Slender: The Arrival OST

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I absolutely love the soundtrack of the horror genre, because fear is a strong emotion, and music's ability to cause such strong emotion within audience always fascinates me. Today I will be analysing two soundtracks from a horror video game - Slender: The Arrival. 

Conceal

"Conceal" is used in the stage "Into the Abyss" where the player has to turn on generators in a mine when being stalked by Slender Man and a woman who became Slender Man's victim . This piece is very repetitive since it is designed to be looped through the game stage. This piece has changes of time signature or is free rhythm because there is no definite beat in the beginning, and the time signature changes in the middle of the game. Strings are the main instruments used are strings. This piece is in minor, and the use of pitch is very contrasting. It uses a low note as a pedal point, a sustained bass note, but in the middle of the piece, high pitched sounds were used in contrast to create the feeling of constant changing situation. Synthesised sounds are used, a soft ringing noise that is barely audible is used throughout the whole piece. Around every twelve seconds, the violins play short, quick notes in crescendo. These are possibly not strictly scripted, but played freely by the violinist to create a sense of chaos. High pitched noises are created by strings, possibly violins, by not pressing the strings all the way down and hitting the strings with the bow. This creates a screechy sound that disturbs the players and make them feel nervous. The subtle drum beat joins in when the disturbing noise starts, it creates an unsettled feeling. The screechy noise eventually fades out, so does the drum beat stops. In the actual gameplay, the soundtrack used in this stage is not the same as the soundtrack in the link provided. The short notes played by strings, drum beat and screechy noises are only used to alert the player that they are in danger.

0:00 strings, brass unison - Sustained low note - pedal point

Soft ringing noises - synthesised

0:05/0:17/0:29/0:40… around every 12 seconds

strings: short, quick notes, crescendo - not scored/unscripted

0:48 disturbing, high pitched noises made by strings (violins)

Drum beat starts - soft, syncopated

1:36 disturbing noises starts to fade out

Drum beat stops

1:46 noise completely fades out

1:54 music fades out

Flicker

"Flicker" is used in the stage where the player has to escape the burning forest and avoid being caught by Slender Man. This piece is repetitive, designed to be looped and the notes are also repeated. The tempo is very fast, suggests the player is running in this stage and creates an intense atmosphere. The time signature is 6/8. The main instruments used are strings, bass drum, and synthesised sounds. This piece is in minor, and dissonance and chromatic scale contributes to the uneasy feeling of the player and the feeling of constantly being in a dangerous situation. This piece has four sections, each sections has 16 bars, and the main changes of each section is the main note being repeated, a new instrument/sound is introduced, and the music gets louder. Synthesised sounds such as ringing noises, audio distortion, wind blowing, and static white noises are being used, a bit like the classic Slender: The Eight Pages theme (the piece is named Shadowed in Slender: The Arrival) and the synthesised sounds emphasises the Slender Man's ability to make electronic devices malfunction.

0:00 strings, repeating note

Classic slender drum beat

0:07/0:15/0:23/0:31/0:39 around every 8 seconds, every 4 bars

Chromatic scale

0:32 main note being repeated changed (lowered), with some dissonance

Drum beat softer, with ringing audio distortion

Crescendo - mp

1:04 changed (higher) also weird noisesss (wind blowing)

Crescendo - mf

1:36 changed (obvious dissonance)

Loud wind blowing noises, high frequency audio distortion sound effects

Strings echo

Crescendo - f

1:39/1:47/1:54/2:03 static sound/audio distortion

starts at third beat every 4 bars cycle

2:08 back to beginning

2:16 fades out

What is your favourite soundtrack from a horror film/video game? 

For my next blog post, I will be introducing soundtracks from Attack on Titan, one of my favourite anime/manga series! See you!

By Janice