A review of Daniel Licht's "Silent Hill: Downpour" score

I have played every Silent Hill game in the series except for the latest, "Silent Hill: Downpour".
I have, however, listened to the score from the aforementioned "Silent Hill: Downpour".
And it's not a very good score for a Silent Hill game.

Up to this point in the series, every game has been scored by insane, Japanese soundtorturer, Akira Yamaoka. He has expressed fear, menace, decay, sickness, sadness, insanity and a whole bunch of other uncomfortable emotional states better than any other artist I have heard.
And he's done his best work without words.
So, when it was announced that he would not be involved with the latest Silent Hill game, I became understandably pensive.
The game was released on March 13th, 2012 and garnered unimpressed reviews, none of which really went into the music beyond commenting that it wasn't as good as Yamaoka's previous work, so I decided to check out the soundtrack.

The first thing that goes wrong happens about thirty seconds into the opening track, and that thing is Korn.
It was announced that they were to collaborate with Daniel Licht (Downpour's composer, who you may know from his work on other nightmarish survival-horror games such as...Showtime's Dexter) on the game's theme, titled, simply, "Silent Hill".
Kudos, Licht, way to make fans of the series hate you more than poison before having even heard a note of your work.
Korn, whose lead singer sounds like an asthmatic, twitchy teen on helium.
Korn, who covered Cameo's "Word Up".
Korn, who Silent Hill fans started a petition to get removed from this project.
They lend their "talents" to the first and only vocal track.
After that act of aggressive mediocrity, the rest of the album just kind of blurs together into a hazy sludge of mandolins (both tuned and detuned, played properly and improperly), vague attempts at unsettling choirs (which end up sounding like Danny Elfman's b-sides) and some chanting and droning which wasn't bad but that had been done better when Yamaoka was in charge.
There is some strong piano that hearkens back to the solid soundtracks of the earlier games and there are glimpses of some interesting programming, but they're covered up so quickly by the boring, typical orchestral tropes you've heard again and again in similar situations that they're almost not worth mentioning. That was one of the worst aspects of the score: you heard some good, faceted stuff, but then it was gone, which is almost worse than it not being there at all, because you know the potential is there, but they're just not exploring it.
Very frustrating.

A few tracks almost make an impression; namely, "Monastic Tendencies", in which the chanting and droning mentioned above work very well to create a dissonance which does a great job of rubbing your mind the wrong way, "Clowning Around With Monsters" (maybe one of the worst titles a song has ever been saddled with) has some chilling laughing/moaning that weaves in and out of itself, developing quite a disturbing atmosphere, and both "Welcome To Devil's Pit" and "Basement Fight"* start off with some really interesting sonic set-ups, only to be ruined by the well-tuned, well-played and completely banal orchestral elements that populate any and every bland horror experience you've ever had.

Aside from that block of four songs towards the back of the album (which only stand out because they're slightly less lackluster than the rest), this thing is a wash. Maybe I'll feel differently hearing it once some nightmare is chasing me down and trying to eat/rape my body and soul, but, who knows?
It's just too...whimsical. At times, it sounds like it's music from some kids' mystery movie, maybe with a haunted house that turns out to be Eddie Murphy in a fat suit who, as we learn in the third act, is just lonely...not scary.
Yamaoka created sounds that were not of this world while Licht is just trying to make mundane instrumentation sound less mundane.
AND HE IS OVERUSING THE MANDOLIN TO THE POINT OF PARODY.
It doesn't matter how much you try to shove it down our ears, Daniel, the mandolin is not as versatile as you think or want it to be.

Look, it isn't bad, but it certainly isn't Silent Hill. This music would fit nicely in a horror movie...maybe the new Silent Hill movie, but it just doesn't capture the darkness and despair and delirium of playing Silent Hill. Music for the game needs to be more engrossing and terrifying. It needs to be the aural counterpart to what we're seeing and experiencing. I know this is a cop out for me, but, after their work on the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo score, I'd love to see Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross take a crack at Silent Hill**.
In the end, Licht removed the signature from the degenerate, mad art that is Silent Hill, and that is unforgivable.








*So I guess there's going to be a fight in a basement. Hellooo? Spoilers?
** Listen to "Perihelion" or "With The Flies" and then type up the petition...