The Artist Responsible For the Silent Hill 2 OST Discusses the Challenge of Revisiting the Iconic Score For the Remake

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The Artist Responsible For the Silent Hill 2 OST Discusses the Challenge of Revisiting the Iconic Score For the Remake

There’s little doubt within the Silent Hill fandom that the games, especially Silent Hill 2 onwards, just wouldn’t be the same without the brilliant OSTs by Akira Yamaoka.

However, Yamaoka’s approach to music has significantly evolved over the years, as seen through his recent works on Decarnation and The Medium. Now, perhaps as a direct result of said evolution, the artist seems to be facing a major challenge with recreating his most iconic tracks for the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake.

Akira Yamaoka Discusses the Aspects of Remaking Silent Hill 2’s Soundtrack

Take any list covering any particular aspect of horror games, and it would be almost impossible not to mention the impact of sound design and music on said aspect. Of course, most fans of horror are aware that this statement stands the truest for Silent Hill.

For Akira Yamaoka, though, it seems that recreating the sounds for one of his greatest works has been a rather tricky task, as shared by the artist on X:

Remade all the original tracks and added new ones. After 25 years, my approach to music has evolved. This work reflects that change, blending past passion with today’s sound, challenging me like never before.

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— Akira Yamaoka (@AkiraYamaoka)

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People often assume that revisiting past sounds should be easy for a musician, but that is hardly ever the case, as an artist is always on the path of continuous evolution and iteration. It’s actually far ******* to look back on one’s previous piece of art, and without being too harsh on its faults, recreate and evolve it.

Yamaoka’s sounds have also undergone enormous change with the passage of time, so it makes sense why revisiting a nearly two-and-a-half-decade-old soundtrack and evolving it for Bloober Team’s remake according to his current sensibilities would be quite hard.

Since 2001’s Silent Hill 2, Yamaoka’s Sound Design Has Been Constantly Evolving

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Unsurprisingly, Silent Hill 2 Remake’s OST has received unanimous praise from the fan base – Image Credit: Konami.

It’s important to remember how each new entry in the Silent Hill franchise has had a considerably different and iterative soundtrack from the previous title. Not to mention, it’s easy to trace an evolution path between these games while carrying a few basic characteristics from one to the other.

For instance, under Konami for the first Silent Hill, Yamaoka combined Western rock themes with undertones taken directly from ********* instruments such as the Koto to create a sense of a thrilling but disturbing adventure.

Then, for Silent Hill 2, the same music was tuned to be a lot more melancholic and disturbing while ditching the ********* tones to better fit the game’s theme and narrative.

Similarly, for Silent Hill 3, the soundtrack was iterated to better suit a teenager’s perspective and Heather’s overall journey. Then, for The Room, Yamaoka presented his darkest rendition of his past sounds to match both the rise of the more extreme sub-genres of heavy metal and the game’s narrative.

All this while ensuring that each OST feels like a living organism, somehow alive and breathing. From what we’ve seen of Silent Hill 2 Remake so far, it seems that the impact his old track produced is alive, too, ready to take our hands and drag our hands through the series’ most disturbing tale once more.

With that said, what are your thoughts on Silent Hill 2 Remake’s soundtrack so far? Should Yamaoka keep the soundtrack largely unchanged for the remake? Let us know in the comments below.

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