Silent Hill Audio Mastermind Akira Yamaoka Details the Creative Process Behind Making Music for Slitterhead

For those looking forward to Bokeh Game Studio‘s debut title, Slitterhead, you may want to tune into the team’s latest dev diary featuring the one and only Silent Hill composer, Akira Yamaoka.

The video goes into lots of detail shedding light on the creative process behind making music for Konami’s revered horror franchise, as well as Keiichiro Toyama’s upcoming horror project, Slitterhead.

For those who’re unfamiliar with Toyama, well, he’s well-known for his work on the Forbidden Siren and Silent Hill series. Pretty solid horror chops right there, right?

Go ahead and check out the new footage featuring Akira Yamaoka down below:

It’s a really interesting video, especially for fans of that foggy lakeside town. Indeed, from a Silent Hill fan’s perspective, one part that really jumps out is that Toyama wasn’t too impressed with Yamaoka’s musical compositions for the first Silent Hill game – well, at first, anyway.

When Toyama listened to it, he seemed unsure about it. It definitely wasn’t a “Great, awesome!” reaction. I don’t remember the exact words he used, but it was something saying it was off. My intent had been to create something in line with horror, with a frightening vibe.

However, I remember when Toyama told me that, it was around late afternoon. I started asking myself what he was expecting, all the way back from work. What could possibly work… I then thought of exploring some sounds that weren’t relatable to horror. in about 30 minutes or so, I made the mandolin track used in Silent Hill’s intro.

Of course, Yamaoka-san is talking about the iconic Silent Hill Theme from the 1999 survival horror classic’s opening scene. Frankly, it’s hard to get anything more emblematic from a horror series than those eerie strums on the mandolin.

As for the upcoming Slitterhead title, well, Yamaoka has tried to emulate his success with the Silent Hill soundtrack by finding a similar “mismatch” of tones that’ll fit Bokeh Game Studios’ forthcoming title’s vibe. Intriguing, no?

There’s unfortunately no word yet on when Slitterhead will launch or what platforms it’ll launch on, but we’ll make sure to keep you posted when we hear more details.

But what say you, though? Are you excited for Slitterhead? Or will you giving it a miss? Creep down to the usual place below to let us know.