Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Entry 1157 - Nine Inch Nails - Quake


Style: Industrial, ambient, video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Trent Reznor takes his experimental version of industrial into the video game realm

Thoughts: What if you took the ideals that Nine Inch Nails had explored earlier in the decade, removed all the melodies, stripped down all the complexity? In its place you put layer upon layer of pulses, dark brooding soundscapes, industrial noises, and a general unease that simply will not go away. This is Quake.

Quake's soundtrack is something that I genuinely did not like upon first listen. I was excited for the game, and while the game itself turned out great, the soundtrack I thought was lacking... everything. It had no definition, it had no melody, it had nothing that gripped me... it was just there. As I aged and matured though this is exactly what draws me back to this soundtrack.

Where I once heard noises, now I hear suspense. Where I thought things were lacking I hear layer upon layer of details for me to dig into. When I used to think that this was trash, now I consider this as one of the better dark ambient albums in my collection. I've come around 180 degrees on this, and now consider this an indispensable part of my Nine Inch Nails collection. 

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Entry 1176 - Opus Science Collective - Ideality

Ideality by OSC Style: Synthwave, vaporwave Primary Emotions/Themes: A playful exploration of synths in various genres Thoughts: Ideality ...