If I were to list my two biggest passions in life, it would probably be music and video games. When I was wee lad in my teens, my tastes in video games were developing along side my tastes in music, and looking back it's pretty clear that there was plenty of back and forth influence between the two. I'm pretty sure I found out about Nine Inch Nails, one of my favorite artists of all time, due to the work Reznor did for Quake. And then Quake 2 came along, and while I had no idea who "Sonic Mayhem" was, its soundtrack pretty much floored me and got me to learn guitar (I think..memory is getting fuzzy as to which came first).

If you're a fan at all of guitar-driven metal, you owe it to yourself to listen to the whole soundtrack. It is chock full of some killer riffage that, in my humble opinion, is right up there with the best of them. Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Guns n' Roses...and Sonic Mayhem. I mean just listen to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THcQhZxtiDo

That ain't no joke, son. That is some good ol' meat and potatoes head-bangin' metal riffage, and I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Eg2onR7Gs&feature=related

Goooood gracious lord! When the main riff kicks in I just wanna smash a Styrofoam cup or something! And then we have more industrial-ish tracks like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGwZgjOHNeo&feature=related

I dare you to tell me you didn't just completely flip your shit when that part around 1:10 kicks in. I AM FLIPPING MY SHIT RIGHT NOW YEAAAAHHHHHH. And then we have some serious slickness like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpndTkxFkVY&feature=related

So, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit (that's what blogs are for right?), but the Quake 2 soundtrack is gonna go down in my personal history as a master piece of raw, unfiltered instrumental metal that will stand the test of time. A good riff never dies.

I'm happy to say that Sonic Mayhem went on to have quite a prolific career in video game soundtracks, having done recent work in games like Mass Effect 3 and Borderlands. Keep up the good work, sir! His style has changed from the guitar-heavy stuff of Quake 2 into more symphonic/techno sounds, which is a bit sad to me, but whatever keep kicking ass!

PS: Does any one know of any "real bands" that sound like this? People usually tell me to listen to KMFDM and other industrial bands, but they just don't scratch that same riff-heavy itch Q2 does...