Music Spot: Dusk- Keepers of the Gate

Dusk is one of the best games I’ve played in a while, maybe this entire year. I could probably write a full feature on it, but I still need to digest the full experience and I just did Blood quite recently. Andrew Hulshult, the go-to guy for great FPS soundtracks, provides the music here, and it’s glorious. A lot of Dusk’s soundtrack is atmospheric and foreboding, but I wanted to give mention to Keepers of the Gate, which is a much harder track. The version I’ve cut up is the latter half, but the entire song is drenched in these heavy guitars, cranking steady marcato beats. What really makes it is the drums, which hit absurdly hard. Together, you get this rhythmic ebb and flow of sound that just keeps hitting on 1 and 4. An off-kilter grinding, pitched higher and not playing on the same even beats, gives this chaotic feeling before it builds into a very vocal-sounding climax, a legato melody whose contrast opens the song up to a really grand scale. It’s perfect accompaniment to one of the most intense, frenetic battles in a game that already got my pupils dilating; not too intrusive to distract, but the strong backing gives it just enough presence to embody your own focus.