The Music of the Silent Hill series

[Nokone Miku]

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Weeks ago I was in a bleak mood and ended up listening to the Silent Hill series soundtracks. (And weirdly, just days later Konami announced a bunch of new Silent Hill stuff.) I haven't really listened to them in a few years, but I used to listen to them quite a lot. It inspired me to start working on a song with a similar sound and vibe. That got me thinking: "How many people have actually listened to the soundtracks?"

I never really thought about it, but the games are now something like twenty years old. I guess they're a bit difficult to get ahold of these days. I still have my copies of Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, 4, Origins, and Shattered Memories for the PS2. I haven't played Homecoming or Downpour. And if I'll be honest, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 are the only ones I really recommend playing if you're not hardcore into the genre or series. I like the story of Silent Hill 2, but the combat, boss fights, puzzles, and locations are more fun to actually play in Silent Hill 3. (Plus, Heather is one of my favorite video game protagonists.)

While the music in the game itself is focused on being atmospheric, the soundtracks contain many songs that are melodic. There are of course the main themes and the various ending music numbers, but there are also songs that don't actually appear in the games themselves, including vocal tracks featuring Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. I would do anything for a vocal synth voicebank of her!

If you haven't, you should really give these songs a listen:

• Theme of Laura
• You're Not Here
• Promise
• Waiting For You
• I Want Love
• Room of Angel
• Love Psalm
• Letter From Lost Days
• Your Rain
• End of Small Sanctuary

There are many other good songs, but I feel like those are the highlights.

So tell me: Have you played the games? Have you only heard of them? Have you listened to the soundtracks? What do you think of the music? How would you describe it?

 

[IO+]

I don't really play horror game except maybe Biohazard, i do watch the slient hill movie though...very terrifying.

 

[mobius017]

I haven't played the games, but I have heard of them. I know I've seen TV commercials for the franchise years ago at at least one point, if not several times.

Listening to a few of the songs in your list, I was surprised that they weren't the atmospheric, creepy/sinister, foreboding music that I expected--but then, they were possibly the songs you mentioned that didn't appear in the games themselves. I don't have the knowledge to apply genre labels really effectively, but they seemed more on the methodic side of rock, with thematically darker/plaintive lyrics (as seems to fit the content of the games, which often center on finding missing family members).

The exception to that was "Room of Angel," which had more of the darker ambiance that I was expecting, though it was definitely not instrumental video game mood music, either.

Personally, I'd be thrilled to hear you attempt something like these with a vocal synth--there's some serious music going on here!

 

[blackout]

Meeeee, I’ve been into Silent Hill for a pretty long time now and it’s one of my favourite series like, ever. SH1/SH2/SH3 in particular are some of the most brilliant games I’ve ever experienced. I started off only reading about them on the wiki and listening to the soundtrack when I was like 12 and too scared to watch or play horror games haha, but several years later I managed to actually play them and now I loooove horror stuff.

SH3 is by far my favourite on all aspects. The art direction on that game was so good and it’s insane how well it holds up for a game released in 2003, from the character models to the environments and textures. Still breaks my heart how they fumbled the HD remaster for this & SH2 so badly. Heather is one of my favourite characters ever as well god I love her so much. Soundtrack wise it’s also my favourite, Akira Yamaoka’s work on the series has always been great but I specifically really like SH3’s soundtrack album and how well it flows with the Mary Elizabeth McGlynn tracks and the spoken interludes. I listen to the album every now and then and god it’s so good. You’re Not Here is one of the best songs ever to me, not just OST wise but like in music in general. So so so good.

But as I said I do love his work on the series in general and I love how each game has kind of its unique sound going on with SH1 being very industrial sounding, SH2 being like really hauntingly ethereal/dreamlike and SH3 calling back on SH1’s industrial sound while adding in some pop punk and also like adding a sort of dramatic flair to it. SH4 is the only one of the Team Silent games I haven’t played but I still really enjoy its soundtrack and the sort of like SH3/SH2 mix it went for. I’m not as big of a fan of the post-SH4 games except for Shattered Memories (underrated gem btw!!!) but Yamaoka’s work on them was still an highlight every time. Here’s some more tracks that I enjoy, mostly instrumental and ambient:

• Forest
• Not Tomorrow
• Until Death
• Heaven’s Night
• The Reverse Will
• Black Fairy
• Maternal Heart
• Innocent Moon
• Never Forgive Me, Never Forget Me
• Please Love Me… Once More

I’m very very excited for the new stuff coming in the future. I didn’t really enjoy Homecoming and never bothered with Downpour but the new announced stuff is looking very promising, especially Silent Hill f with what was shown and knowing Ryukishi07 is in charge of the writing. I reeeally hope Yamaoka ends up working on f’s soundtrack (with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as well), we already know he’s involved with the SH2 remake at least (which I’m excited for too!!).