Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots Unofficial Promo Soundtrack :: Review by Don

	Album Title:	Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots Unofficial Promo Soundtrack
	Record Label:	Video Games Scrapbook
	Catalog No.:	Promotional
	Release Date:	May 2008
	Source:	Compiled by Video Games Scrapbook

Overview

With the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots only weeks away, and the original soundtrack only a few days away, many short musical samples have been heard. Featured in trailers, on the main website, or in games totally unrelated to the Metal Gear Solid franchise, the musical samples are fruitful. Many of the samples have been put together in the so called Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots Unofficial Promo Soundtrack to be reviewed here. The game is composed primarily by Harry Gregson-Williams and Nobuko Toda, with a bit of help from Norihiko Hibino's GEM Impact employees.

Body

As one can expect with every Metal Gear Solid soundtrack, there is a mix of suspenseful ambiance and more action packed themes. Most of the samples released so far have been of the ambient variety. The ambient pieces are dominated by heavy rhythms, in both the electronic and percussion varieties. Within each piece, though, there is a variety of instrumentation. For example, "Drebin 893" mixes in a bit of acoustic guitar to create a bit more atmosphere. "War Economy" definitely seems to focus on that suspenseful ambiance with very little variety in the execution of the piece. Most of the ambient pieces fall within these two categories.

On the other hand, the action themes are much more engaging. "Confrontation" and "Sin" are the two pieces on the promotional release that are featured on the soundtrack. The former focuses more upon sharp brass melodic fragments to build suspense and pique interest. "Sin," on the other hand, is an interesting fusion of electronica with some brass highlights. In addition, there is some Middle Eastern chanting thrown into the mix. I assume this plays in the Middle Eastern stage of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Although it won't be included on the soundtrack, there is an arrangement of "Love Theme" that blends the trailer version of the theme (well, the snippets without sound effects) and the Super Smash Bros. Brawl arrangement. It starts and ends with the version heard in the trailers — the slow acoustic piece with vocals, but it shifts towards the Brawl arrangement to create a more action-oriented theme. However, having not heard the entire vocal theme, there may be bits of action interspersed throughout.

Summary

Overall, I think the soundtrack is something to be excited about. It's not really possible to use this rip to judge the overall quality of the music given most pieces are short. However, it's clear that the soundtrack will be an atmospheric, diverse, and technologically accomplished one. Look forward to the review by Resk within the next few weeks!