Brütal Legend - Soundtrack

Soundtrack

Brütal Legend features 107 heavy metal tracks from 75 different bands, selected by Schafer and Music Director Emily Ridgway as listed below, each song being a "completely sincere choice" by Schafer and Ridgway, with the whole track list being "designed to be loved by Metal fans." Schafer sought to include songs from most main sub-genres of metal, including classic heavy metal, industrial metal, black metal, and doom metal, with each faction in the game favoring a specific type. Though Schafer and others on the Double Fine team had vast knowledge of specific types of metal, Ridgway turned to a used-CD store owner named Allan from Aquarius Records who had "encyclopedic knowledge" of the entire genre, and who provided the team with sample CDs to help them discover some of the more obscure metal bands. Schafer also credits Black with some of the music selections for the game. Instead of relying on labels or bands to provide them with a list of possible songs to select from, the development team sought permission to use specific songs they wanted in the game. In some cases, obtaining appropriate licensing proved difficult, as for songs from bands that had long split up, Double Fine needed to contact each band member to gain permission. This proved to be valuable, as some original bands were excited about their music being used in the game; in one case, Lita Ford was able to provide the game with a song with slight modifications to the lyrics from a version that she was about to release. One song is from the in-game band "Kabbage Boy" for which Eddie is a roadie at the start of the game.

In addition to licensed music, the game includes over 70 minutes of original score by Tim Schafer's long term collaborator Peter McConnell. McConnell composed pieces for orchestra and Metal band to tie in with the licensed music in the game. Also, the in-game soundtrack contains an instrumental drum track played by Slough Feg drummer Harry Cantwell, and the solos triggered by the player during the game were composed and recorded by Judas Priest guitarists Glenn Tipton (Eddie's solos) and K.K. Downing (Ophelia's and Doviculus' solos). While Schafer would like to have a soundtrack album for the game, he stated that there were already difficulties in securing the licenses for songs within the game and was not sure if it would be possible to extend them to a soundtrack. Schafer helped to select three songs—"We Are The Road Crew" by Motorhead, "The Metal" by Tenacious D, and "More Than Meets The Eye" by Testament—to appear in a pack of Rock Band downloadable songs that was made available the same day as Brütal Legend's release.