Rip and tear your eardrums with Doom 2016’s soundtrack, finally loosed from the game

"Rip and Tear," the lead-off song from Doom's new soundtrack.

One of the year's best video game soundtracks is now available to buy—but its rippin', rockin' qualities aren't the only reason you should care. Doom 2016's soundtrack is just as notable for its path from video game to MP3.

During the late-'90s rise of CD-ROM gaming, Nintendo stubbornly held onto cartridges for many reasons. One lesser-known reason was the company's fondness for dynamic soundtracks. Nintendo wanted MIDI songs in N64 games that could transform based on action and player location, with elements like tempo and instrumentation changing on the fly. (Super Mario 64 introduced this concept, and Banjo-Kazooie ultimately perfected it.)

We haven't had a dynamic soundtrack that good in years, but the closest probably came in this March's surprisingly awesome Doom reboot—whose backing tracks are composed as sections that can turn ominous, eerie, or outright violent based on gameplay moments, such as whenever one of the game's memorable "monster closets" opens up, thus causing demons (and guitar riffs) to spill out.

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