collections of ideas.
Here we see Uelmen working with strings and voice as a sound design element. The history of strings and horror movies in well defined, but they really can do a lot. Here they sound like far away screams from tortured souls, or something. The vocal work is guttural and brings to mind thoughts of demons or non-human entities.
The final section of the track brings in more traditional melodic elements played by a piano and a cello, I think. Hard to tell, the work has been HEAVILY affected. But there is certainly a more traditional sense of melodic line.

Hell

We got perc underpinned by a distorted 60 cycle hum.
Rhythmic, still dense, still strange, still experimental, still through composed.
He isn’t particularly subtle, right? Like, there are very few moments where he choses to focus on a single element. He loves brining in more and more and more, bigger and bigger and bigger. He likes strange and eclectic, like an op shop. There isn’t much sense in Hell you know? It’s a big weird down there.
Surreal perhaps?

Tristram Theme

Very unique in the context of the store. Very much interested in different things.
There is a clear melodic line. It is slow, subtle. There is focus on a single instrument, the 12 string guitar.
There is traditional and slow moving musical development.
This is a much more musical approach. It is somewhere in the linage of latin American finger picked guitar.
There is an exploration of harmony, and its effect on the music. There is an exploration of guitar extended techniques.
This is ripe for traditional harmonic and music theoretical analysis. Stuff like, what chord is that? What note is that?
While it is still a varied form, that isn’t the strangest thing in the world. There is a lot less radical difference. And there are repeating ideas, sections, themes, motifs. It is is an exploration of latin American guitar stylings and time based effects like reverb and tape delay.
Linear.
“Peruvian influence. Chabuca Granda”

Now it’s time for Diablo 2

We’re gonna over the official OST, not every single file in game. Because, fuck you!

Wilderness

Kicking it off with wind sounds
Wow okay, already you can tell there is much more money put into this. It is frankly way way better.
I can already tell there is going to be a lot more to say about Diablo 2’s music

There is a lot of wind sounds here, making it feel open and barren. It draws on guitar timbres similar to the Tristram Theme.
It also brings in the same style of open drumming percussion that was used in the first game often.
It’s less of an experimental piece.
It is really underpinned by the wind sounds and the drum sounds.
There are spooky choral voices used too.
Uelmen: “everything but the kitchen sink makes an appearance. From 7/8, 11/8, 3/4, 4/4, to no real signature at all, twelve-tone lines, punky open chords and well-behaved waltz melodies all show up somewhere in these eight minutes”
He had to work really hard to come up with something here. He was throwing at lot at the wall. That “busy” thing, is very thematic of diablo. It is busy music.
It weaves around, extremely diverse.
The musical transitions here are managed much better than in the first game too, a lot more subtlety in how parts move across each other. It’s not just start stop, there are lines that grow out of the background into the foreground.
Like Uelmen says though, this piece is only really brought together by a sense that he’d like to capture the “open pastoral feel of the wilderness in Act I (with the cows, farm fences, cabins and trees) while also being scary, exciting and distinctively "Diablo”.”
I feel like the guitar work is veryyy diablo 2 though, I feel like that is quite a signature sound here
After about 6:30, it comes in with some drums. That sound is a lot like Laura’s Theme from Silent Hill 2. 90s guitar work.
Strange, disjunct track, works pretty well. Hard to tie down. Does a LOT. He isn’t subtle or minimal.

Rouge

This is the piece that plays in the hub world, the rouge encampment where you start the game.
Uelmen cites his use of the “hammered dulcimer” to evoke a medieval sound.
- He also mentions a “fascination with texture, at the occasional expense of melody and rhythm”
He brought back the 12-String like he used for the Tristram Theme
- It certainly feels referential to the Tristram Theme in that way, there is a sense of connection between the two hub worlds
Sad orchestral strings are quite important to the track
His mention of texture makes sense, because he is very often laying sounds. I might say that a “fascination with texture” is at the heart of his approach. He loves his music to be very busy, so there can be a lot of contrasting elements.
Is there a single track on the OST that is just 2 or 3 instruments the entire time. Like a small ensemble that doesn’t change?
The answer is no, he stays busy as heck.
He is also embedded in film music and his performance background though. Because he loves the notes, the melodies, the rhythms, the musical things. He likes to experiment in the texture between musical objects, rather than just sound objects. He is certainly less abstract than some sound artists, but I would still figure this as an experimental sound art approach. He is just constructing his sonic sculptures from musical objects.

Sisters

Not sure where this piece exists in the game. No liners notes on it from Uelmen.
Dark ambient textural exploration, using traditional scoring techniques, rather than experimental sound art techniques. - More Messiaen, than Music Concrete
This is quite a good example of that, I think.

Spider

Apparently this is a rework of the original Dungeon Track
- He says it’s inspired by Penderecki (20th Century Composer) and Henry Manfredini (Friday the 13th Series). Plenty to unpack there.
Uses a lot of sharp attack and short decay sounds that quickly move about, like the legs of a spider.
I think Uelmen really sees himself as a composer here, rather than a song writer or a sound artist. I think he draws a lot of inspiration from 20th Century Composers and Film Composers.
Just like the Hiroshima piece from Penderecki, there is a level of Sonorism going on here across all the works
Uelmen’s works actually do stand up quite well when listened to like this, they are very artistic in their own right.

Jungle

Inspired by: Jonny Quest, Barbarella, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Apparently.
He goes a little bit sonic racist here.
- Jungle Theme? Make it primitive!
- Like, he goes and seeks out primitive tribal timbres to plunder and stick in here.
- Is that a sus thing to do?
His approach is still the same. He takes a really consistent artistic approach to the music he makes for diablo. He just varies the details. The instruments, the timbers, the exact specifics of what’s occurring. He is really exploring what can be done with his approach.
Honestly? I sometimes find his hyper eclectic approach a bit annoying? I would like to see him have a bit more focus. I think that’s why Tristram Theme is so good, because it might be the only thing he’s ever written that is focused.
It’s just like. Anything can happen in any track. No, correction: Anything WILL happen in any track. He WILL do weird stuff to you. It’s a promise that he will be weird.
It’s honestly a bit disorienting at times. Which is cool for diablo. But like, it might be good for each track to have a core idea? Something to come back to? I suppose it is anchored by the location. And it adds so much weirdness to the location, which is good.
You’re not gonna get anything exactly like this anywhere else. He is exposing his psyche to you. It is really raw and honest and present. His fascinations, idiosyncrasies, obsessions, are all on display.

Zakarum

No info on this one.
Again, he is not content to chill on any single idea. He MUST do a LOT of stuff. Always.
That’s who he is though. That makes him, him. He also does it with a lot of skill. It’s hard to juggle so much all at once. It’s a bit hard on the listener, it’s a bit hard to make sense of, it can even be a bit exhausting to focus on.
If you background it, it certainly won’t get repetitive. It certainly imparts a character. There is feeling and intensity in it. It is by no means bland. That Sonorism thing he does helps a lot. The focus on the colour of the music imbues it with a great deal of life. It is a pretty awesome approach for a video game, and legitimately helps to define the feeling of a setting. Especially in a game with such… limited… graphics.

Desert

Wanted a “Middle Eastern” vibe - sonic racism lol
Used “dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals”, recorded by Mustafa Waiz.
He thinks it ended up “70's jazz fusion or particularly strange euro-disco” at some bits.

Classic Uelmen approach here. Strange, eclectic, focused on timbre (colour), vibes based. The authentic middle eastern instrumentation helps to define the flavour of the track.

Toru

Plays in Lut Gholein, the Jewel of the Desert
Named for Toru Takemitsu
- Supposedly inspired by his use of “spacing and time”

Does Matt Uelmen have the restraint to take inspiration from Toru Takemitsu?
- He is known for his liberal use of silence and subtlety. He wrote a book about silence…
No, Im not sure he does. Toru Takemitsu has an almost opposite approach to Matt Uelmen.
This is certainly not Uelmen’s most dense and overwhelming work.
But… There isn’t even a single meaningful moment of silence in the work. It is still certainly quite full. Just at a slower tempo.
Very strange for him to take influence from Toru Takemitsu, when there styles are nothing alike.

Sanctuary

No info on this
Strange, complex, dense, unsettled, restless, dark, busy, overwhelming, unfamiliar, dangerous, diverse, sprawling, cacophonous, coloristic, unfocused, unpredictable, interesting, bombastic, eclectic

Crypt

Heavily edited and laboured over.
An Uelmen classic in all respects.
I think I like him best when he’s playing guitar. Gives him something to focus on. He can tie himself to a bass and a guitar, and it gives the track some shape, something to do, other than meander weirdly around.
Although naturally, he will still meander weirdly around.

Tombs

Uelmen thinks this piece works quite well as game music, because it isn’t as full on as a concert piece. Another example of him conceiving himself as a composer.
He is certainly right, that this is less interesting music than is typical of him. I wouldn’t say this is his classic approach. It is a bit more simple, stripped back, sparse, background music-y. There isn’t that trademark Uelmen complexity.

Monastery

“Classic Diablo formula - heavy beats around 75 bpm, slow, ominous, choral clusters, very wet delay effects all around.” I’m inclined to agree somewhat
Pretty high skill expression going on here

What are my thoughts on Diablo’s Music?

I think it is cool to see a 20th Century Composer approach to game music. We don’t often see music this experimental, compelling, and concert grade included in games. This isn’t safe at all, this is risky, experimental and strange.