I was super excited when I heard that Akira Yamaoka, the genius behind the sounds of horror franchise Silent Hill, was touring the UK this Halloween with a live backing band. Before its recent decline, Silent Hill was the premier survival-horror gaming series, delivering slowly creeping dread and psychological chills alongside its grotesque monsters and jump scares.
One area where it stood head and shoulders above the B-movie silliness of its closest competitor, Resident Evil, was the quality of its sound design – moody, electronic instrumentals built dread before exploding into guitar-led Americana perfectly suited to its small-town American setting. Sixteen years after the series’ first game gave me nightmares for the first time, I still use the soundtracks for atmosphere when I’m writing something spooky, creepy, or just downright unpleasant.
Tickets secured, I arrived at Islington’s Assembly Hall’s pitch-black interior – rather than having the lights up so people could find their seats (upstairs) or a good place to stand (downstairs), the lights remained down, and actors roamed the floor dressed as characters from the games – nurses with bandaged faces, blood-spattered little girls, and muscular men with metallic pyramids for heads. This was a nice touch and really set the mood, as they crept around the auditorium delivering jump scares to the inattentive.
The support act was the one-man musical project, Arcimago, who composes giallo-inspired scores for horror films that don’t exist. He seemed to have a great time, a demented one-man-band in a Phantom-of-the-Opera-style mask bouncing around like a broken jack-in-the-box. His compositions held the audience rapt; we were so absorbed that when, twenty minutes into an until-then purely-instrumental set, he suddenly started singing in a booming bass half of the crowd jumped in fright. This was during stand-out track “Canzone Funerale” which starts with a slow, ominous build-up before exploding into something much groovier. He certainly won me over, and I’ve already used a couple of his songs to soundtrack a gaming session.
Most of the music in the Silent Hill series builds a low, oppressive mood; therefore I had imagined a sombre gig, images from the game projected behind the band as they laid down some dense atmospherics. Game clips were present, but I was surprised when Akira Yamaoka exploded onto the stage like a full-blown rock star. The majority of the set consisted of the series’ guitar-led tracks given a heavy, almost industrial makeover. Yamaoka was undoubtedly the star of the show and played up to his audience, loving every single bang of his head and shred of his guitar. The crowd was appreciative, too – this was far from the creepy, geeky chill-out I had envisaged and something closer to seeing Nine Inch Nails.
The Silent Hill Live band sometimes perform with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, vocalist on the original tracks, but for whatever reason she wasn’t available for the UK tour. Her replacement, introduced only as Karina from Australia, was more than adequate – her onstage banter left a little to be desired but she hit it where it counts, her powerful voice carrying just the right mix of power and vulnerability in tracks Silent Hill 4‘s “Your Rain” and Revelations‘ “Silent Scream.” The rest of the band wasn’t just there to make up the numbers, either, especially when it came to powerful, virtuoso drum solos and spine-chilling mandolin sections.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJCDQvGAQHg
It wasn’t unrelentingly heavy, however; there were also some more emotional moments. Halfway through the set the backing band left and Yamaoka took his place behind a keyboard while Karina continued her turn on the microphone. Yamaoka’s skills as a composer are not just restricted to guitar noise and electronic soundtracks – he also writes a mean tear-jerking ballad. I’m not afraid to say I had a lump in my throat during the full-length rendition of “Room of Angel,” which features one of my favourite choruses, ever: “Here’s a lullaby to close your eyes, it was always you that I despised.”
Silent Hill Live was not what I expected – it was better. Akira Yamaoka has gone out of his way to craft something that is beyond mere fan-service, playing a full, nuanced ninety-minute set worthy of any metal band. His rock star strut while playing contrasted with his meek persona between songs, but he earned his cockiness – since the first game’s 1999 release, he has built an incredibly strong catalogue. I cannot think of another game series that could even come close to supporting an act like this, and it was brilliant to hear old favourites given a heavy, modern makeover, while still pleasing fans. Konami needs to pull their finger out and make a new game before Yamaoka decides he’s better than all that and takes to full-time performance – after this showing I wouldn’t blame him at all.
