Free-to-play, open-world combat game MetalCore celebrated its public launch on September 13, featuring music and sound design by our team at Unlock Audio. Developer Studio 369 closed out MetalCore’s alpha phase with a live tournament at Gamescom 2023 and garnered several awards while at the expo. Now, gamers worldwide can dive in and pilot massive mechs as they fight for their faction on Kerberos — humanity’s next home.
We’ve previously shared insights on how developers can approach sound design in smart and efficient ways for alpha-stage games, just as Studio 369 did with our collaboration early in development, and now we’re ready to spotlight the monumental music of MetalCore and the many metal subgenres that inspired the themes for the unique factions at the heart of the game’s exoplanetary conflict.
Arriving at Our Massive Main Theme
Our musical collaboration with Studio 369 began with an exploration of MetalCore’s main theme track. In a way, this was Unlock Audio’s “audition” for a sound partnership. Our initial exploration leaned heavily into cinematic, orchestral composition for an expansive, Hollywood-inspired sound.
Reception on the initial track was good, but as we began to gather early community feedback, it became clear that there was an opportunity to be more aggressive with the theme, given the game’s intense story, setting, and central combat. With a name like MetalCore, the answer was clear: the music needed more metal, so I instantly reached for my 8-string guitar. As a violinist turned metal guitarist, I long for any and every opportunity to infuse more metal into octane-raising video game scores.
Given the epic scope of MetalCore’s cosmic lore, I opted to maintain the grand, cinematic effect of our orchestral approach but replaced sections of classical instruments with a lead guitar and amplified percussion, resulting in a war-like power metal/symphonic metal banger.
While these subgenres set the mighty tone of the game overall, our exploration uncovered opportunities to incorporate other distinct metal subgenres across the several warring groups at the heart of MetalCore’s faction-based gameplay. Much of our exploration revolved around what kind of current-age bands we imagined these crews would listen to while hard at work, upgrading their massive mechs for their next big battle.
A Manic Style for Metalpunks
The rebellious Metalpunks are the star faction of MetalCore Season 1, “MetalPunks Rhapsody.” As their name would imply, they’re a free-spirited and rather volatile group that glorifies autonomy and individualism in the face of the other factions’ more authoritarian styles of rule. They intensely favor body modification and cybernetic augmentation.
The haphazard, DIY energy of the Metalpunks felt perfectly encapsulated in a blend of speed metal and melodic death metal. These styles favor lots of 16th notes and fast passages that reflect the unleashing of pent-up energy over the importance of precision and refinement. If the Metalpunks had a house band, I’d place my bet on an act like Arch Enemy.
Industrial Intensity for Gearbreakers
The Gearbreakers are also big on body augmentation, though their embrace of cyber synthetics was a matter of survival and finding strength against the threat of illness on their long route to Kerberos. Technology and AI are pillars of their regimented and militaristic society — a stark contrast to the opposing Metalpunks.
Given their penchant for fusing man and machine, we knew immediately that their preferred subgenre would be industrial metal — a style known for its blend of synthesizers, electronic elements, and unconventional samples with heavy rock instrumentation for a factory-like sound. I’m entirely convinced that the Gearbreakers’ garage and hangar playlists would include bands like Ministry and Fear Factory.
Heaping on the Harsh for Holy Corporation
When it comes to ruthlessness, no faction’s rise compares to that of the Holy Corporation aboard its own colony ship. The religious overtones of this caste-based, corporatized culture led us instantly to the harsh stylings of black metal as a basis for their theme.
Black metal’s emphasis on blast beat drums and parallel chromaticism made this a really fun challenge to capture and convey the brutality and insular strength of this faction. We also drew on death metal inspirations to temper the abrasive distortion of traditional black metal instrumentation. We imagine a visit to the Holy Corporation garages and mech bays would be soundtracked bands like Marduk, Behemoth, and The Black Dahlia Murder.
A Worldly Sound for Slumbering Earthers
Although the three prior factions have already staked their territorial claims on planet Kerberos, lore speaks of yet another colony ship that did not befall a chaotic mid-flight awakening. Passengers of “The Arc” are still en route, undisturbed in their cryo-slumber.
While this neutral faction exists on the periphery of current conflicts, we knew they deserved a signature musical sound to set their future faction apart from the genres we already employed. For the only group that will wake with direct memories of earth, we felt their sound should feel the most organic and steeped in worldly tradition. In contrast to the synthetic sounds of the rogue factions, we landed a blend of slow and heavy blues using metal instruments and bellowing folk metal elements from acts like The Hu.
Choose Your Side
MetalCore is out now and free-to-play! Discover more about each faction and the game’s cosmic lore on www.MetalCore.gg, collect new mechs, and fight for your side in a variety of open-world missions set to extreme metal music tracks created to suit your chosen faction.
