By Emma Wilkes
In collaboration with Diablo Immortal
The triumph of heavy metal has long since found its way into other areas of art and culture. You’ll hear him in movies (“The Crow,” the “Saw” series), on television (“Master Of Puppets” by Metallica in the current season of “Stranger Things”), and he’s also played a role in fashion, even if metal band shirts are already available in discount stores. But there’s also one area where the music genre seems to have found an almost natural partner: the world of video games.
The relationship between heavy metal and games is based on similar premise, opening doors to each other to be absorbed into each other. Game series like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” have given young video gamers their first taste of metal’s pounding riffs and raspy vocals. On the other hand, games like Blizzard Entertainment’s “Diablo” series, including Diablo Immortal, now available on mobilemanaged to lure metalheads into their immersive virtual worlds – with soundtracks that either feature numerous greats of the genre or game scores that are heavily influenced by these bands.
“Blizzard has a passion for metal in its DNA,” explains Ryan Quinn, a game developer who worked on the latest iteration of Diablo Immortal. “When I started here in the early 2000s, there were a lot of Pantera shirts and even more devil horns in the hallways. I think it’s just normal for people who make games and people who like games to have these common interests. People want to identify themselves in the media and arts that they use, so when you bring out deep passions, as is the case with the many metal references in Blizzard games, that appeals to a lot of people.”
It all started with…Journey
As early as the early 1980s, the popularity of metal music almost naturally collided with evolving video game technology. In 1982, the American rock band Journey (“Don’t Stop Believin”) released the game “Journey Escape” for the Atari 2600, in which the players had to guide Steve Perry and Co. through a series of levels. They had to make their way past paparazzi, groupies and promoters so the band could get to their performance on time. While it wasn’t the most sophisticated or modern game (it was still the 80’s after all!), the idea was to combine music and games and give fans a way to connect with their favorite band and not only to hear their songs, strong appeal.
Mötley Crüe were among the first to jump on the bandwagon, lending their name and songs to a pinball game innovatively titled Crüe Ball for the Mega Drive in 1992. A rail shooter game by Aerosmith called Revolution X hit arcades in 1994, and KISS also used the shooter format for a video game called Kiss: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child, released in 2000 and on Todd McFarlanes “Psycho Circus” comic series based. Iron Maiden had released their own PC shooter Ed Hunter a year earlier, in which players roam through pixelated landscapes reminiscent of their famous albums – from the gloomy backyards of London (“Killers”) to the dusty Egyptian ones Deserts (“Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”).
“If I just look at the basic idea of ’Diablo’, killing a devil, what could be more metal?”
Now, the notion of bands releasing their own video games linked to their names is somewhat outdated (barring obscure exceptions like 2016’s Iron Maiden’s Legacy of the Beast). But there are still musicians involved in the game world, albeit in a less conspicuous way. For example, for the release of the remastered version of Diablo II last year, Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia collaborated with YouTuber Mark the Hammer on the song Start Again, while Diablo Immortal boasted three stars from the UK scene: gothic metal legends Cradle of Filth, metalcore heroes Bury Tomorrow and doom-punk masters Witch Fever.
Perhaps the greatest homage to heavy metal, however, is the games’ thematic focus. 1996’s Duke Nukem 3D embraced the burgeoning nu-metal culture of the time with its sound blend of heavy metal and hip-hop—from Megadeth to Coal Chamber to the Wu-Tang Clan. “DOOM” composer Bobby Prince took inspiration from Metallica, Pantera, Slayer and Judas Priest, although the score still sounds heavily video game and not a pure metal mixup (Nine Inch Nails vocalist Trent Reznor , arranged several tracks for the 1996 soundtrack of “Quake,” heir to the throne of “DOOM”).
Other video games took the aura of famous metal personalities and incorporated them into their stories. For example, the 1989 Nintendo NES game Holy Diver featured characters named Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio. 2009’s adventure game Brutal Legend, on the other hand, even boasted a metal dream team of sorts: Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Tim Curry and Ozzy Osbourne all made an appearance, and Jack Black voiced Lemmy-inspired protagonist Eddie Riggs.
“Diablo” always breathed the spirit of metal
The “Diablo” series has creatively absorbed these influences. Even the storylines of the games breathe the spirit of metal. While writing, developer Ryan Quinn listens to Metal to empathize with the characters’ feelings and to make them as authentic as possible in the game. “In ‘Diablo,’ our stories tend to be about people who are depressed and behave in a desperate way – someone hears voices, someone else is insanely jealous or possessed by a demon,” says Quinn. “A lot of metal records are about coping with existential horror, the terror of being exposed to your own body, dying at a young age, feeling distant or alienated from society. Music becomes a really powerful source to get you into that mindset.”
Quinn’s words only scratch the surface of the diverse thematic overlap between heavy metal and video games. There’s just a shared fascination these two art forms have for darkness and horror, but also for the uncanny, the fantastic, and the macabre. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that they both kind of get in bed together. “I think Diablo is all about the story,” enthuses Bury Tomorrow bassist Davyd Winter-Bates. “With any good dungeon crawler, you want to lose yourself in the fantasy and really believe the world you’re playing in is real. Being able to dive into this world from anywhere on Immortal is amazing.”
“As a band we’re always influenced by horror and religious imagery, so it’s fun to play a game that explores those themes.”
Of course, the dissonance and aggressiveness of heavy metal sounds also add a lot to the gaming experience, especially in horror games. “Metal has a bit of disharmony to it, and it relies on sonic elements like high volume, clinking metal noise, double drum fills, which I think a certain number of people feel instinctively, maybe genetically, uncomfortable with,” says Quinn. “I think dissonance like that is very important for horror. It’s really crucial to bet on that quiet-loud thing when you’re building tension.”
Witch Fever also find this interaction so attractive in the game. “As a band we’re always influenced by horror and religious imagery, so it’s fun to play a game that explores those themes,” they say. “We also love all the different creatures you fight along the way.”
For the uninitiated, the Diablo games are set in the dark fantasy world of Sanctuary, where the people who live there are caught up in a conflict with hordes of demons led by the eponymous villain. They fight in a world of fire and brimstone, teeming with horned demons and spiked angels, burning corpses, blood and entrails. “They would definitely look good on any metal album cover from the ’90s through today,” says Quinn with a laugh. It’s arguably a world that would still feel metal even if the game wasn’t made by metalheads. “If I just look at the basic idea of ’Diablo’, killing a devil, what could be more metal?”
These detailed images of hell are one reason why the first two “Diablo” games, released in 1997 and 2000, wrote video game history. “I don’t think there was nearly as much emphasis on elaboration of such dark themes or confronting evil directly before ‘Diablo I,'” says Quinn. “In the ‘Diablo’ games, you go straight to where evil resides and confront it there. You don’t wait for it to happen. For me, not only does it fit perfectly with the imagery of classic metal video clips, but I think thematically in this style of music, it’s also about facing the hard things in life and trying to accept them, acknowledge them or use them as a challenge accept.”
Dani Filth agrees. “I love that despite the setbacks that might take you a few tries to beat the bosses, you have the opportunity to fully compensate for your initial imperfections through continued play,” he says. “Fortunately, this is backed up by the fantastic graphics and atmospheric background music, which makes the experience even more immersive. Plus, apart from maybe air travel, you can play it on your phone literally anywhere.”
The Diablo legacy has continued to evolve into the present. The second (and arguably most iconic) game was relaunched last year. In June, the free-to-play edition “Diablo Immortal” was also released, which takes place between the second and third “Diablo” parts. The fourth title in the series will be hitting shelves next year. Quinn thinks there couldn’t be a better time to do it. “We’re living in quite a Metal era,” he says. “The pandemic has made things feel a bit apocalyptic. I think we’re only going to get more metal.”
here you can see Dani Filth, Witch Fever and Bury Tomorrow brave the fires of Hell in Diablo Immortal.
Diablo Immortal is now available to download for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, as well as on PC Battle.net ready. The game lets players rise to become the champions of Sanctuary to defeat the hordes of Hell and progress through a whole host of new quests and zones, including familiar locations for experienced Diablo players, as well as new ones that require it is to be explored.
If you want to learn more about “Diablo Immortal”, take a look at the site over or follow the official one Twitter account for live updates.
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