The title of the first song has further connotations ingame as all machines were forced to become war machines or die. It asking the question of "Do machines dream of eternal sleep" could be an existential question if machines fear death or yearn it
@@uncroppedsoop they were exclusively built for that purpose, at least, all the sentient machines we see ourselves in game (except maybe swordsmachine? we don't know much about it)
they are built purely for the intention of war. They aint gonna have thoughts going "why do I keep doing this". Their sentience is just all for war, no existential crisis.
@@Red_Bastiondifficult to define what machines are sentient, if any of them even are And many machines weren’t built for war, such as Streetcleaners, Drones, Terminals, and even V2
i love how it's even tragic for robots since they seems to be sentient, more or less. really shows how disgustingly evil humans can be (and also with hell taking inspiration from gutterman's living fuel thing)
Hakita really outdid himself on this chapter. Similar to 2-1, the Music opens up in 7-2 when you step outside into a big open area, but this time it's a wasteland with gunfire and explosions happening all around you. It drives you forward, almost like it's saying "You have to keep going, you can't stay here!". Probably my favorite soundtrack yet.
The layers of Lust and Violence are opposite sides of the same coin, showing the works of mankind in their renaissance and their doom. Both feature vast mega levels with colossal titans showing tragedy in full force, the remains of mans’ constructs that were born in absence of divine intervention and yet equally destroyed by it.
@@earth88_ yes, I have heard my fair share of comments regarding Minos' infamous leitmotif reappearing. Though usually it tended towards that one segment of The World Looks Red.
Very depressing (and creepy) fact about an enemy introduced in this level, Gutterman. These were prototype machines that were one of the first to use blood as the source of power, but blood needed to be fresh, so these machines had a coffin on their back where “valiant volunteers”(actually victims of war) would be placed to feed the machine at a price of their lives. So that’s where humanity part comes from. This machine would inspire hell to create mannequins
I got chills reading the terminal data on guttermen. The fact that humanity inspired hell itself is crazy. Definitely one of the cooler backgrounds of a character for sure.
damn he's got insight level 100 or something, I felt the same way on the "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?" when i just chilled on the first room of the level
I'm going to repost a comment of mine that's been slowly blowing up on the official video for Siren Song Call of Death. "It's so... happy with itself. A ballroom dance for the marriage between blood and steel. A masquerade where you bring bayonets and helmets. Culminating in a harrowing climax of pirouetting corpses and empty cartridges. This layer is the most exhilarated to exist, I feel. It encourages us at every step, tempting us to partake in its twisted ballet. And so we indulge." I'll elaborate more on it here, as I feel this is a good place for a musical analysis more so than the song itself. The songs are representatives of their layers, they speak for them. Hell in this universe is described as a living organism, hell is _alive._ Hell observes the world of mortals, the kingdom of heaven, and its own inhabitants, and crafts itself accordingly. I feel like the music is supposed to be the voice of these layers, telling a story that can't be told through text or dialogue in a way that carries the emotional weight that music can bring. This song, to me, is hell reveling in carnage and brutality in a way we haven't seen it do up to this point. This song oddly enough reminds me of the song that plays during the dance scene in the movie _Legend._ It's a temptation, an allure, the seduction of evil. It's taking your hand and pulling you in. It saw the Final War happening on Earth and said to itself, "Wow, that's just fantastic! Let's bring that here!" The Final War was an infinitely escalating arms race, where human soldiers were quickly phased out for blood fueled robots. Robots (to my knowledge) in this world cannot experience loss, or succumb to the horrors of war. To the robots, and to hell, this isn't a tragedy, this is a FESTIVAL of fresh blood and fresh souls, and the song sounds like it's at once lamenting the sheer magnitude of destruction and loss of human life that the Final War brought, and celebrating its endless bloodshed by soulless machines with the next breath. The song even suggests this notion, "Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death!" It's literally beckoning you to participate, and it has this main melody that alternates between joyous and melancholy. I think you're right when you say the part at 8:12 elicits feelings of "Aaahh! Why do I have to do this!" as that is probably exactly what humanity thinks about having to make more and more complex war machines to combat the ones already fielded. That part is distinctly human, as it when it plays we hear sirens, which are indicators of attack. That's important to note because there is no fighting back against the machines, it's said plainly that humans became obsolete very quickly once the first machines were introduced, so that part is literally a dirge for the death of humanity. But the instant that section is done, comes the most upbeat and playful part of the song. The machine perspective. A veritable feast of blood, and a fulfilment of purpose. Their existence defined by their ability to counteract their predecessors, a literal dance of death involving steps and counters. And the whole song dances with _itself_ between these two states of mind. Death and fulfilment. Destruction and purpose. Loss and obtainment. Human and machine. Just my 2 cents. Sorry it was so long. I've been quite eager for this video since I first heard the song and came to these conclusions. I feel like you hit the nail on the head for someone who knows nothing about the game outside of its music and the comments on these videos. Good stuff, looking forward to the analysis of _War Without Reason._
To me, Siren Song Call of Death is a tale of brutal tragedy and grim realization of the results, as if it's is saying: "This is the result of your mindless slaughter. Was it worth it?"
What you hear in the end of "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep" is not distant thunder. It's a sound of the ultimate weapon shooting (seen in the distance), which ended The War (quite the similarity to the two atomic bombs in our universe). You'll hear its music theme in 7-4.
earthmovers didn't end the war, they were the last to be mass produced. the war ended when the earthmovers fell because there was nothing left to continue after. If they hadn't all died, v1 would have been mass produced. it is heavily implied v1 was designed to kill earthmovers.
I think that the weapon sounds like a thunder. Well, because if you stay and look at benjamin. It will charge it's weapon And throw a thunder like beam at another benjamin.
bit misdirecting to say it ended the war. it was so resource-intensive that all of them destroyed themselves and left the war a stalemate that had to be called off
it didn't "end the war", the war ended because smoke blocked out the sun and the earthmovers which required sunlight to function eventually all shut down one by one. in fact, V1 was developed specifically in order to destroy earthmovers, and then after that something else would've been made to counter V1s had the war continued
@@user-rw2hi8es8d unsure if anything COULD have been made to counter V1. the pattern has to stop somewhere because you can't make better machines forever, and V1 is practically perfect at the whole killing thing, to the point of _consistently_ defeating Gabriel, the strongest of all the angels, and taking down both Prime Souls if you consider the Prime Sanctums canon whatsoever
Many ULTRAKILL tracks are more designed for the layer and the inhabitants than V1. While occasionally you get some glimpses of the themes being pitted against V1 like when Hakita calls back to Unstoppable Force, a lot of the emotion you're feeling is the raw ambience of horrors inherent to the layer of Violence or other layers. While V1 is the focal point of the game, but Gabriel and the other entities are the actual protagonists of the world. Seperated because you might want to keep your perspective more holistic, 7-2 is all about the horrors of the Final War, which was speculated and all but confirmed by Hakita to be an alternate universe version of World War 1, where it simply escalated into an arms race on both sides, creating machines of war that feed on blood that left Hell itself so impressed it took notes, so it created a snapshot of that history in the layer of Violence in Light Up The Night.
@@MugenDino5555 the original track that he's reacting to on Hakita's channel for "Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death" has a comment that goes more in depth, but a few cliffnotes from the guttermen, guttertank, and THR-1000 Earthmover lore bits in the terminals, as well as comments about the Final War in other sections: The Guttermen were designed for Trench Warfare, before they were phased out for the Guttertanks as that became obselete, then Earthmovers became the pinnacle of warfare that ended it all as they created so much devestation that they ran out of power from their solar pannels being unable to gain any energy after they blotted out the skies. V1's own firmware we see also leads to this theory, with the date being listed as 2114.08.06, 200 years after WW1 began
Hakita even liked the comment that was made so it's pretty easy to find it for yourself, and the Wiki even archived it on the Final War page so you can see stuff on there too
I like how you can hear sirens in the background of the song, like the kind that you’d hear during a bombing. So the siren’s song is the literal call of death.
@@kakirini REALLY hope that after finishing layer 9, we as v1 go even more deep, leaving hell behind, and go into some unknown place, and then the game finish, to be continued in a sequel
Agreed, though I'd say maybe for all 3 Humanity was wiped out by the machines you see all over the place, said machines are now destroying everything in hell and on top of all that, when they finally finish off the last demons, they'll turn on each other for fuel. Eventually the macines will die out too.
Treachery sounds like it would be a better funeral for hell. Violence seems very focused on the tragedy of humankind in their efforts to kill each other and themselves, where the machines are symbols of the former.
i mean, mankind is dead, hell is being destroyed, heaven is in disarray, and the machines are tearing each other apart. might as well be a funeral for the universe.
From the perspective of someone who is very deep into the lore and story of the game, it's fascinating seeing you figuring out the meaning of the songs with little to no context. It comes to show just how good the ost really is.
i think it's also interesting that the drums in a few parts of Hear! The Siren Song Call Of Death sound like gunfires and perhaps anti-aircraft artillery (which lights up the night sky in the background of the game)
i love how the name of every ultrakill song is a reference to something "do robots dream of eternal sleep" = "do androids dream of electric sheep" "Hear! the siren song call of death" = "Hark! the herald angels sing" (maybe might be wrong)
If you watch WWII combat footage with this music playing in the background, it's quite haunting. 7-2 is a war-torn hellscape with rivers of blood, bombed out buildings and gargantuan weapons of war lurking in the background. It fits so well it's uncomfortable.
@@fakepretenderYea that’s very accurate. We don’t know how long the peace was - but it’s safe to assume ULTRAKILL starts in 2118/2116 from the beginning of the game if I remember correct. If so that means the grand peace was absolutely minuscule and fits fairly well into the timeline.
@@fakepretender this theory actually lines up really well with what information we have ingame. V1 was created at the end of the war. V1 firmware reads that the year is 2112. The war was 200 years. Thus, the war started in 1912, strikingly similar to when WW1 started. The war is mentioned to have started with trench warfare, much like WW1. "The Final War", the war to end all wars, is basically identical to what WW1 used to be called before WW2, "The Great War", also thought to be the war to end all wars at the time. It makes a lot of sense for The Final War to just be WW1 that never ended, because blood machines became a thing
Fun Fact: The river of blood is the Phlegethon. In Greek myth, it was a river of fire, but in the Inferno, Dante repurposed it as a river of boiling blood where those who comitted violence against their fellow man enjoy a hot bath for eternity.
For me "Hear!", if separated from context, has the feeling of "You are fighting for peace, while the whole world descends into war". There is a strong feeling of desperation mixed in with chaos of war, but there is a part of determination and maybe even a slither of faraway hope? Like even if all around you is turning to ash - you will still fight to protect what little of the world has left
With this extrapolation of “Hear!” Then not only does “The Siren Song Call of Death” refer to the literal siren blaring out to the world letting everyone know that they’re in the presence of death. But it can also refer to the mythological siren, a being that calls out to your worldly desires then dooms you to death. Here the Siren is singing the casus belli. Attracting people to the cause with ideas of peace, glory, or protection of home only to send the people who listen to their deaths.
Ok so I wrote Casus Belli in my comment but I think a more apt term would be raison d'etre. While both are apt terms and can be used, I think raison d'etre (reason for being) is more what I was going for because it refers more to the emotional reasons why people engage with war than Casus Belli (the casualty of war) which refers to an action used to provoke or justify a war.
[spoiler for the intro to the 7-2 level] Both the music and the level are just fantastic. You walk through a small area that's the end of the 7-1 region and you fight a brand new enemy that's completely different than other robots you've fought since then, he's huge, armored, and has a large shield and minigun. After killing him you get outside and see the full extent of what happened during the Great War back when humans we're still on earth and it's a beautiful but horrifying scene. Pitch black skies that are contrasted by spotlights and flashes of lightning, planes and gunshots flying through the air, and robots the size of small cities towering over everything in the distance. This is the layer of Violence and you feel it both in gameplay and music, V1 is now in a full on battlefield fighting robots that were designed for war and it's intense.
My favorite part of Hear! The Siren Song Call of the Death that at 8:11 you can hear a real air siren on the background and that drums sound like a machine gun row
10:10 "There's a feeling of 'fine, if this is what I'm meant to be, then this is what I'll be!'" brings to mind a quote that IDK the source, if any; "If violence is the only language they understand, I'll speak it fluently." Also the more meme-y quote "Cowabunga it is"
"What if I want to make you understand that that path you chose leads to downfall, but you only understand the language of the sword? I let my blade do the talking." -Heilung
Definitely my favourite level of the game. Paired with what we learn and the enemies we fight in the level, makes it an unforgettable experience. The music gives you a sense of foreboding dread as well as a sense of sorrow as we learn what the "Final War" really was and how cruel and inhumane, humans really were. And V1 is essentially the end product of a never ending arms race, beating everything that came before into red mist. Humanity's culmination of knowledge and technology, feeding off of Hell one last time.
The title of "Do robots dream of eternal sleep?" could be reference to the enemy we get introduced to - Guttermen, the first war machines. The engineers didn't find a way to keep blood (which is fuel) inside machines fresh, so instead the strapped a living person inside, who is kept alive by minimal life support, unable to move inside their mechanical coffins as they march through trenches and battlefeilds, so probably the only disire humans inside have is to sleep eternally when their bearer gets destroyed.
imagine the fuel source person (what a weird sentence... yeesh) was sent to hell and punished by yet again being place in a gutterman. that'd be some Sisyphean level hopelessness
@@nathanflinchum1153 the guttermen are not recreated by hell. They're just other machines. Hell did get inspired by them and created mannequins, which is kinda horrifying. As another commenter put it, "we did such horrible things that hell itself took notes"
@@nerazim1110 Whats also kind of chilling is how did these thing even get down there? guttermen, guttertanks and the earthmovers are not present on any of the upper layers. But then you realize: you only come across them once you cross the labyrinth that corrals the layer of violence, they aren't spawned in like most enemies, but rather deployed in by drop pods. The guttermen's blood supply limitations make it impossible for one to have survived beyond the extinction of humanity, and it is actually stated by the terminal that all the earthmovers died one by one. All of these machines should have been long gone before humanity started to open portals to hell, these machines ended up in hell themselves after they were destroyed in the war, you only find them in violence and not above, because that's the layer they were assigned to due to their sins at death
Knowing the context of ULTRAKILL and especially this layer, I really think your description of Do Androids Dream Of Eternal Sleep hit the nail on the head. I see it as a song that reflects the soldiers of The Final War. Imagine you’ve signed up for a war that’s only supposed to be a year tops. People are so optimistic they call it a Great War. One to end all Wars. And it escalates to some years, then decades. Centuries pass. The human soldiers don’t even fight anymore but home is just another battleground. Machines destroy the land you used to fight for. But you died long ago, either from fighting or natural causes. Do these Robots Dream of the Eternal Sleep you’ve achieved? Do you?
I find it interesting how we play as a machine, an emotionless robot programmed to kill. Being the player it's very hard not to put ourselves in V1's shoes and imagine how everything feels. I find it fun to look at the way Gabriel, Minos, and Sisyphus talk to V1, and how that would differ if V1 was human. But this chapter is so existential and feels like more than any before it, that it's trying to give emotions to the machines. Very cool, very spooky
The machines traveled to hell to find more of the fuel source they depend on, but since then have been pitted against countless horrors and each other in a battle for survival. It's like, hell (the in-game location) has become hell (the concept) for machines. This isn't what they signed up for but now they're here.
There is a hidden book on 7-2 that's written by a gutterman, it talks about how it hates how it survive off their "mother"'s suffering, and how disgusted their purpose is, it says it found another source of blood, so it kills it's original source to end their suffering. It really is a tragedy, the machines are aware of their actions, and hate it, but regardless, they need blood to survive. They were born in a world of war, and yet are another victim of it.
Hey marco, im glad you are doing more ultrakill music! I know i also have been one of the many asking for more ultrakill reactions (idk if thats annoying at all) but it is really nice to hear what other professionals have to say about some random silly game's masterclass music lol. I really adore listening to your videos (not just the ultrakill ones) and i wish you all the best luck with your youtube endeavors lol. (i have no idea why i am writing semi formally but why not ya know) Edit: puppy at 8:52 alert!
@@MarcoMeatball Honestly idk if its possible but i think a discussion with hakita once the game is done could be so interesting, especially with your knowledge
@@MarcoMeatball try playing on easier difficulties and maybe playing the game in windowed mode, that might help if it still makes you nauseous, thats fine! were not forcing you ps: if you plan on streaming the game, prepare to get backseated to hell and back
The guttermen use a human fuel source in the back who are perpetually suffering and unable to do anything. The only thing they can do is dream of death
Easily my favorite song from the game, maybe even ever. It strikes a perfect balance between hitting really hard like the earlier tracks, while also having a sense of real tragedy behind it. I think it may just be the perfect song to describe war.
What I love so much about this song is pure unfiltered feeling of war it gives and the way it connects with the environment in game. The black skies light up with beautiful bullets, hills made from piles of corpses, rivers of blood, ivory walls cascaded with darkness with the magnum opus being the barrier of the labyrinth we just left reminiscent to the start of scorn or the barrier from Undertale. Giant, magnificent, terrifying, inescapable. The call we hear in the track that almost sounds like a train whistle reminds me of the sound of a war plane taking off, perhaps landing or the dropping of a bomb engineered to cause fear and despair to those below. The call of death that a siren might bring to sailors who hear it atop the deck of their ship, one that stands as an omen to those who hear it, lest they be dragged beneath the waves. It's beautiful, it's magnificent, it's barbaric, it strips meaning from the lives of people and turns them into cold and scared soldiers fighting a war, often one without reason. The tides of combat, innovations to inspire more innovations leading to more casualties. The great war lasted for 200 years, but in hell it lasts for an eternity only now burning itself out through the hunger of machines, primarily you. There is an esthetic of gothic Europe that is present in this level that fits well with the theming of dark war. For a game about violence, adrenaline and being a stylishly unstoppable force, the violence layer feels the most reflective of what violence truly means. There is beauty, it is one of the first things this level tells us, however there is much more in the desperation and sadness it creates. This is the seconded masterpiece of the Violence layer. There is much more to come.
i love these videos because you're not only deducing so much of what's happening in the game without even seeing it, you're also adding more depth to it that I maybe wasn't considering before
you did it again, marco man! i like to dig into the lore of the game and think about the deeper meaning of it all, and you have no idea how right you are with your thoughts on the music. no spoilers of course (unless you ask ;) ), but you’re spot on once again!
Your videos are so fascinating to me. Your ability to recognize emotions and themes really shows your mastery and understanding of music (as well as Hakita/Heaven Pierce Her's immense talent) I hope you continue and check out 7-3 most of all, and 7-4 as well.
I love hearing these reactions! to me Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death in its desperation sounded more like the desperation of the humans as in they lore they basically kept digging themselves deeper into the hole that is the final war. The lore of one of the machines introduced in this level states that at this point in the final war, every machine was designed directly to counter the last, all the way to the point that machines were developed with the power to level entire cities in a single blow. The chaos grew so much to the point that humans were driven out of their cities and forced to live on the backs on the behemoth size war machines, desperately hoping that they can survive long enough for the machines to finally shut down so they can rebuild, watching as the entire earth becomes a desolate wasteland trampled upon by their own creations.
Woah…. That sounds absolutely horrifying. I could never and would never want to even imagine how they felt…. Everyday, every secomd possibly being the last one they experience alive…. Crud.
Hello! you're one of my favorite YT channels, and i noticed the thumbnail you used on your video is actually from MY ost rip from ULTRAKILL! (i ripped the game audio from the game so people could listen to it) I added the crosses to the art bc i thought it looked cool and it was kinda a surprise seeing that in the thumbnail lmao, have a good day
Oh fuck I did not know that because my thumbnail artist does all that. Would you like us to change it? Pls dm me on discord if you do. Marcomeatball ❤️
@@MarcoMeatballNah it's fine, just credit (the art in the main thumbnail isn't mine, just the extra crosses and the name of the song is what i added) i was the first to rip the OST from the game even before the creator himself uploaded it lol
I especially like the contrast between 7-1 and 7-2. While 7-1 showcases how creepy the hell can be and how harshly the sin such as Violence can be punished, 7-2 does the opposite. It shows the violence itself. It's about the humanity's sheer capacity for violence, for horrifying acts that they are ready to inflict upon each other in the form of cruel blood-fueled machines of war
These songs make me cry. Your descriptions of their emotion is absolutely flawless. 'Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep' is the calm before the storm, the opportunity you have to decide whether this is the fight worth dying for. You only wonder if the machines of war can even cease, and therefore sleep. Then 'Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death' is that feeling of, "There's no turning back now. You're in it, don't fucking die. The lives of the people back home depend on you in this moment. The inevitability that you will end up as fodder has been immortalized. You lost the chance to fight the machine of war a long time ago." I have no relationship with war, but I can only imagine how much doom exists therein. It's seriously crippling.
You know, as much as I'm looking forward to his reaction to War Without Reason, I think I'm actually more interested to hear his take on Suffering Leaves Suffering Leaves. Just... given its atmosphere and connotations.
I think what I like about this song and what hit with me the most is that during the first time you hear that piano part is that you can faintly hear the sounds of air raid sirens in the background which emphasized how tragic war is to me. And then the song ends with the same sound.
"Do Machines Dream of Eternal Sleep?" I love how this title points out this tragedy in the wolrd of Ultrakill. There is so much evidence that suggests like it, they're so alive, they're so councious of everything. The mindflayers choose to have a body, the drones try to replicate bird noises, there is even a book in the second level of violence written by a gutterman, that says how they are disgusted by how they depend on their "mother"'s suffering to survive, and the destruction they bring. They're councious of their actions, they hate their nature, yet it's all they know, and what they have to and will do to survive.
These two songs are very emotional, i really like the first one, because it might be a question v1 does to himself, and the second oe actually represents what is violence, in the level you hear gunshots, explosions that fit with the music, its amazing.
A thing i find interessing with the ultrakill ost is that it feels less like its telling your story of venturing through hell but rather of another story, a story of the struggle mankind faces. Whether it be the war against themselves, the war against machines or even their pure will to survive, its really feels like the music has nothing to do with V1. Its detached, and doesnt follow along with the massacre and almost ease that follows v1. I dont know if this is right or will come to make sense in the game but this is what its like to me. ok ok i know this is stupid and this is what they are meant for but i feel like the ost is aimed at the audience. Yes i know thats what they do but its like its for a different reason altogether, just like how garden of forking paths is meant to show the violence you cause, i think the ost is really meant to convey a different story than the one we experience only following the game's visuals. If this is truly what hakita meant for his music then i am absolutely awestruck in his ability to convey many stories in his songs.
Aye! The music always feels like it's either for the world around you or from the perspective of your foe. Order feels like it's from Minos Prime's perspective, War Without Reason feels like it's the Earthmover's perspective, then the Siren Call of Death sounds like it's for the world around you, everything going on is horrible but V1 is completely impassive to it, it's just here to refuel. The only sort of exceptions are stuff like Tenebre Rosso Sanct and the V2 reprisal theme which feel like they're to accentuate V1's battle. So pretty much the only music that feels like it's for V1 is the stuff that makes it feel like it's in a struggle.
this is such an accurate interpretation of this piece, since its' level is pretty much about war. "this is not what i signed up for" "fine, ill do it" and a lot of other comments you made on this were really on point.
You walk through the doors, the sky lights up with vicous thunder and you see the Earthmovers in the background, as the calm version of The Siren Song Call of Death puts the terrifying scene into motion. The title comes up and just know that this is gonna be awesome.
By far, my favorite part of "Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death" is the air raid siren throughout the background main chorus. It reminds me of hearing tornado sirens as a kid. It fills one with dread.
I wonder if he is gonna do all of Violence, if so Marco will love what’s at the end for him. But I will say “Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?” is one of my favorite tracks cause it sounds like we are pondering something, thinking it over and trying to figure out it’s meaning. Very good OST hope you do 7-3 and 7-4!!!
this actually made me completely rethink how i think about the level, the whole "putting on a face of beauty despite the horrors of war" analysis fits way too well with the story of the guttermen enemies
Hakita didn't just make a game, bro made an entire world to think upon and pick apart and find life in, and me personally, I think there needs to be more like this.
Layer 7 fed the players tons of lore about Ultrakill's universe. In that universe WWI (The Great War) lasted for two hundred years and resulted in a violent arms race, with different countries developing new machines specifically to counter the ones that were dominating the battlefield at that time. The war eventually ended, but not because their was a victor. It ended in a climate catastrophy that rendered most of the planet's surface uninhabittable due to the devastation the last machines, the Earthmovers, have caused. Two hundred years of pain, horror and suffering of the entire human race
I love “Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death”. I especially love how it evokes the sound of an air raid siren. Sirens are used to alert people to danger but symbolically it’s often used as and object or representation of fear and death. For me it’s use in the song is the idea of death looming over everyone, that at any point in time anyone could die in an instant. Large ordinances like bombs, rockets, and artillery not only generate physical devastation to people and environment but it’s also a psychological weapon to people on the frontlines. It’s the sword of Damocles that can fall from the heavens and smite you anywhere. A fate of inevitability, that the unlucky trench or foxhole you’re hiding away in is wiped out and you can’t change that. The siren in this instance is not here to warn you of danger but to herald death’s arrival. That’s what I think “Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death” means.
Someone else commented about the word “Hear!” and how it can represent some form of a call to action. With this “the siren song call of death” is a double entendre not only referring to what I previously mentioned but also to the mythological creature. Beings who’s songs attract men and leads to their doom. In this case the siren is the raison d'etre, the reasons that people go to war. The call to action that appeals to the peoples hearts with ideas of peace, stability, and protection of home which all leads to the death of all.
I wanted to say that this video in particular has changed the way I think about this game and the player character. Thank you for the light you shone on my view, I really like this new, much deeper, much scarier way of looking at things. I appreciate the work you do, keep it up!
The first track reminds me a lot of the original Blade Runner's atmosphere and setting made by one of my favourite movie score composers, Vangelis. And it correlates to the track title, which is a take on the Book title "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", which is the inspiration for the Blade Runner movies themselves! I love those thematic synergies across media and how there are so many connections among my favourite pieces of art :)
I think the feelings of not wanting to do the acts but feeling an obligation to very much fits into the themes of war with the emotions of the soldiers brought to the battlefields
honestly marco you need to start a podcast. i can see ur voice on a podcast sm you could bring your series of bringing your old opera teacher ETC to listen to video game music to a podcast format i honestly think that would be sick
I feel like Marco would have a mild moment when he finds out that as this music is blaring, two types of enemies are of note trying to kill you: the Gutterman and the Guttertank. The former is essentially a big ass capsule suit with a helmet that has multiple viewports akin to a sea mine packing a large shield and a minigun... and its fuel source is a human being, initially barely alive to just stripped up bone, in the coffin on its back. The latter, however, should simply be "fuck it, we ball" versions of the Gutterman which is essentially an armored walker that lays mines and can literally punch through virtually any tank with its arm if the rocket launcher proves sure that it may be damaged if fired at that range.
Fun fact about Hear the siren song call of death, if you listen closely there are actual real sirens that you can hear in the song. The siren songs of war, desperation and survival.
Eternal Sleep feels like if delusion or "ignorance is bliss" was a song. The notes sound happy but in an unsettling way, in which when you understand the situation of the lands outside of the room, you wish you'd have stayed in the room to feel a semblance of joy in the world you live in. Especially when the music fades and you get a taste of whats truly happening outside of the room
If you haven't played Ultrakill, here's how the tracks appear in game: The first one plays at the beginning of the level, which continues the white marble halls theme of the previous one, until you see a Gutterman (big minigun wielding battle robot) bursting through a door like the Kool Aid man. The second one plays as soon as you leave the marble halls and enter the first circle of Violence. Hell in Ultrakill is inspired by Dante's inferno, so this is where those violent against others (murderers, tyrants, war criminals and the like) are punished by being forever stewing in the Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood, which is guarded by centaurs that prevent the damned from rising from the blood. In Ultrakill, the Phlegethon is present and its shores are a raging battlefield, with the centaurs being represented by colossal war machines overseeing the battle from afar.
i love how in one minute marco got into the same suspicions as most player scrounging for lore did without sounding like that prophetic crackhead in the metro (us)
The way that the drums mimic either cannons or machine gun fire, with occasional more punctuated shots, mixed with the slightly dissonant melody, really do capture that feeling of having to endure and resign oneself to the hellish environment of the game. Or well I guess actually hell in the game (ha).
I'd say both songs are certainly retrospective in relation to the game's story/lore. The first song, especially its title calls to mind the question of what it must be like to be a machine, never sleeping, never dreaming, never having been programmed to do either, only to recharge. The second simply embodies the phrase "War is Hell..." Albeit this game would have 'And you are its maker.' slapped onto the end, as you are a warmachine and to kill is your purpose. I can't wait to see what you think of 7-3's tracks, I think they are an emotional 'step up' from this one, and the themes of the level itself are quite grim.
Hey Marco I would like to see you react to some of Path of Exile's music if you can. Some of my favourites is Innocence's theme, Legion theme, the Old Lioneye's watch theme (Although the game no longer has rights to this song sadly) and The Fall of Oriath ost.
That “Fine! This is what I meant to be so I’ll do it” attitude sounds a lot like Perturabo from The Horus Heresy. Then again, there are half a dozen Warhammer: 40,000 references in this one level alone. Hakita even quoted the tagline of the franchise when he revealed the teaser for this, if I remember correctly.
I believe that, in lore, "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?" Is a reference to an enemy in game. This enemy is a machine that has a human trapped inside being barely kept alive, so their blood can be harvested to power the machine that they're trapped in. Those machines likely do dream of eternal sleep.
You have to look up ultrakill wiki for the 7-2 secret books. There is an enemy type called gutterman, the first blood fueled machine, fueled by a human kept barely alive inside a coffin that it carries. There is a book written by one of them. Refers to its prisoner as "mother mother, mother of me... know I know you would hate me so, and mother of me, I do too. But I would not feel, not think, not dream, were it not for you in my rusted iron womb..." It has 3 sections. Ends with the gutterman crushing the skull of its mother to put them out of their misery as mercy, hoping it would redeem their existence. There is a gutterman in the map without a coffin, it is dead. Because it has no fuel source.
The feel of the music sets in even more when you play the game, step through the doors and witness the destruction and the war with your own eyes.
plus in the actual song you can faintly hear planes crashing into the ground/diving into the ground and it fits quite well
thousand style stare
@@cocobanan-li2ke incredible
@@YourWaterDispenseri love the gunshots in the game. You can hear a heavy mashine gun and it's just wow
The title of the first song has further connotations ingame as all machines were forced to become war machines or die. It asking the question of "Do machines dream of eternal sleep" could be an existential question if machines fear death or yearn it
It's also clearly referencing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick (the book that Blade Runner is based on).
never was it stated anywhere that all machines were forced to become war machines
@@uncroppedsoop they were exclusively built for that purpose, at least, all the sentient machines we see ourselves in game (except maybe swordsmachine? we don't know much about it)
they are built purely for the intention of war. They aint gonna have thoughts going "why do I keep doing this". Their sentience is just all for war, no existential crisis.
@@Red_Bastiondifficult to define what machines are sentient, if any of them even are
And many machines weren’t built for war, such as Streetcleaners, Drones, Terminals, and even V2
I LOVE Hear! Siren Song Call of Death. It just FEELS like the brutality and the sadness of war.
i’m pretty sure the song name is a reference to Hark! The Angels Sing
i love how it's even tragic for robots since they seems to be sentient, more or less. really shows how disgustingly evil humans can be (and also with hell taking inspiration from gutterman's living fuel thing)
Hakita really outdid himself on this chapter. Similar to 2-1, the Music opens up in 7-2 when you step outside into a big open area, but this time it's a wasteland with gunfire and explosions happening all around you. It drives you forward, almost like it's saying "You have to keep going, you can't stay here!". Probably my favorite soundtrack yet.
I think you meant 2-1 not 2-2
@@lokuth6228 yeah typo. Thanks!
The layers of Lust and Violence are opposite sides of the same coin, showing the works of mankind in their renaissance and their doom. Both feature vast mega levels with colossal titans showing tragedy in full force, the remains of mans’ constructs that were born in absence of divine intervention and yet equally destroyed by it.
@@MageBurgeryou can hear a motif from lust in the world looks white as well
@@earth88_ yes, I have heard my fair share of comments regarding Minos' infamous leitmotif reappearing.
Though usually it tended towards that one segment of The World Looks Red.
Very depressing (and creepy) fact about an enemy introduced in this level, Gutterman. These were prototype machines that were one of the first to use blood as the source of power, but blood needed to be fresh, so these machines had a coffin on their back where “valiant volunteers”(actually victims of war) would be placed to feed the machine at a price of their lives. So that’s where humanity part comes from. This machine would inspire hell to create mannequins
I got chills reading the terminal data on guttermen. The fact that humanity inspired hell itself is crazy. Definitely one of the cooler backgrounds of a character for sure.
@xen_is_on it which also invites the theory that the things that happened in the war were so horrible that's what caused God to leave the universe.
@@ThatSpecificIndividual even god abandoned all hope
Its funny how this horrible machine was canonically made by the Russians.
@@inhalerisinsane человек танк💪
damn he's got insight level 100 or something, I felt the same way on the "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?" when i just chilled on the first room of the level
I'm going to repost a comment of mine that's been slowly blowing up on the official video for Siren Song Call of Death.
"It's so... happy with itself. A ballroom dance for the marriage between blood and steel. A masquerade where you bring bayonets and helmets. Culminating in a harrowing climax of pirouetting corpses and empty cartridges.
This layer is the most exhilarated to exist, I feel. It encourages us at every step, tempting us to partake in its twisted ballet.
And so we indulge."
I'll elaborate more on it here, as I feel this is a good place for a musical analysis more so than the song itself.
The songs are representatives of their layers, they speak for them. Hell in this universe is described as a living organism, hell is _alive._ Hell observes the world of mortals, the kingdom of heaven, and its own inhabitants, and crafts itself accordingly. I feel like the music is supposed to be the voice of these layers, telling a story that can't be told through text or dialogue in a way that carries the emotional weight that music can bring.
This song, to me, is hell reveling in carnage and brutality in a way we haven't seen it do up to this point. This song oddly enough reminds me of the song that plays during the dance scene in the movie _Legend._ It's a temptation, an allure, the seduction of evil. It's taking your hand and pulling you in. It saw the Final War happening on Earth and said to itself, "Wow, that's just fantastic! Let's bring that here!"
The Final War was an infinitely escalating arms race, where human soldiers were quickly phased out for blood fueled robots. Robots (to my knowledge) in this world cannot experience loss, or succumb to the horrors of war. To the robots, and to hell, this isn't a tragedy, this is a FESTIVAL of fresh blood and fresh souls, and the song sounds like it's at once lamenting the sheer magnitude of destruction and loss of human life that the Final War brought, and celebrating its endless bloodshed by soulless machines with the next breath.
The song even suggests this notion, "Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death!" It's literally beckoning you to participate, and it has this main melody that alternates between joyous and melancholy. I think you're right when you say the part at 8:12 elicits feelings of "Aaahh! Why do I have to do this!" as that is probably exactly what humanity thinks about having to make more and more complex war machines to combat the ones already fielded. That part is distinctly human, as it when it plays we hear sirens, which are indicators of attack. That's important to note because there is no fighting back against the machines, it's said plainly that humans became obsolete very quickly once the first machines were introduced, so that part is literally a dirge for the death of humanity.
But the instant that section is done, comes the most upbeat and playful part of the song. The machine perspective. A veritable feast of blood, and a fulfilment of purpose. Their existence defined by their ability to counteract their predecessors, a literal dance of death involving steps and counters. And the whole song dances with _itself_ between these two states of mind. Death and fulfilment. Destruction and purpose. Loss and obtainment. Human and machine.
Just my 2 cents. Sorry it was so long. I've been quite eager for this video since I first heard the song and came to these conclusions. I feel like you hit the nail on the head for someone who knows nothing about the game outside of its music and the comments on these videos. Good stuff, looking forward to the analysis of _War Without Reason._
I am reading all that🗣️🗣️🗣️
@@user-dj3jo8po4x 🔥📝🗿🔥
This deserves way more likes
@@Dany343-mz3rb I appreciate that. :)
To me, Siren Song Call of Death is a tale of brutal tragedy and grim realization of the results, as if it's is saying: "This is the result of your mindless slaughter. Was it worth it?"
What you hear in the end of "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep" is not distant thunder. It's a sound of the ultimate weapon shooting (seen in the distance), which ended The War (quite the similarity to the two atomic bombs in our universe). You'll hear its music theme in 7-4.
earthmovers didn't end the war, they were the last to be mass produced. the war ended when the earthmovers fell because there was nothing left to continue after. If they hadn't all died, v1 would have been mass produced. it is heavily implied v1 was designed to kill earthmovers.
I think that the weapon sounds like a thunder. Well, because if you stay and look at benjamin. It will charge it's weapon And throw a thunder like beam at another benjamin.
bit misdirecting to say it ended the war. it was so resource-intensive that all of them destroyed themselves and left the war a stalemate that had to be called off
it didn't "end the war", the war ended because smoke blocked out the sun and the earthmovers which required sunlight to function eventually all shut down one by one. in fact, V1 was developed specifically in order to destroy earthmovers, and then after that something else would've been made to counter V1s had the war continued
@@user-rw2hi8es8d unsure if anything COULD have been made to counter V1. the pattern has to stop somewhere because you can't make better machines forever, and V1 is practically perfect at the whole killing thing, to the point of _consistently_ defeating Gabriel, the strongest of all the angels, and taking down both Prime Souls if you consider the Prime Sanctums canon whatsoever
Many ULTRAKILL tracks are more designed for the layer and the inhabitants than V1. While occasionally you get some glimpses of the themes being pitted against V1 like when Hakita calls back to Unstoppable Force, a lot of the emotion you're feeling is the raw ambience of horrors inherent to the layer of Violence or other layers. While V1 is the focal point of the game, but Gabriel and the other entities are the actual protagonists of the world.
Seperated because you might want to keep your perspective more holistic, 7-2 is all about the horrors of the Final War, which was speculated and all but confirmed by Hakita to be an alternate universe version of World War 1, where it simply escalated into an arms race on both sides, creating machines of war that feed on blood that left Hell itself so impressed it took notes, so it created a snapshot of that history in the layer of Violence in Light Up The Night.
Can you please direct me to some proof or hints regarding the Last War being an alternative WW1?
Where did Hakita all but confirm or left hints for this to be an alternate universe of WW1?
@@mixednarwhal Comment section of Hear! The siren call of death
@@MugenDino5555 the original track that he's reacting to on Hakita's channel for "Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death" has a comment that goes more in depth, but a few cliffnotes from the guttermen, guttertank, and THR-1000 Earthmover lore bits in the terminals, as well as comments about the Final War in other sections: The Guttermen were designed for Trench Warfare, before they were phased out for the Guttertanks as that became obselete, then Earthmovers became the pinnacle of warfare that ended it all as they created so much devestation that they ran out of power from their solar pannels being unable to gain any energy after they blotted out the skies. V1's own firmware we see also leads to this theory, with the date being listed as 2114.08.06, 200 years after WW1 began
Hakita even liked the comment that was made so it's pretty easy to find it for yourself, and the Wiki even archived it on the Final War page so you can see stuff on there too
I like how you can hear sirens in the background of the song, like the kind that you’d hear during a bombing. So the siren’s song is the literal call of death.
to me act 3 and its music all give me the feel that "no matter how it happens, its all going to end soon"
And it's not gonna be a happy ending
YES! This layer's OST is my favorite from the series, and it's wonderful to see you comment on it!
lets not talk too quickly there's still 2-3 layers coming even tho it actually baffles me how every release gets better in terms of gameplay AND music
@@kakirini REALLY hope that after finishing layer 9, we as v1 go even more deep, leaving hell behind, and go into some unknown place, and then the game finish, to be continued in a sequel
@@InsertarNombre-od2bh Nah, highly doubt a sequel
@@FlamuskiULTRALIFE
@@InsertarNombre-od2bh atleast some dlc for the alt Railcannon and Rocket Launcher
This whole layers themeing almost feels like a funeral of sorts, for the machines maybe, or the humans, or maybe for hell itself
Agreed, though I'd say maybe for all 3
Humanity was wiped out by the machines you see all over the place, said machines are now destroying everything in hell and on top of all that, when they finally finish off the last demons, they'll turn on each other for fuel.
Eventually the macines will die out too.
Treachery sounds like it would be a better funeral for hell.
Violence seems very focused on the tragedy of humankind in their efforts to kill each other and themselves, where the machines are symbols of the former.
i mean, mankind is dead, hell is being destroyed, heaven is in disarray, and the machines are tearing each other apart. might as well be a funeral for the universe.
From the perspective of someone who is very deep into the lore and story of the game, it's fascinating seeing you figuring out the meaning of the songs with little to no context. It comes to show just how good the ost really is.
Can't wait to see you react to the 7-3 soundtrack! It's insane!
dont forget 7-4 with benjamins alarms when he flods his insides couse u go in andbla bla bla bla bla bla blsb labalbkdlfakijgpčasgewdasfawsgwrhet4ag
Oh heya there 👋
i think it's also interesting that the drums in a few parts of Hear! The Siren Song Call Of Death sound like gunfires and perhaps anti-aircraft artillery (which lights up the night sky in the background of the game)
I cannot wait to see his analysis of 7-4 soundtrack! With no context it should be very interesting to see his thoughts.
i love how the name of every ultrakill song is a reference to something
"do robots dream of eternal sleep" = "do androids dream of electric sheep"
"Hear! the siren song call of death" = "Hark! the herald angels sing" (maybe might be wrong)
If you watch WWII combat footage with this music playing in the background, it's quite haunting. 7-2 is a war-torn hellscape with rivers of blood, bombed out buildings and gargantuan weapons of war lurking in the background. It fits so well it's uncomfortable.
someone theorized that the great war in ultrakill was actually WWI whcih quote, "turned into 200-year-long arms race"
@@fakepretenderYea that’s very accurate. We don’t know how long the peace was - but it’s safe to assume ULTRAKILL starts in 2118/2116 from the beginning of the game if I remember correct. If so that means the grand peace was absolutely minuscule and fits fairly well into the timeline.
@@fakepretender this theory actually lines up really well with what information we have ingame.
V1 was created at the end of the war.
V1 firmware reads that the year is 2112.
The war was 200 years.
Thus, the war started in 1912, strikingly similar to when WW1 started.
The war is mentioned to have started with trench warfare, much like WW1.
"The Final War", the war to end all wars, is basically identical to what WW1 used to be called before WW2, "The Great War", also thought to be the war to end all wars at the time.
It makes a lot of sense for The Final War to just be WW1 that never ended, because blood machines became a thing
Fun Fact: The river of blood is the Phlegethon. In Greek myth, it was a river of fire, but in the Inferno, Dante repurposed it as a river of boiling blood where those who comitted violence against their fellow man enjoy a hot bath for eternity.
It would make sense that it'd take place in WW1, biggest defining factor is the fact that there's still trench warfare
For me "Hear!", if separated from context, has the feeling of "You are fighting for peace, while the whole world descends into war". There is a strong feeling of desperation mixed in with chaos of war, but there is a part of determination and maybe even a slither of faraway hope? Like even if all around you is turning to ash - you will still fight to protect what little of the world has left
With this extrapolation of “Hear!” Then not only does “The Siren Song Call of Death” refer to the literal siren blaring out to the world letting everyone know that they’re in the presence of death. But it can also refer to the mythological siren, a being that calls out to your worldly desires then dooms you to death. Here the Siren is singing the casus belli. Attracting people to the cause with ideas of peace, glory, or protection of home only to send the people who listen to their deaths.
Ok so I wrote Casus Belli in my comment but I think a more apt term would be raison d'etre. While both are apt terms and can be used, I think raison d'etre (reason for being) is more what I was going for because it refers more to the emotional reasons why people engage with war than Casus Belli (the casualty of war) which refers to an action used to provoke or justify a war.
[spoiler for the intro to the 7-2 level]
Both the music and the level are just fantastic. You walk through a small area that's the end of the 7-1 region and you fight a brand new enemy that's completely different than other robots you've fought since then, he's huge, armored, and has a large shield and minigun. After killing him you get outside and see the full extent of what happened during the Great War back when humans we're still on earth and it's a beautiful but horrifying scene. Pitch black skies that are contrasted by spotlights and flashes of lightning, planes and gunshots flying through the air, and robots the size of small cities towering over everything in the distance. This is the layer of Violence and you feel it both in gameplay and music, V1 is now in a full on battlefield fighting robots that were designed for war and it's intense.
That isn't actually lighting but those giant war machines' shooting.
Fun fact: Since V1 was built just as the war ended this would be it's first taste of how the last war went
My favorite part of Hear! The Siren Song Call of the Death that at 8:11 you can hear a real air siren on the background and that drums sound like a machine gun row
"Now i am become death, the Eater of Worlds"
10:10 "There's a feeling of 'fine, if this is what I'm meant to be, then this is what I'll be!'" brings to mind a quote that IDK the source, if any; "If violence is the only language they understand, I'll speak it fluently."
Also the more meme-y quote "Cowabunga it is"
"What if I want to make you understand that that path you chose leads to downfall, but you only understand the language of the sword? I let my blade do the talking."
-Heilung
Definitely my favourite level of the game. Paired with what we learn and the enemies we fight in the level, makes it an unforgettable experience. The music gives you a sense of foreboding dread as well as a sense of sorrow as we learn what the "Final War" really was and how cruel and inhumane, humans really were.
And V1 is essentially the end product of a never ending arms race, beating everything that came before into red mist. Humanity's culmination of knowledge and technology, feeding off of Hell one last time.
I will say, throughout the game, V1 really seems like a truly unstoppable force. Violence made me feel like I was fighting for every inch.
The title of "Do robots dream of eternal sleep?" could be reference to the enemy we get introduced to - Guttermen, the first war machines. The engineers didn't find a way to keep blood (which is fuel) inside machines fresh, so instead the strapped a living person inside, who is kept alive by minimal life support, unable to move inside their mechanical coffins as they march through trenches and battlefeilds, so probably the only disire humans inside have is to sleep eternally when their bearer gets destroyed.
imagine the fuel source person (what a weird sentence... yeesh) was sent to hell and punished by yet again being place in a gutterman. that'd be some Sisyphean level hopelessness
@@nathanflinchum1153 the guttermen are not recreated by hell. They're just other machines. Hell did get inspired by them and created mannequins, which is kinda horrifying. As another commenter put it, "we did such horrible things that hell itself took notes"
@@nerazim1110 Whats also kind of chilling is how did these thing even get down there? guttermen, guttertanks and the earthmovers are not present on any of the upper layers.
But then you realize: you only come across them once you cross the labyrinth that corrals the layer of violence, they aren't spawned in like most enemies, but rather deployed in by drop pods. The guttermen's blood supply limitations make it impossible for one to have survived beyond the extinction of humanity, and it is actually stated by the terminal that all the earthmovers died one by one.
All of these machines should have been long gone before humanity started to open portals to hell, these machines ended up in hell themselves after they were destroyed in the war, you only find them in violence and not above, because that's the layer they were assigned to due to their sins at death
Can't wait for 7-4, it drives you insane probably
Knowing the context of ULTRAKILL and especially this layer, I really think your description of Do Androids Dream Of Eternal Sleep hit the nail on the head. I see it as a song that reflects the soldiers of The Final War.
Imagine you’ve signed up for a war that’s only supposed to be a year tops. People are so optimistic they call it a Great War. One to end all Wars. And it escalates to some years, then decades.
Centuries pass. The human soldiers don’t even fight anymore but home is just another battleground. Machines destroy the land you used to fight for. But you died long ago, either from fighting or natural causes. Do these Robots Dream of the Eternal Sleep you’ve achieved?
Do you?
I find it interesting how we play as a machine, an emotionless robot programmed to kill. Being the player it's very hard not to put ourselves in V1's shoes and imagine how everything feels. I find it fun to look at the way Gabriel, Minos, and Sisyphus talk to V1, and how that would differ if V1 was human. But this chapter is so existential and feels like more than any before it, that it's trying to give emotions to the machines. Very cool, very spooky
The machines traveled to hell to find more of the fuel source they depend on, but since then have been pitted against countless horrors and each other in a battle for survival. It's like, hell (the in-game location) has become hell (the concept) for machines. This isn't what they signed up for but now they're here.
V1 is just me, being unwillingly born into the 21st century and spontaneously getting consciousness at the age of 4. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
There is a hidden book on 7-2 that's written by a gutterman, it talks about how it hates how it survive off their "mother"'s suffering, and how disgusted their purpose is, it says it found another source of blood, so it kills it's original source to end their suffering.
It really is a tragedy, the machines are aware of their actions, and hate it, but regardless, they need blood to survive.
They were born in a world of war, and yet are another victim of it.
Hey marco, im glad you are doing more ultrakill music! I know i also have been one of the many asking for more ultrakill reactions (idk if thats annoying at all) but it is really nice to hear what other professionals have to say about some random silly game's masterclass music lol. I really adore listening to your videos (not just the ultrakill ones) and i wish you all the best luck with your youtube endeavors lol. (i have no idea why i am writing semi formally but why not ya know)
Edit: puppy at 8:52 alert!
Thanks for pointing out the dog!
I wanted to ask you. Will you play Ultrakill after it will come out fully and check your lore theories?
It makes me nauseated so probably not :( I can try again.
@@MarcoMeatball Honestly idk if its possible but i think a discussion with hakita once the game is done could be so interesting, especially with your knowledge
Thats a cool idea, hakita might not even know the level of music hes creating and marco could put words to what hes made@@kakirin
@@MarcoMeatballyou could watch a playthrough if that helps
@@MarcoMeatball try playing on easier difficulties and maybe playing the game in windowed mode, that might help
if it still makes you nauseous, thats fine! were not forcing you
ps: if you plan on streaming the game, prepare to get backseated to hell and back
Siren Song Call of Death, let's go!
"Do robots dream of eternal sleep" has a insanely dark meaning behind it if you don't know yet
It's ripped from the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which is what Blade Runner is based on.
Enlighten me, for i am too tired to use my brain
The guttermen use a human fuel source in the back who are perpetually suffering and unable to do anything. The only thing they can do is dream of death
@@hahgotem3886 gutterman power source
@@Spr1ggan87isn't it just based off the title not copied from the text?
Easily my favorite song from the game, maybe even ever. It strikes a perfect balance between hitting really hard like the earlier tracks, while also having a sense of real tragedy behind it. I think it may just be the perfect song to describe war.
What I love so much about this song is pure unfiltered feeling of war it gives and the way it connects with the environment in game. The black skies light up with beautiful bullets, hills made from piles of corpses, rivers of blood, ivory walls cascaded with darkness with the magnum opus being the barrier of the labyrinth we just left reminiscent to the start of scorn or the barrier from Undertale. Giant, magnificent, terrifying, inescapable. The call we hear in the track that almost sounds like a train whistle reminds me of the sound of a war plane taking off, perhaps landing or the dropping of a bomb engineered to cause fear and despair to those below. The call of death that a siren might bring to sailors who hear it atop the deck of their ship, one that stands as an omen to those who hear it, lest they be dragged beneath the waves. It's beautiful, it's magnificent, it's barbaric, it strips meaning from the lives of people and turns them into cold and scared soldiers fighting a war, often one without reason. The tides of combat, innovations to inspire more innovations leading to more casualties. The great war lasted for 200 years, but in hell it lasts for an eternity only now burning itself out through the hunger of machines, primarily you. There is an esthetic of gothic Europe that is present in this level that fits well with the theming of dark war. For a game about violence, adrenaline and being a stylishly unstoppable force, the violence layer feels the most reflective of what violence truly means. There is beauty, it is one of the first things this level tells us, however there is much more in the desperation and sadness it creates. This is the seconded masterpiece of the Violence layer. There is much more to come.
i love these videos because you're not only deducing so much of what's happening in the game without even seeing it, you're also adding more depth to it that I maybe wasn't considering before
If you do more videos for this amazing layer, I'd love to see you listen to "war without reason"
you did it again, marco man!
i like to dig into the lore of the game and think about the deeper meaning of it all, and you have no idea how right you are with your thoughts on the music.
no spoilers of course (unless you ask ;) ), but you’re spot on once again!
Marco really should play Ultrakill and see in what context these songs appear
Your videos are so fascinating to me. Your ability to recognize emotions and themes really shows your mastery and understanding of music (as well as Hakita/Heaven Pierce Her's immense talent) I hope you continue and check out 7-3 most of all, and 7-4 as well.
I love hearing these reactions! to me Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death in its desperation sounded more like the desperation of the humans as in they lore they basically kept digging themselves deeper into the hole that is the final war. The lore of one of the machines introduced in this level states that at this point in the final war, every machine was designed directly to counter the last, all the way to the point that machines were developed with the power to level entire cities in a single blow. The chaos grew so much to the point that humans were driven out of their cities and forced to live on the backs on the behemoth size war machines, desperately hoping that they can survive long enough for the machines to finally shut down so they can rebuild, watching as the entire earth becomes a desolate wasteland trampled upon by their own creations.
Woah…. That sounds absolutely horrifying. I could never and would never want to even imagine how they felt…. Everyday, every secomd possibly being the last one they experience alive…. Crud.
I love how the music manages to capture a sad desperate feel in. The feeling of someone trapped in a neverending cycle of war
Can't wait for the next 2! Danse Macabre and War without reason are 2 of some of my favorite Ultrakill soundtracks to date.
Same here. The motifs from 2-3 and 2-2 respectively are a really nice touch.
Shout out to Hakita for being able to make a song which *sounds* like war.
He's doing it let's go!
Hello! you're one of my favorite YT channels, and i noticed the thumbnail you used on your video is actually from MY ost rip from ULTRAKILL! (i ripped the game audio from the game so people could listen to it) I added the crosses to the art bc i thought it looked cool and it was kinda a surprise seeing that in the thumbnail lmao, have a good day
Oh fuck I did not know that because my thumbnail artist does all that. Would you like us to change it? Pls dm me on discord if you do. Marcomeatball ❤️
@@MarcoMeatballNah it's fine, just credit (the art in the main thumbnail isn't mine, just the extra crosses and the name of the song is what i added) i was the first to rip the OST from the game even before the creator himself uploaded it lol
So i guess just keep it, idc, just wanted to let you know
I especially like the contrast between 7-1 and 7-2. While 7-1 showcases how creepy the hell can be and how harshly the sin such as Violence can be punished, 7-2 does the opposite. It shows the violence itself. It's about the humanity's sheer capacity for violence, for horrifying acts that they are ready to inflict upon each other in the form of cruel blood-fueled machines of war
These songs make me cry. Your descriptions of their emotion is absolutely flawless. 'Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep' is the calm before the storm, the opportunity you have to decide whether this is the fight worth dying for. You only wonder if the machines of war can even cease, and therefore sleep. Then 'Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death' is that feeling of, "There's no turning back now. You're in it, don't fucking die. The lives of the people back home depend on you in this moment. The inevitability that you will end up as fodder has been immortalized. You lost the chance to fight the machine of war a long time ago."
I have no relationship with war, but I can only imagine how much doom exists therein. It's seriously crippling.
Reading this made my heart feel cold, bravo.
You know, as much as I'm looking forward to his reaction to War Without Reason, I think I'm actually more interested to hear his take on Suffering Leaves Suffering Leaves. Just... given its atmosphere and connotations.
To Hell, violence is art.
To Man, violence is chaos.
I think what I like about this song and what hit with me the most is that during the first time you hear that piano part is that you can faintly hear the sounds of air raid sirens in the background which emphasized how tragic war is to me. And then the song ends with the same sound.
I love knowing the context of the songs in game and then seeing if his interpretation is similar
cant wait for danse macabre and war without reason
2 in a row! I’d be so happy if we could the full layer 7 ost
"Do Machines Dream of Eternal Sleep?"
I love how this title points out this tragedy in the wolrd of Ultrakill.
There is so much evidence that suggests like it, they're so alive, they're so councious of everything.
The mindflayers choose to have a body, the drones try to replicate bird noises, there is even a book in the second level of violence written by a gutterman, that says how they are disgusted by how they depend on their "mother"'s suffering to survive, and the destruction they bring.
They're councious of their actions, they hate their nature, yet it's all they know, and what they have to and will do to survive.
These two songs are very emotional, i really like the first one, because it might be a question v1 does to himself, and the second oe actually represents what is violence, in the level you hear gunshots, explosions that fit with the music, its amazing.
A thing i find interessing with the ultrakill ost is that it feels less like its telling your story of venturing through hell but rather of another story, a story of the struggle mankind faces. Whether it be the war against themselves, the war against machines or even their pure will to survive, its really feels like the music has nothing to do with V1. Its detached, and doesnt follow along with the massacre and almost ease that follows v1. I dont know if this is right or will come to make sense in the game but this is what its like to me.
ok ok i know this is stupid and this is what they are meant for but i feel like the ost is aimed at the audience. Yes i know thats what they do but its like its for a different reason altogether, just like how garden of forking paths is meant to show the violence you cause, i think the ost is really meant to convey a different story than the one we experience only following the game's visuals. If this is truly what hakita meant for his music then i am absolutely awestruck in his ability to convey many stories in his songs.
Aye! The music always feels like it's either for the world around you or from the perspective of your foe. Order feels like it's from Minos Prime's perspective, War Without Reason feels like it's the Earthmover's perspective, then the Siren Call of Death sounds like it's for the world around you, everything going on is horrible but V1 is completely impassive to it, it's just here to refuel.
The only sort of exceptions are stuff like Tenebre Rosso Sanct and the V2 reprisal theme which feel like they're to accentuate V1's battle. So pretty much the only music that feels like it's for V1 is the stuff that makes it feel like it's in a struggle.
I can't wait for you to review Suffering Leaves and War without reason
this is such an accurate interpretation of this piece, since its' level is pretty much about war. "this is not what i signed up for" "fine, ill do it" and a lot of other comments you made on this were really on point.
You walk through the doors, the sky lights up with vicous thunder and you see the Earthmovers in the background, as the calm version of The Siren Song Call of Death puts the terrifying scene into motion. The title comes up and just know that this is gonna be awesome.
By far, my favorite part of "Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death" is the air raid siren throughout the background main chorus. It reminds me of hearing tornado sirens as a kid. It fills one with dread.
we got him talkibg about peak lets go
I wonder if he is gonna do all of Violence, if so Marco will love what’s at the end for him. But I will say “Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?” is one of my favorite tracks cause it sounds like we are pondering something, thinking it over and trying to figure out it’s meaning. Very good OST hope you do 7-3 and 7-4!!!
this actually made me completely rethink how i think about the level, the whole "putting on a face of beauty despite the horrors of war" analysis fits way too well with the story of the guttermen enemies
Hakita didn't just make a game, bro made an entire world to think upon and pick apart and find life in, and me personally, I think there needs to be more like this.
Can’t wait for 7-3
Layer 7 fed the players tons of lore about Ultrakill's universe. In that universe WWI (The Great War) lasted for two hundred years and resulted in a violent arms race, with different countries developing new machines specifically to counter the ones that were dominating the battlefield at that time. The war eventually ended, but not because their was a victor. It ended in a climate catastrophy that rendered most of the planet's surface uninhabittable due to the devastation the last machines, the Earthmovers, have caused. Two hundred years of pain, horror and suffering of the entire human race
Can't wait for the "Playing ULTRAKILL for it's music" streams in the future, right?
unfortunately i’m pretty sure that isn’t happening, as marco has said that playing the game makes him feel nauseous
I love “Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death”. I especially love how it evokes the sound of an air raid siren. Sirens are used to alert people to danger but symbolically it’s often used as and object or representation of fear and death.
For me it’s use in the song is the idea of death looming over everyone, that at any point in time anyone could die in an instant.
Large ordinances like bombs, rockets, and artillery not only generate physical devastation to people and environment but it’s also a psychological weapon to people on the frontlines. It’s the sword of Damocles that can fall from the heavens and smite you anywhere. A fate of inevitability, that the unlucky trench or foxhole you’re hiding away in is wiped out and you can’t change that. The siren in this instance is not here to warn you of danger but to herald death’s arrival.
That’s what I think “Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death” means.
Someone else commented about the word “Hear!” and how it can represent some form of a call to action. With this “the siren song call of death” is a double entendre not only referring to what I previously mentioned but also to the mythological creature. Beings who’s songs attract men and leads to their doom. In this case the siren is the raison d'etre, the reasons that people go to war. The call to action that appeals to the peoples hearts with ideas of peace, stability, and protection of home which all leads to the death of all.
Oh im excited to hear your reaction to 7-3 suffering leaves
I wanted to say that this video in particular has changed the way I think about this game and the player character. Thank you for the light you shone on my view, I really like this new, much deeper, much scarier way of looking at things. I appreciate the work you do, keep it up!
really appreciate it!
11:10 Oppenheimer moment
The first track reminds me a lot of the original Blade Runner's atmosphere and setting made by one of my favourite movie score composers, Vangelis. And it correlates to the track title, which is a take on the Book title "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", which is the inspiration for the Blade Runner movies themselves! I love those thematic synergies across media and how there are so many connections among my favourite pieces of art :)
I think the feelings of not wanting to do the acts but feeling an obligation to very much fits into the themes of war with the emotions of the soldiers brought to the battlefields
honestly marco you need to start a podcast. i can see ur voice on a podcast sm you could bring your series of bringing your old opera teacher ETC to listen to video game music to a podcast format i honestly think that would be sick
I feel like Marco would have a mild moment when he finds out that as this music is blaring, two types of enemies are of note trying to kill you: the Gutterman and the Guttertank. The former is essentially a big ass capsule suit with a helmet that has multiple viewports akin to a sea mine packing a large shield and a minigun... and its fuel source is a human being, initially barely alive to just stripped up bone, in the coffin on its back. The latter, however, should simply be "fuck it, we ball" versions of the Gutterman which is essentially an armored walker that lays mines and can literally punch through virtually any tank with its arm if the rocket launcher proves sure that it may be damaged if fired at that range.
Fun fact about Hear the siren song call of death, if you listen closely there are actual real sirens that you can hear in the song. The siren songs of war, desperation and survival.
I just listened to the previous video
marco don´t forget that this is the violence layer
Can't wait for you to react to the 7-3 soundtrack :)
Eternal Sleep feels like if delusion or "ignorance is bliss" was a song. The notes sound happy but in an unsettling way, in which when you understand the situation of the lands outside of the room, you wish you'd have stayed in the room to feel a semblance of joy in the world you live in. Especially when the music fades and you get a taste of whats truly happening outside of the room
the calm theme for hear! the siren song call of death realy hits home the feeling of the area
If you haven't played Ultrakill, here's how the tracks appear in game:
The first one plays at the beginning of the level, which continues the white marble halls theme of the previous one, until you see a Gutterman (big minigun wielding battle robot) bursting through a door like the Kool Aid man.
The second one plays as soon as you leave the marble halls and enter the first circle of Violence. Hell in Ultrakill is inspired by Dante's inferno, so this is where those violent against others (murderers, tyrants, war criminals and the like) are punished by being forever stewing in the Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood, which is guarded by centaurs that prevent the damned from rising from the blood. In Ultrakill, the Phlegethon is present and its shores are a raging battlefield, with the centaurs being represented by colossal war machines overseeing the battle from afar.
Y’know, that makes me wonder: the 1000-THRs weren’t here forever. What happened to the original centaurs?
@@the866-sushiask hakita
Can't wait for the 7-3 analysis, it's, personally, my favorite stage both design-wise and in terms of music.
7-2 Light up the night( thank you for going through the music!!!)
The first tracks name is a reference to the novel "Do androids dream of electric sheep" which is the inspiration for blade runner
Amazing video, truely!
i love how in one minute marco got into the same suspicions as most player scrounging for lore did without sounding like that prophetic crackhead in the metro (us)
The way that the drums mimic either cannons or machine gun fire, with occasional more punctuated shots, mixed with the slightly dissonant melody, really do capture that feeling of having to endure and resign oneself to the hellish environment of the game. Or well I guess actually hell in the game (ha).
I'd say both songs are certainly retrospective in relation to the game's story/lore. The first song, especially its title calls to mind the question of what it must be like to be a machine, never sleeping, never dreaming, never having been programmed to do either, only to recharge. The second simply embodies the phrase "War is Hell..."
Albeit this game would have 'And you are its maker.' slapped onto the end, as you are a warmachine and to kill is your purpose.
I can't wait to see what you think of 7-3's tracks, I think they are an emotional 'step up' from this one, and the themes of the level itself are quite grim.
i luv marco spaghetti
Hey Marco I would like to see you react to some of Path of Exile's music if you can. Some of my favourites is Innocence's theme, Legion theme, the Old Lioneye's watch theme (Although the game no longer has rights to this song sadly) and The Fall of Oriath ost.
That “Fine! This is what I meant to be so I’ll do it” attitude sounds a lot like Perturabo from The Horus Heresy. Then again, there are half a dozen Warhammer: 40,000 references in this one level alone. Hakita even quoted the tagline of the franchise when he revealed the teaser for this, if I remember correctly.
the look of the 1000 thousand yards
I believe that, in lore, "Do Robots Dream of Eternal Sleep?" Is a reference to an enemy in game. This enemy is a machine that has a human trapped inside being barely kept alive, so their blood can be harvested to power the machine that they're trapped in. Those machines likely do dream of eternal sleep.
My prayers on the last ultrakill video have been answered
damn hes gonna fucking love 7-3 i just know it
You have to look up ultrakill wiki for the 7-2 secret books.
There is an enemy type called gutterman, the first blood fueled machine, fueled by a human kept barely alive inside a coffin that it carries.
There is a book written by one of them. Refers to its prisoner as "mother mother, mother of me... know I know you would hate me so, and mother of me, I do too. But I would not feel, not think, not dream, were it not for you in my rusted iron womb..."
It has 3 sections. Ends with the gutterman crushing the skull of its mother to put them out of their misery as mercy, hoping it would redeem their existence.
There is a gutterman in the map without a coffin, it is dead. Because it has no fuel source.
I can't wait to hear what you have to say about Danse macabre and war without reason. All around great soundtrack