This mini-musical was inspired by all the years I’ve spent playing Diablo.
If you like the idea of cheerful, upbeat, catchy music about killing demons and skeletons as you descend toward hell, then this is definitely for you!
When you start playing Diablo, the first thing you have to do is choose…
“What class are you gonna train?
Are you gonna swing a sword?
Draw a bow?
Or call the lightning and the rain?”
You know the moment when you first step into the cathedral in Diablo 1? I tried to capture the feeling of that moment with music in “Enter the Cathedral.”
“Bone on Stone” is the quintessential Diablo experience in song-form…
“Swing and the bones go down
Bone on stone
Going down, going down
In the cathedral of broken light!”
Okay, maybe you’ve got to hear it to get how good it is… Good news: you can!
My favorite weapon in Diablo 1 was the Ice Shank. It was so cool. But more generically, battle axes are the coolest, so…
“Loved my battle axe from the very first swing
The upgrade of a lifetime
And the darkness heard it ring”
Remember how exciting it was to find a room with a bookshelf in Diablo 1? It meant either scrolls or an actual book! And either way, it was a big deal worth a lot of money or new power.
Video games are so flashy and fast-paced today, even Diablo. Enemies stream by so fast that none of them make much of an impression.
But back in the day, fighting King Leoric and his army of skeletons was a big deal.
Back in Diablo 1, how long you could keep fighting in the dungeons was determined by how many healing potions you could cram into your inventory, sometimes swapping them into your belt mid-fight.
Sweet, sweet red potions.
In making an album inspired by Diablo, I had to choose which aspects were important enough to feature in songs.
That moment when you step into the catacombs for the first time, and suddenly you’re fighting goat men instead of skeletons? Iconic.
I often play video games with the sound off, so I can listen to things like this album. But if you’re gonna play Diablo 1, you’ve gotta turn the sound way up, so you’ll hear it when a ring drops.
Has to be done.
“Walking into Hell
Like it’s just another room
Walking into Hell
And the lava’s in bloom
One more step
And the world I know is gone
But my feet keep moving on”
Remember dodging that brutal pink lightning attack Diablo had in the original game? And how it kind of crackled in that weirdly satisfying way?
Yeah, that’s not in “The Lord Below,” but the song is inspired by that big boss battle.
“Walk Into the West” tries to capture that devastating moment at the end of Diablo 1 when you take the soul shard yourself and walk away… knowing your fate is to become the monster yourself now. So chilling. So good. High art.
What do you do when you beat Diablo?
Roll a new character and start again!
So, that’s how the album ends too, looping back to the beginning with the question:
“Who are you gonna be?
What class are you gonna train?”