4 out of 5

Label: Laced

Produced by: Akira Yamaoka

My first impression, beyond my love for this music – my familiarity with the Silent Hill themes, worked on across multiple game iterations by composer Akira Yamaoka; my appreciation for his wide-ranging, graceful style – was that this didn’t sound / feel like a Silent Hill game. That is: this is absolutely the music of Silent Hill, but not one that felt right for a video game, and especially not the slightly more frantic pace of the 2024 SH2 remake versus the original. It’s a plus and a minus: that the music here is so naturalistic, and cinematic, that it tells a story, for sure, but not one I can map to a horror video game – rather something more narrative-based; dramatic; emotional. Obviously that means this is pretty impactful stuff – so imagine how moving some of the core themes of Yamaoka’s SH works can be, and then expand that outward to fuller orchestration, or a full band, or lusher, blockbuster-sized production – but it also means that the story “told” by this score is simply quite different from the experience of playing the game.

I rewind, though, to note that this is the 2xLP edition, versus a 6xLP more complete score; the tracks here were compiled by the composer. With that context, it’s fair to say that this isn’t meant to be the game score, necessarily, but rather a compressed embodiment of the music, or overall feelings the game may represent.

We do get some classic ambient moments, but it veers away from the outright noise or unnerving drone found on most SH soundtracks. Pianos and strings and lonely strums otherwise guide our way, joined for propulsive moments by layers of rock, or a more fleshed out orchestra. Occasionally the industrial / electronic underbelly rears its head, but it’s more of a complement to an overall organic sound, often slow-boiling us to a thematic groove.

With the reconsidered context, this is an amazing accomplishment. It is undeniably recognizable as a work within the Silent Hill universe, though it speaks to a deeper, more expressive version of previous scores – allowing that there was some purposeful distance in those scores, vibing with game themes. But this curated tracklist gives Yamaoka to present a particular vision, and he does.

Laced’s mastering is good – it’s not overly digital sounding. But it’s not necessarily leaning into the vinyl format either; I wouldn’t say it sounds optimized for the format. Somewhat along these lines, the packaging feels rather lacking. I appreciate that Laced tends to not bog down their releases with bells and whistles to, perhaps, keep costs reasonable, but the layout of the sleeves and colors / images chosen just feel very uneventful, and beyond using game font and etcetera, don’t much align with either the game’s sensibilities or that of this version of the score. So a point knocked for presentation.