![]() With an influx of cheap but reliable Japanese-made bikes, motorbikes became lifestyle choices rather than transport choices in the late 60s and early 70s, at the same time that these bands were forming in working class cities in England. Leather jackets are, of course, the primary attire of bikers around the world, and metal took a shine to motorbiking. Think of all those lads in the 70s and 80s with their big jackets: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead. There’s nothing we associate with heavy metal more clearly than leather. It’s also easy to spot on the actual sleeves. (Indeed, in some genres the spikes overtake the letters so much that band names looking like big bundles of sticks is a common joke.) With its symmetrical Metallica-esque spikes in the logo, Devil May Cry 5 wears its influences on its sleeve. Heavy metal, and its various sub genres including black, death and thrash, has strong themes of sticking it to the man and societal conformity in general, and logos covered in spikes are an extension of this. It calls to mind logos and album covers from bands like Blue Öyster Cult and AC/DC, which aren’t arbitrarily designed either. It’s a bunch of heavily scratched chrome letters, covered in sharp edges and spikes. The DMC V logo truly looks like it could cut. The series abandoned and readopted a flowing script for its title art several times, experimenting with several different designs, including the messy graffiti scrawl of DmC. Similarly, Death Scissors kill you with “shears of annihilation”, which definitely sounds more evil than “a really big pair of scissors”.Įven more up front in its inspiration is the key art. He has barbs and is rather chaotic, so it checks out. Chaos, for one, is described as “barbed discord”. ![]() This attitude extends to the way DMC V describes various fiends. ![]() One of the songs on DMC V’s soundtrack, Crimson Cloud, begins with the singer chanting the words “Saviour! Bloodstain! Hellfire! Shadow!”, an assortment of aggressive words that reflect the themes of the game, but also sound nicely apocalyptic, all flung over a thumping beat. Heavy metal songs often trade in explicit lyrics and dark themes like insanity, war, and death. In DMC V your characters scream, blood and pus make unpleasant squelching sounds, and guns fire so loudly you can feel the bullet taking a head off from the sound alone.ĭMC V and heavy metal are both about feeling powerful, and in lyrics this can be expressed with harsh ideas or words that have unpleasant connotations. Like metal, it’s an act of open rebellion, of letting go because it feels good to do so and headbanging is generally frowned upon in everyday life. This means it’s not necessarily about melody or arrangements it’s meant to signify the release of energy, plain and simple. In his review, Matt described it as “electro-metal where I only catch the odd word like ‘sword’ or ‘death’.” What this musical style shares with heavy metal, however, is the desire to be as loud and as brash as possible. In fact, in interviews the composers have talked about the metal influences.īut the series has always mixed guitars with electronic music, be it aggrocore or synth pop. Even a cursory glance at the track listing reveals things like ‘Devil Trigger’ and ‘Wings Of The Guardian’, track names that would be at home on any metal album. Perhaps surprisingly, DMC V’s soundtrack itself doesn’t feature loads of straight-up heavy metal, or at least the traditional kind. The most obvious place to find heavy mental would, you'd think, be in the music. ![]() So when we’re looking for an artistic genre, a mood, a milieu that has influenced Devil May Cry, where do we look? To heavy metal, of course. It’s a mish mash of all the things you thought were edgy when you were a teen: explosions, pizza, guitars, leather, hair, more guitars, a big sword. But it’s a particular kind of cool – loud, dark and fascinated with the occult and forbidden. This time, she's looking at the ways heavy metal tangles itself in Devil May Cry V.ĭevil May Cry 5 is, like the entire Devil May Cry series, cool. ![]() Overthinking Games runs every other Monday, and is an opportunity for Malindy Hetfeld to take something about a game and think about it too much. ![]()
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