It was just announced at E3 that Daniel Licht will be composing the music for the next Silent Hill game.  For those who aren't familiar with him, some of his notable works include a couple of the Amityville movies, Children of the Corn 2 and 3, Hellraiser: Bloodline, Thinner, and my personal favorite.. the Showtime series Dexter.  I've always noticed and loved the music in Dexter so I'm actually pretty happy about this decision.  While he's certainly no Yamaoka, I think he's skilled enough to take on the task.

Thoughts?

I'm not familiar with his previous works, but let's see what he can do.

By the way, have they announced when the next game will be released and for what system(s)?

2011, PS3 and 360.

You can hear some of his music at his official site btw: http://www.danlicht.com/

Speaking of Silent Hill (need to play that copy of the first one I picked up already!) someone told me Konami sold the IP off and they don't make the games anymore. Is this true or is this a case of another gamestop employee thinking he knows what he's talking about?

Anyway, I have tomorrow off so I'll have to pop it in.

That one.  Just because they hire Western studios to make the games now doesn't mean they don't own the IP. 

I still wonder just what exactly Konami DOES develop in-house anymore, other than Metal Gear...

Well he's definitely got the right body of work behind him. I'm certainly interested to see what direction he takes and very much hope he can add something new to Silent Hill.

I can't really think of any example of game companies selling off their IPs, except when they're going under. I mean, if a healthy, stable business has a desirable asset, then they'd most likely be best off keeping it for themselves.

Anyway, I too really like the music in Dexter, so it'll be interesting to see what results of this.

There's a trailer available that will give you a bit of an impression of Mr. Licht's work for the upcoming game.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-20 … ill/700165

Sounds as if he's definitely inspired by Yamaoka's previous work, but not to the extent that he's trying to copy him too much.
Sounds pretty decent actually. Let's hope they don't mess the game itself up.

Hm, mixed impressions so far. The music sounds decent enough, and the graphics look lovely (and not just in a technical sense, I love that kind of rainy and gloomy atmosphere seen in the video). Out of the previous SH-games, it definitely reminds me most of Homecoming. I like Homecoming more than most do, but, while it was a good enough game in it's own right, its not quite what I want SH to be.

Anyway, its way too early to tell. Thanks for posting the link!

I like the whole fugative angle and, yes, it's far too early to tell how it will turn out. Doesn't arouse my curiosity the way Shattered Memories did though - probably because it looks very much like a 'regular' Silent Hill game and we've had plenty of those. But the gloomy feel definitely works and the last few shots looked pretty intense. With a new team and new composer, at the very least it should offer something interesting.

Still baffles me slightly that Climax isn't doing it.

Definitely, especially since SHattered Memories was quite good, both as a game and a score.  In fact, it's one of my favorite Wii titles.  I can only hope that SM will get a follow-up on Wii, if not at least the successor to it.

Very legitimate question indeed.
Dance Masters? /sarcasm

and on the new silent hill trailer, the music sounds like x files theme

I Think Daniel will do a good job. Akira Yamaoka style is similar to Daniels. In saying that, the style itself is not that hard to imittate IMO so Daniel could make a Silent Hill OST pretty well.

Judging from the trailer, I think Licht's music is good though it sounds a bit typical of the horror genre compared to previous SH scores. Yamaoka's music had a lot of character and gave Silent Hill a lot of its feeling of despair and terror. Even though I wasn't much impressed by the music on the last three SH soundtracks, they probably worked great in game (I didn't play these titles).

Also, did anybody else think of the Zelda 1 dungeon music while listening to the trailer?

Here's a sample - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEft_YLMF-8

I like it. It's interesting. Doesn't seem to be an attempt to do a Yamaoka and yet the feel is clearly inspired by the earlier Silent Hills.

Bah. What's Yamaoka's next work?

Shadows of the Damned, I think.