Three years ago the Doom Eternal OST (original soundtrack) was released and fans immediately noticed things were a little wonky compared to how composer Mick Gordon usually works. Doom Eternal’s executive producer Marty Stratton took to Reddit back then to provide his side of the story on how things had gotten so mixed up, laying most of the blame at the feet of Mick Gordon.
Today, three years later, Mick Gordon has made a huge post on Medium to share his side of things. Gordon opens with: “Marty’s Reddit post severely impacted both my professional and personal reputation,” and further alleges that “Marty lied about the circumstances surrounding the DOOM Eternal Soundtrack and used disinformation and innuendo to blame me entirely for its failure.” Mick Gordon claims he was offered a “six-figure settlement” to stay quiet about the whole affair, but has chosen not to three years later.
The beginning of Marty Stratton’s Reddit post says “Others have speculated that Mick wasn’t given the time or creative freedom to deliver something different or better. The fact is – none of that is true.”
Whereas in Mick Gordon’s version of events, he says that he didn’t even know they were going to announce a Collector’s Edition of Doom Eternal that included an OST at E3 2019. Gordon says there was no contract accompanying this and that “E3 events are planned months in advance, well-rehearsed, and carefully managed, but nobody thought to discuss the OST with me in any way whatsoever. I learned about it in the media.”
Marty Stratton’s Reddit post alleged “[Mick Gordon] offered that the extra time would allow him to provide upwards of 30 tracks and a run-time over two hours”. On the other hand, Gordon shared a different take on that:
“Marty would later claim this was the agreed deal, but that is entirely false. In fact, the suggestion was shot down within a matter of hours because it was evident to me and everyone else actually involved in the discussions that there simply wasn’t enough time or budget to make it work.”
One of the most intriguing elements is that Marty Stratton’s post made it sound like Lead Audio Designer Chad Mossholder had been instructed to work on an alternative version of the OST in April of 2020. However, a screenshot from Mick Gordon showing alleged files given to him by Mossholder shows they were first created in August of 2019.
Of course, we should always keep in mind that all allegations from both parties should be taken with a grain of salt, as it’s extremely difficult to determine whose version is the most accurate without having been there.
If you’re looking to read more about this and form your own opinion, you should check out the full Medium post by Mick Gordon. No one certainly had any idea of the level of drama that was potentially going on when this video of the choir track was released.
