[NOTE: If you dislike ambient or noisy game music, you can skip this thread. You won't miss anything.]

Anyone listened to the Demento OST? I noticed there has been no mention of it on these forums, even though it was released last summer. It's been a semi-favourite of mine which I've listened to on and off the last couple of months. This is the soundtrack to the Capcom horror game called "Haunting Ground" in the West.

The music is set deep in ambient/industrial/weird sounds country. Not much of any melodies on here. Listening to it, I'm reminded of a lot of different classics in this field, like Silent Hill 1 OST, Baroque OST, Parasite Eve 2 OST, and certain aspects of the various Shadow Hearts OSTs. It's not as great or thought-out as any of those, but if you liked one or more of them, you might want to give this CD a try.

The music never shakes you very much, even the threatening, "noisy" pieces are pretty subdued (and the volume is quite low for some reason). But this aspect makes it easier to have the music on in the background without getting any sudden jarring surprises (although I must admit, the first time I got to "W->R Carousel", I nearly fell off the chair). Many of the battle/chase themes (or whatever they're supposed to be) are pretty tame when compared to the likes of Silent Hill OST, they sound a little too techno-ish and bouncy to truly imprint the feeling they're designed to inflict upon the listener. So, I would definitely say that it's the calmer pieces that make this OST. "Precious Hewie" is particularly beautiful. Some of the tracks sound very similar to the "berserk" battle themes from the Shadow Hearts soundtracks (you know, the weirded out versions that always follow directly after the ordinary versions on the OST CDs?). This is particularly true of "Something Lacking" - just listen to it! If someone told me Yoshitaka Hirota had composed it, I'd have no trouble believing them.

The composer is one Seiko Kobuchi (Shinya Okada did a few tracks, but the vast majority of the tracks are by Kobuchi). Correct me if I'm wrong, but Seiko is a female name, right? This would make sense, since according to the liner notes, the composer is also the singer on the vocal tracks, and there are only female vocals on the album. This might be a first - a soundtrack where the composer is also the vocalist in the ending vocal theme. And what a voice! That song is called "Endless Zero", and it certainly is one of the dreamiest and most beautiful vocals I've ever heard in a game. Very cool instrumentation also.

All things considered, it's a pretty solid album, although I'm growing a bit tired of it by now. If my description sparked your interest, I'd definitely recommend you look into it, and at least give it a download and a few listen-throughs. IMO, it's the best new Capcom OST since Chaos Legion. And you've gotta love that cover!

On a side-note: Anyone played the game? It's one of the few recent games I'm actually interested in. It seems to be the spiritual successor of Clock Tower 3, but looks much better and improved (I sure hope so... ). The game mechanics, and especially the dog companion, sound very appealing to me. Anyone care to share any thoughts...? As both a horror-lover and a dog-lover (hehe), this might be something for me.

I DID listen to a rip someone did once, even taking the time to loop the tracks. (A habit I seem to have developed recently. )

It was interesting, although it's up against some tough competition. And I think one thing that hurt it was the fact that the "Final Encounter" themes we too similar.

I'd write more, but I have an appointment to keep now. Later!

Searched around for some info on her, and found this page. Anyone who knows Japanese care to check the page to see if there's any other relevant information there? She seems to have released a solo-album. If the vocal track from Demento OST is any indication, there might be some good stuff on there...

She's also credited as one of the composers of "Rockman X Command Mission". I don't keep up with Rockman music these days, is this soundtrack any good? What style is it, etc.?

The Command Mission OST is very blah electronica.  Easily the worst Rockman soundtrack ever released.

The "Precious Hewie" and "Endless Zero" mixes are the only thing worth listening to on this soundtrack.  But then again, this OST would come in handy as a Halloween soundtrack

Uh, OK. Please tell me: do you usually like the type of music present on the Demento OST, or do you only listen to more melodic/non-ambient music?

If you do not like this type of music: why are you replying to this thread? Did you miss the disclaimer at the very top?

If you like this type of music: care to elaborate more specifically what you didn't like about the soundtrack?

I saw your disclaimer saying I "can" skip this thread, but I chose not to.  God forbid I post an opinion.  The tracks I listed are good tracks, so I chose to mention them for the sake of the people, like myself, who prefer melodic music.  Take a breather.

It just seemed a little redundant to me. From the tracks you listed, I guessed as much that you were into more melodic music, and it just seemed strange to me that you would bother to post something about a soundtrack where you only liked 2 out of 37 tracks. I could understand getting involved if you're usually a fan of this type of music and you're disappointed with this particular soundtrack, but if you don't even like non-melodic music, why bother in the first place? It's not like the soundtrack would even have any chance of impressing you. It would be like me getting involved in a discussion about an orchestral soundtrack, or whatever.

As for "Take a breather", I'm not irritated, your post just confused me a bit. Now, does anyone who is a fan of this type of music have anything to say, so there might be fruitful discussion, or should we just terminate the subject here?

heyyy...i love that game! the music is what gets me the most. beautiful tbh. i cannot find it to download it anywhere though! ive been trying for the past 4 days! i love the music when Daniella chases you! and daniella just wow....it makes me want to be a psychob***h glass weilding killer...but erm yeah please help? i dunno where to get it. i love the music to the game though so i want it...but i cant afford to buy it haha.