By Joseph "Skull Vault" Walter
October is finally upon us, and much-needed Halloween Spirit is slowly charging... so what better way to kick off the spooky season than with taking a chainsaw to the forces of Hell, specifically to the tune of DOOM II's awesome opening level theme, "Running From Evil."
As a kid, first-person shooters and video games with blood were sort of off the table for me, meaning that DOOM was a double no. Still, we did own DOOM II, and I was occasionally allowed to play through the first level while under the supervision of my Dad (who also manned the movement controls since I was 3 and could barely wrap my head around 3D navigation if it wasn't tied to a space ship, a'la X-Wing, Starfighter or Descent.)
Because of this, "Running From Evil" (otherwise known as "Entryway") was what I most associated with the franchise (aside from the "tomatoes" i.e. Cacodemons), and it continues to stand as one of my favorite compositions in the series.
Let's find out why:
See, more casual DOOM fans tend to believe the games' soundtracks are almost exclusively filled with fast-paced metal and rock, those who've played through most or all of either game in the original duology know that there is a lot of weird, atmospheric and downright eerie music, too.
"Running with Evil" the best of both worlds: it takes the rock-influenced, blood-pumping fury and pace of "E1M1"/"Doom's Gate" and mixes it with the macabre sensibilities of DOOM's spookier Hell themes (by means of an organ), creating a perfectly cheesy, yet intrinsically bad-ass piece that acts as the culmination between both ends of the thematic and musical spectrums.
I love how for its first 20 seconds, "Running From Evil" builds tension and excitement with an iterative, bass-and-percussion-led intro, and then, when you're so amped that you can hardly take it anymore, it explodes like a firecracker, going full swing into its main chorus.
The driving rock beat is awesome on its own, but it's the clever use of the stereotypical (and rather ghostly sounding) "horror" organ that really sells the piece and cements it as the perfect accompaniment for slaying Demons.
I particularly adore the flow of the song, and the variations (especially the one at 1:16), but I have to give special credit and attention to the incredibly cheesy guitar solo at 2:13.
Reveling in its awful-sounding MIDI glory, this thing lasts until the song is intended to loop (3:47 in the video), and goes through a whole spectrum of emotion and filled with prickly, spine-tingling notes and unusual choices... yet its completely awesome.
So we've got our rock, we've got our horror, and we've got them both combined into a single, unifying form that accompanies the shooting of hostile, demonic invaders. What's not to love?
... too bad the level takes less than a minute to beat, meaning most people won't get to enjoy that bonkers guitar solo.