How does Doom sound to you?

[Astar]

Let me explain.

One day I was playing Eviternity or something like that and streaming it on discord. Pleasant music was playing on the map with melodies from synthesizers, piano and possibly marimba.... I don’t remember exactly.

 

And one of the people suddenly says: “Wtf is this music? Is this Super Mario? Doom should be metal.”

 

And I asked in sincere surprise: “Since when..?”

 

Then I thought...

But really - how do other people perceive the soundtrack from Doom?

And the sound of the game in general.

 

For many people, in their minds, Doom is associated exclusively with metal. I had my first Doom on PS1, so for me the ambient soundtrack has a place.

I know a person who generally associates Doom with creepy silence, lol

[WASFDDDDD]

Honestly I think most WADs would do well with an ambient metal track, but it's whatever the mapper thinks is best honestly

[Foxface]

I have to imagine Doom has only become associated with metal due to the totally rad nudoom Mick Gordon soundtrack and the, as well as the (relative to the original) ultra violence of the new games being generally associated with metal.

[Shepardus]

Going by what you're most likely to hear upon playing a random Doom WAD, the sound of Doom is D_RUNNIN.

 

Someone saying that Doom "should be" any one thing says more about the person than the game.

 

17 minutes ago, Firebert said:

I have to imagine Doom has only become associated with metal due to the totally rad nudoom Mick Gordon soundtrack and the, as well as the (relative to the original) ultra violence of the new games being generally associated with metal.

Well it's not just that, Doom has been associated with metal ever since John Romero handed Bobby Prince a stack of metal records as inspiration for Doom's soundtrack.

[roadworx]

1 hour ago, Firebert said:

I have to imagine Doom has only become associated with metal due to the totally rad nudoom Mick Gordon soundtrack and the, as well as the (relative to the original) ultra violence of the new games being generally associated with metal.

that's not true in the slightest. stewboy's compositions used to be somewhat controversial back when he was starting out cuz they didn't sound like rock or metal, and had much more in common with tracker music

[Naarok0fkor]

DSBGACT...

[esselfortium]

Yeah, people definitely used to be more set in their ways about what Doom music could be. When BTSX first came out in the early 2010s, someone on here described its soundtrack as "Mexican soap opera music" and asked if the composers were in a competition to see "who could be the most homosexual"(???). Nowadays it seems more accepted to have a variety of sounds and moods in a WAD soundtrack instead of just cheesy general-midi representations of "rawr rawr rip and tear ur guts" etc.

[Novaseer]

4 minutes ago, esselfortium said:

and asked if the composers were in a competition to see "who could be the most homosexual"(???)

fellas is it gay to like music

[Devalaous]

Given how common dance and pop music and stuff like Das Boot is in Maximum Doom era wads, I guess the 'rock and metal' obsession was something the community grew into.

[fruity lerlups]

for the most part, groovey and tongue in cheek. The most memorable stuff to me is like Imp Song, The Healer Stalks.

Occasionall interspersed with some gothic stuff like Theyre going to get you, or a heart pounder like Kitchen Ace, and the occasion ambience.

The groovy tongue in cheek stuff, is ironically, despite some of the funnest stuff from og doom, is what seems missing in people's mind.

[Devalaous]

12 minutes ago, Novaseer said:

fellas is it gay to like music

 

I am 156.9% gay for Cammy and Tristan's music

[DankMetal]

Honestly, i don't care.

Any genre of music can fit surprisingly well with doom, depending on the map.

Synthwave? You got it. Thrash, death, and all kinds of extreme metal? Since year 1. Gothic rock/ deathrock? More harder to find, but there are definitively some(look at scythe 2's first episode for example).

People who think that doom should be just heavy metal/ djent are mostly those who knows about the franchise on a surface level. Not even NuDoom is just metal, there's also some atmospheric themes here and there.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

It should be the aural equivalent of Hulk Hogan with a boner wrestling Thanos on top of a volcano while nukes fly overhead as Russian mobsters kill each other with monster trucks and helicopters. Either that or it should sound gay, same difference.

[Pokemanic33]

Music is one of the best tools in a mapmaker's toolkits. The beauty of Doom wads is that they're a reflection of the author. Bobby made the music that id was listening to while they developed it, and nothing makes my day more than opening a wad and hearing midi conversions of songs that the author liked. DWANGO had NIN, Megadeth, Nirvana, all reflecting the tastes of the authors.

[Doom-X-Machina]

<RAH!!!!!>

 

<BANG BANG BANG>

 

<SHRIEK>

 

<BANG BANG BANG>

 

<KABOOM!!>

<CLICK CLICK>

<BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH... NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING>

[DynamiteKaitorn]

*insert the sound of me firing the plasma rifle from sunrise to sunset*

[Astar]

1 hour ago, esselfortium said:

"who could be the most homosexual"

'xcuse me WHAT?? 

[OnionTaco22]

Both metal and ambient for the most part. Also sometimes in wads there might be some chill music. Mainly depends on the theme of the game/wad and whatever the people who made the wad want the music to be like.

[JustHeziel]

Metal, by default/mostly.

 

But, I've never thought it is exclusively metal.

 

Even my favorite Lullaby is not metal, haha.

[yakfak]

doubling back for health pick-ups is incredibly metal and deserves an exhausting djikadunn dunndjika soundtrack imo

 

doomguy staring out a window to a wailing 150bpm dual guitar solo over Em C D Em Em C D B7 absolutely cinches teh mood, ambient music could never capture this emotion

 

edit: maybe that it's that the player can't hope to live up to a metal soundtrack? putting a fast midi in a doom wad where you fire the SSG is like sonic 2 level design - it wants you to go fast but it's actually impossible

[idbeholdME]

When I hear the term "Doom music", the first thing that comes to my mind is MIDI, not really a specific genre.

 

The nuDooms really pushed the "Doom=metal" notion, but it was never really the case for me.

[Insaneprophet]

Its a well known, long proven fact, that the Morbid Angel album Domination is THE sound track to all Doom games including community made wads/mods. I pesonally tested this back in the 90s and can confirm that note for note it synchs up to every game tic better than Pink Floyds The Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wizard Of Oz. Still holds true today, I just tied it again with Puss, Die Rudy yesterday, with perfect results!

[ZeroTheEro]

On 1/30/2024 at 8:45 AM, esselfortium said:

someone on ZDoom forums described its soundtrack as "Mexican soap opera music" and asked if the composers were in a competition to see "who could be the most homosexual"

lmao

Though honestly, Doom music would be metal but there's nothing to stop you from imagining a Doom map while listening a music from a shmup...

...like so.

[Sonikkumania]

Hard Rock and Metal most of the time but smoother and more ambient tracks like Imp Song and Healer Stalks work very well.

I once used the midi rendition of Sonic CD US Bonus stage music and it did work too.

[faceplant641]

2 hours ago, ZeroTheEro said:

lmao

Though honestly, Doom music would be metal but there's nothing to stop you from imagining a Doom map while listening a music from a shmup...

...like so.

Love it. 

 

If there's ever an Auger;Zenith 2, I want at least one track from Gunvein on there.

 

[durian]

Creepy silence for me, unless it's the og maps and I'm on a nostalgia trip. I kinda feel bad for turning the music off when I know that talented composers have contributed tracks that I would probably enjoy if I listened to them in a different context, but I'm set in my ways, and find the game more immersive without music.

[Gifty]

The original Doom is such a gumbo mishmash of influences, aesthetics and art sources that it's a little foolhardy and history revisionist to say it is definitively ONE! aesthetic genre. The original soundtrack is clearly riffing on hard rock, blues, metal, classical, and 80s John Carpenterish film scores. Having said that, there is a unifying emotional thread of darkness, danger, tension and intensity. I think when people complain about the dissonance of colorful, platformery modern megawad music, what they're really sensing is the base game's gritty tone clashing with the more whimsical tone of the custom-made elements. And I feel that too, honestly, even if the music on its own is fantastic!

[SitarA]

It sounds like Japanese schoolgirls.

[Zulk RS]

Honestly... at this point Doom modding has grown so much that I'd say ANY music is Doom music if placed in the right music.

 

Yes... you can even use Despacito and Barbie Girl as the music to a doom level and it would still feel like "Doom"

[T-Squared]

To me, Doom needs to be heard with a Adlib/Sound Blaster card to appreciate the deep, harsh, gritty tones that they intended for the game. What makes the music so flat-sounding is the poor samples in the wavetable versions.