Doom Eternalhas managed to impress fans once again with its fast-paced action and gory set-pieces. Fan enthusiasm was met with a strong commercial performance andpositive reviews for the latestDoomtitle, yet the release of the game was not devoid of drama. The soundtrack for the game, which was delayed, was released in a state that some fans found unsatisfactory and the composer of the signature rebootedDoomsound Mick Gordon distanced himself from the project.
Personalmessages between fans and Gordon revealed that he was unlikely to work on aDoomgame again. The Executive Producer ofDoom Eternal, Marty Stratton, has explained the situation in a lengthy post on Reddit, and there seem to be plenty of factors in the eroding relationship between the producers of the title and Gordon. This will help fans understand why they received a poor mix if they purchased the soundtrack but it won’t please those who invested in the product.
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According to Stratton, Mick Gordon was contracted to deliver at least 12 songs to the OST, however, he asked for an extension and suggested he could deliver more tracks to id Software. Stratton has stated that Gordon claimed that four extra weeks would allow “him to provide upwards of 30 tracks and a run-time over two hours.” This meant that the original release date was not met and there were legal strains in terms of ensuring consumer rights were not breached in certain countries.
Stratton went on to explain that Gordon actively supported the idea of having the Lead Audio Designer work on tracks to complete the work as time went on, although they were put to work initially as a backup plan. Unfortunately, this member of theDoom Eternalteam has received abuse from fans.
Apparently, Mick Gordon did not deliver many heavy tracks when he contributed his final 12 songs and the Lead Audio Designer put together the rest of the music from the game around these songs. The issue fans raised was that they were not clipped and mixed properly, and the whole saga seems to stem from a lack of communication.
Firstly, Gordon may have needed to make it clear that the initial time constraints were not possible but also id Software may have needed to better discuss time frames. Either way, it seems that the Lead Audio Designer had to do the best they could with the material and time frame they had and received negative backlash for it. WhileDoom Eternalmade changesto the series, fans could not predict the loss of Gordon in the future.
In the end, a break down in communication eroded a very successful partnership and led to an innocent employee being targeted. There aremany aspects that fans loved aboutDoom Eternalbut the delivery of the soundtrack and the circumstances around it won’t be one of them.
Doom Eternalis available for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
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