I think it's really interesting and unique that for the Violence level of hell, Hakita (lead dev and composer) chose not to focus on the violence itself but the tragedy and trauma behind the violence, the needless and senseless nature of war, and how it turned humanity into monsters long before their souls were contorted by hell. It's a nice departure from the typical "violent hell" depiction (not that that can't be fun and engaging, but it's a well-trodden trope by now).
I'm pretty sure the last layers for Godfist Suicide are all going to not base themselves on the depictions in dante's inferno, but the many concepts there are for the idea of Violence, Treachery and Fraud For example: 7-1 bases itself on the existence of violence in a peaceful land, or using that violence as a tool for adding color to the world 7-2, instead of following with the Paint-the-world-red immediately changes to the common depiction of violence: War.
According to Hakita himself, the reason why most of 7-1's rooms are white is because the blood is visible. Rather than depicting violence in general, it depicts your own violence.
Violence is lower on Hell for a reason. The lower a circle is, more heinous the crime. In lore, for God, Violence in any form would be more terrible than commiting heresy.
Man, Violence is by far my favorite layer. As the World looks White plays, you're simply walking through the endless marble hallways. Then you pick up the first skull. The music stops, and the statues behind you move to face you. And it doesn't play until you reach the room where the first skull pedestal is when suddenly, they attack, their movements erratic and spider like. A great way to start the layer.
Out of every layer, i feel like Violence has hit the best first impression out of every other layer, the only one i believe gets any close to Violence is Heresy's 6-1
@@santinogirado5487 Every layer has such a good opener, so for Violence to stand out is really remarkable. I remember every layer giving me goosebumps on first arrival. Prelude's intro, Limbo's calm, Lust's vista, Gluttony's gruesomeness, Greed's sunset, Wrath's jazz, Heresy's scale, and now we have Violence's melancholy. Hakita knows how to make a good first impression multiple times, which is a skill I didn't know existed.
The last track is for -minotaur- . A hulking mass of stone and flesh made to vaguely look like a bull. It was a gift for Minos before he started the renaissance in Lust. Minos was disturbed by it and sent it to a maze at the gateway of Violence in hopes of no one ever seeing it ever again. It isn't allowed even a name.
Also It is not fully a conscious being - since it's a demon, it is animated directly by Hell and its malevolence itself - Its theme's rage and chaos is largely due to it ravaging through the labyrinth attempting to leave and wreck havoc to everything in its path
@@gkk116 idk man I think being fully aware that your afterlife is being spent crammed from whatever husk you were in into a shittily made tumor of a body is finally crumbling and in spite of all the pain still wanting to try to see the stars (which despite being named after, you never got to see more than once) even just one last time is a pretty sapient, if not sentient, thing to want. leave poor asterion alone he's suffered enough.
It is turly uncanny how almost everything you say about the music is true to the moment and story of the game. You can really hear how Hakita combines enviroment, story and music perfectly. Awesome.
some random fun facts: > "The World Looks Red" first starts with basically a jumpscare where 6 Mannequins suddenly attack you as you walk back into a room you've previously been in > "Bull of Hell" is an overt reference to one of the composer's favorite bands, Bull of Heaven > the song also features the youtuber MandaloreGaming playing an Aztec death whistle generally after playing through the level and the rest of the act I like to see The World Looks Red as a celebration of violence, which is quite fitting considering where exactly you are. edit: idk why people are talking about minotaurs, there's not a minotaur boss thats kinda weird imo yall are crazy
@@baco12sd Hakita himself said the poses were a mix of jojo poses and the flag alphabet, the cover of the world looks red says gay in flag alphabet, i love this little guy
Marco, you have no idea how happy seeing this video pop up in my recommendations made me. I just recently watched your original "the world looks white" reaction video with the release of Violence and was hoping you would take a look at it now that the completed track is in the game. I would HIGHLY recommend listening to the rest of the music for this level as it is easily some of Hakkita's best narrative pieces for this game thus far. One of the themes in "The world looks red" is the theme of Minos, the king of Lust and Judge of hell a charecter we have encountered before. His connection to the level is through the gift of a bull from another king of hell who's name is currently unknown and redacted. Minos was frightened by the horrific caricature of his past (of which we don't fully know, but it likely shares some similarities with mythology) and cast the Minotaur aptly translating to "Bull of Minos" to the Violence layer's horrific maze. The second theme present with Minos's could be a number of things such as the layer itself, the creepy demonic mannequin inhabitants, Minos's horror or potentially the Motif of the mysterious third king of hell and final confirmed Prime soul. This is the first masterpiece of the violence layer that acts as a canvas to hold the the rest of the layer, enveloping it with it's great walls and winding and entrapping geometry.
@@themetalsunyt8810it would break the trope of every prime soul boss be from greek mithology and that it is also mentioned in the Dante's Divine Comedy
@@themetalsunyt8810honestly P-3 being hell itself… while making sense, would delete any other tragedy to analyze as… it would just be a creation that gained sentience AND absolute power and knowledge…
The unending halls of the Garden! Ah, so dutifully decorated by the cross, the symbol that angels use for the Tree of Life. They praise their beloved Father who had planted it and filled us with the dew of its leaves and the nectar of its fruit, that which gives us life, courses through our veins... For you however, our truth: Our bodies are not a vessel for the blood of the fruit, but its prison. The beautiful guts and gorgeous bone YEARN to be shown and seen! SPLAYED! Under the divine cross of the Tree of Life, we pay it tribute through the art of violence. THE WORLD IS YOUR CANVAS SO TAKE UP YOUR BRUSH AND PAINT THE WORLD R E D .
The "bells" in bull of hell aren't really bells, they're "gamelan" it's a traditional music ensemble from Indonesia It's honestly surprising because being from Indonesia when i first heard it i was like "oh wait a minute" and did some research, apparently hakita hired the finest (cheapest) gamelan group in Indonesia to compose it
I feel like emotionally "War without reason" is probably gonna be the weakest. But based on gameplay and how it almost jumps back to Prelude's tracks heavy use of sample's (plus, as people under the official soundtrack pointed out), it was V1 (player's character) finally fulfilling their purpose as a machine, it stands as strong as how tragic the rest of Violence soundtrack is
I think the point of the level/music is not emotional complexity. . . It's to make you realize something that might be even more terrifying, I haven't listened to song "War Without Reason" all too much, but I have played the level. And something interesting is that, there are idols in the Earthmover, which makes me think that we are not just killing another demonic, corrupted soul, we are killing a conscious, human soul. I'm not completely sure about the lore, but I don't think idols can be used on machines. And if that's so then that makes you realize something even more horrible about the world of ULTRAKILL. The Great War the humans waged, at some point, they started putting souls into machines, and forced them to do their bidding, again, I'm not sure about the lore, but it could have HUGE implications to the lore of the game. I mean, think about the title of the song, "War Without Reason," if my theory is correct, the machines left in hell, from the war, are still fighting, without a reason, only following their programming, and THAT is the punishment of the souls, to be left forever, fighting endlessly. Again, I'm not really sure about the lore so, take this with a grain of salt.
@@visibleconfusion.8858I wouldn't say that earthmovers have human souls, but iirc in Ultrakill's cosmology, anything that has blood counts as being alive. The 7-1 book says blood comes from the tree of life, so blood might actually have mystic powers which explain how it can be used to power machines. maybe that's why humanity could invent robots in WWI (called the Final War in lore): blood wasn't just a power source, but also a source of intelligence
You can tell he's getting better at, pretty much everything just by comparing each layer. Music at prelude is great but Violence has so much better tracks. Violence feels way better than lust and lust was practically orgasmic ( ). Only Hakita knows what we have in store for layer 8/9.
"the world looks white" into "the world looks red" is probably the greatest display of the feelings of violence, you either go numb and feel hollow with the remorse, or you feel the quiet insanity of enjoying it. it feels like "the world looks red" should be the first theme, of the actual violence, into the consequences of that in "the world looks white"
The Bull of Hell theme really does justice for the boss it represents. It being a grotesque abomination of a bull, falling apart at seams, desperately seeking a way out and thrashing everything on its path. It was a gift to King Minos, which he was appauled by and called it the "caricature of his past mistakes". Whose gift it was? Well, we don't know, as their name was erased from the logs, but it's heavily implyied to be a Prime Soul of act III
This set of songs along with others in Layer 7 really show how far Hakita has come with his skills as a musician and painting scenes/concepts with sound alone. Another wonderful video Marco, great insights as always!
I really love your talk of dissonance and clashing tones within the music, because the way Violence is presented to the player is so different compared to the previous levels. There was already a level of tragedy present, but 7-1 really escalated it by making the player confront the consequences of violence (both theirs and mankind's as a whole), and although V1 (the character) has no emotional attachment, you (the player) really start to get an uncomfortable feeling from all the scenes of war and punished sinners that Hell seems to be deliberately showing us. It's nice to see that so perfectly reflected in the music.
The -Minotaur- was a creation by an unknown architect as a gift for the then Judge of Hell, Minos. The terminal entry for this being is *fascinating* because for the first time EVER, the Terminal (the arcade cabinet-esque computers that have given us all our information thus far) is at a _loss of words_ for the -Minotaur.- There is no data on this being. ...but red text immediately beneath the entry, as though put there by some outside force, explains what the -Minotaur- is. This Red Text is not foreign to us, as it's appeared before to mock the player and force US into interactions we may have wanted to back out from. It's crossed out in white, as though the Terminal ITSELF was attempting to expunge this information. Said information being: _"The Minotaur, one of the oldest known surviving demons, was sculpted by ████ ██████ as a gift for the then Judge of Hell, Minos, in an attempt to form some kind of rapport._ _Though its creator considered it beautiful, a personalized monument of death and despair, Minos was terrified of the gross caricature of his past mistakes and cast it into the Garden of Forking Paths, hoping it would never be seen again._ _Now the Minotaur is old and its body failing, falling apart, running blind through the labyrinth in a desperate attempt to break out. Its only desire: to see the sky for one last time."_ People have speculated that the entirely redacted name that gifted Minos the Minotaur was *Hell Itself.* The red text that follows V1 (and by extension, us) with seeming fascination. This however, is just theory.
It is VERY likely that Hell is saying this. What’s frightening is that in 7-4 and 7-2 we can really tell that V1 is interacting with Hell more often and is starting to get the attention of such a disturbing creature- it’s also highly unsettling how Hell isn’t even really retaliating against V1 - Hell is not trying to preserve itself. Quite the opposite. This hyper-intelligent organism wants 1 thing - and that is *no* trace of mankind to be left remaining at the end. It wants absolute decimation of man and that includes its own destruction. Which fucking terrifies me.
I think the same. Fırst we saw sisyphus' name was on the Fırst layer of the second act and now on the Fırst layer of the third act we see this unknown guy or thing and itll be on the p-3 bro think about fighting something prison and it actually turns out to be hell
so, on the slim chance that you haven't decided to atleast listen to the rest, I can highly recoomend 2 tracks (that of course doesn't mean that you shouldn't give the rest a listen). 7-3 - Danse Macabre (yep) 7-4 War Without Reason In any case, I love listening to your thoughts on OST especially. Keep it up! also, 1:40 DOG, please give em a pet
I think you really hit the nail on the head with your descriptions of The World Looks White and The World Looks Red. Especially regarding that disillusioned feeling, waking up to face harsh, cold realities. Every time I hear those tracks, I always think back to my father's passing four years ago. He and I were more like brothers than we were father and son, and to basically wake up one morning to a phone call was something I can't put into words. I basically lived out The World Looks Red in a couple ways from that point, but the biggest way was that first week after getting the news. I was basically completely numb for that week, only leaving my couch to go to the bathroom or maybe eat. Then it was right back to the same spot, just staring into nothing and trying to wrap my head around everything. But after that week, the "heroic" note kicked in, and I finally started trying to live my life again. I knew that was what my dad always wanted for me, but I needed time before I could. The dissonance over those heroic tones, for me, is the sadness I still feel when I think about my father. But I'm still doing what I know he wanted for me.
im in honest amazement on how you can identify melodic ideas from songs. specifically in The World Looks Red how you’re able to identify heroism and despondence from the change as they conflict with each other a blood fueled war robot splaying the gore of sinners who were made into still objects in a labyrinth for trying to escape their eternal torture. a hero helping them break free of their despondency bravo macro. bravo. 👏
At about 5:05, i believe that the droning in the background is actually the sound of plane engines (probably propeller planes) which i think is a subtle but extremely intelligent reference to war and the violence layers theme
I love the ultrakill soundtrack, and I hope you listen to more of the songs cuz they're really cool. Personally I love the vibe of the VIOLENT layer as at first you feel safe - the safest you've been but you realise something is off. So off that it makes you uncomfortable but you don't realise it until you pick up the red skull.. and then BOOM - mannequins just dash at you and stare at you. That thrill made me understand Hakita's vision and now I appreciate every detail in ultrakill. Especially the fact that the mannequins change poses when you look away.
Also, I love the fact that Hakita focuses on more than just Breakcore - the main genre of all songs in ultrakill - in this layer. The violence layer is supposed to be unsettling and as a person who loves violence and ultrakill, it's perfect for me.
Hakita is a masterpiece, I never thought a game that makes you fight through hell, have a wide arsenal of weapons would make me afraid or uncomfortable about a bull chasing you through a subway with "bull of hell" playing
When i first started to watch your videos about 3-4 months ago. I just wanted to listen to someone gush, about the VGM i loved so much. You seemed in the way back then. You would pause, and talk about the little things I never noticed. You would vocalize and explain what you're talking about. At the time I thought you were annoying. I just wanted someone to say THIS IS GOOD. However now that i hsve sat with you whilst you talk about VGM as a possible modern evolution of opera. I started to really enjoy the little tangents you go on. I absolutely love the way you think about music. I cannot wait to see more of what you put out no matter what it is. Because you are teaching me. Growing my musical ear even if not in a theory sense. As a listener i look for the background texture now that just floated over me and made me feel things unconsciously. Thank you for making this. Its very important to me.
To me, the Bull of Hell really, really makes me imagine the brazen bull or bronze bull from ancient greek. It was a torture and execution device, where people were put inside a bronze statue of a bull, and fire was lit under the bull to cook them alive. The structure was apperantly made so the screams coming from the ear and nose would sound like a bull. Especially with the brass bells at the begining, and the constant rising of adrealin reaching a scream that resembles a bull's roar.
I really like these videos, just found them through the recommend feed. I played ULTRAKILL and I could definitely feel and appreciate some of the breadth and depth of the music, but this analysis has helped me to understand how, why and what I feel, allowing it to resonate even better and me to appreciate it more. And man, did it really resonate. The music of this layer didn't hit quite the same at the time, since I was focused on the gameplay, but out of context and coupled with the analysis the melancholy, the discomfort, the tragedy, the fear, the _despair_ all piled on until I just found myself crying, more and more and harder and harder. At the end, when it stopped, I was left with a strange feeling of...resolve? As if I, as V1, *must* persevere. I *must* triumph. I *MUST* end their suffering.
I don't expect a video for them but I highly recommend listening to the entire soundtrack for Layer 7, what you listened to is just songs from one level and the rest of them are also absolute bangers but are also musically amazing and really show off how far Hakita (aka Heaven Pierce Her) has come in music production.
@@MarcoMeatballWe're eating good boys. I know the list is getting bigger but I hope you check out Strive's new theme, Extras. Much love, your videos are great and sorry if we're pressuring you to check things.
I remember when I played violence the afternoon it came out, I streamed it to a friend on discord, and the stream quality wasn’t the best so when I picked up the book early into 7-1, he couldn’t read it, so I read it out loud to him. And as I got towards the end of the book, the world looks white was reaching its most terrifying point, and the music crescendoed and cut out right as I read the final line - ‘so paint the world red’. Chills. That was when ultrakill officially became one of my favourite games of all time.
I think seventh layer in Ultrakill it is Hakita's Magnum Opus of all game. After six layers with drive, speed and action you entering in pure light and white world with calm music like from old but familiar music box. You are going through without any resistance. But you are not allowed to be here. And after opening the last door, your main objective is paint the world RED
One cool thing about The World Looks White and The World Looks Red is that the former is a lot calmer and peaceful but haunting, representing how the Garden of Forking Paths is a Labyrinth and many of the enemies are initially statues that don't move, even though it is still horrifying to have the enemies there, and once one ventures into the Garden there is no escape. The World Looks Red sounds like the enemies are struggling to get out, which is central to the lore of this level, and these enemies that were once in stasis are moving around at very fast speeds. The tragedy is represented in the song by the dissonance. Because these demons will never escape, and any attempts will only hurt them further. The guitar that overlays the entire track represents V1, the player, who comes in and suppresses the enemies and their tragedy, waking them up from their stasis to kill them and desecrate the beauty of the Garden, but perhaps there is more beauty in the liberation of these tormented souls who would do anything to escape the Garden.
Marco the reason for the heroicism in The World Looks Red is because that is an organ rendition of Minos' leitmotif. If I'm not wrong you can also hear it directly at the start of Bull of Hell.
This music has to much feeling to it I don't know how to describe it but as soon as i began playing 7-1 and was met with the bleak music and plain white surroundings I got goosebumps, especially when the song becomes more dramatic.
Hakita could've simply made the 7-1 ost a balls to the walls, heart pumping song for the Violence Layer and it still would've been really great, it still is heart pumping though. Instead of celebrating the Art of Violenece, the ost emphasizes the tragedy that is Violence
You are pretty much spot on on the emotions these songs are trying to elicit. The World Looks White/Red are not about any specific character, but more about the Violence layer itself and the souls trapped in it. Twisted malevolent people guilty of the sin of violence are doomed to suffer eternally (explored more on 7-3) and those who mustered the courage to try and escape are caught and trapped in these human-like statues (mannequins), feeding them with their blood. Those, in turn, will hunt down the next souls trying to escape to condemn them to the same fate
Glad you've finally got into listening these tracks! Personally not only the violence layer has a crazy quality increase gameplay wise compared to the previous layers, but it also has some of the best soundtracks in the game so far I would like to give a bit of context though, for the most part i think most if not all of ultrakill's soundtrack is more the theme of that particular layer of hell and the story of the sinners subjected to it. Because i can tell you for a fact that the main protagonist is NOT at all a hero since we're playing as a literal bloodthirsty killing machine whose journey to decent hell is purely driven by it's instinct to get more blood for fuel since the machines have driven humanity to extinction Also yes, Bull of hell plays when you are fighting a bull boss which in this context is the minotaur in the labyrinth in violence. It is also one of my favorite tracks in the game because i'm Indonesian and it has gamelan in it lmao
@@ZaviahNorwoodit’s cuz everything else is just so great as well. This is not to shit on that one, it’s one of my personal favorites too, but Layer 7 is such a step up that the beautiful OSTs on Layer 7 overshadow the other beautiful ones on the same layer.
You know, I was trying to pin down what Bull of Hell's instruments remind me of, and I think it's something along the lines of some of the boss themes in OFF, an old RPG Maker game - specifically Zone 2's boss and the final boss themes. I think it's the hollow sounding percussion along with the drums that's dragging it back to mind. 🤔
the kind of happy triumph part of an otherwise tragic sounding theme (the world looks red) is something i love so much that fits with ultrakill so perfectly. it's kind of like this beautiful, orchestral, biblical glory, and you see these sort of happy parts all over the game in tracks like glory or altars of apostasy and i think it kind of speaks to ultrakill's intense focus on excessive violence and bloodshed. i love the book in 7-1 that talks about how the bones yearn to be seen, and the gore wants to be splayed and seen and such, "so take up the brush, and paint the world red" - it's this elevation of violence to a glorious, holy level that mixes so well with the kind of horrible mangled ideas of gods will and holy glory in a universe where he's completely gone, and it's those musical moments where these tragic songs burst into a sick joy that i feel really reflect the crumbling and corrupted structure of ultrakill's world and characters (ESPECIALLY in the world looks red where this beautiful movement is kind of offputting and dark, maybe like how we power on as V1 into the deep bowels of hell, literally bathing in the blood of the countless creatures we slaughter). maybe i'm reading into it too much but i just adore the way this game depicts excessive violence and destruction as such an incredible yet horrible spectacle
All of these themes are actually for first level of layer of Violence - "Garden of Forking Paths" (7-1) The World Looks White - Calm/Non-Combat theme. The World Looks Red - Combat theme. Bull of Hell - The boss theme of 7-1. Ps: I misread the description as I thought that Marco said all these themes were for 7-1, 7-2 and 7-3.
@@karolpx1000 I'm making USTManager, a mod to change songs and in the game The world looks white is called "7-1 Intro". It's only played until you pick up the red skull
@@karolpx1000 and a fun fact. The MusicManager (when Hakita decides to use it instead of placing random AudioSources in the level) works with 3 songs. CleanTheme, BattleTheme and BossTheme. They can change thorough the level
I will forever love Hakita's musical takes on the seven layers of Hell, Violence especially. It's so incredibly haunting that, of all layers, *this* is the one that is filled with the most reflection and hesitancy despite the nature of ULTRAKILL as a game.
Something you said reminded me of some awesome tracks I haven’t really seen anyone bring up before. The game is Asura wrath. The main theme, “In your belief” is amazing. It reminds me of old movies with this sort of epic, yet melancholic, build up. Then there’s “unleashed” which feels like watching an explosion in slowmo, and “wind fang” which sounds like a ninja went to the wild west. The two are character themes for the protagonists.
What is interesting is, that for a layer called "violence" there is a lot of ways to actually avoid conflict. 3 of the 4 levels are beatable barely killing anyone, the challenge in 7-2 even requiring to spare everyone. This fits perfectly with The World Looks White, focussing on looking around and reflecting on your own actions.
A couple days ago I rewatched your reaction to the WIP of these songs (minus Bull), so glad you not only came back but also reacted to the entire level's songs.
I feel like after you've gone through all the various songs for this layer, you could stream yourself playing through the game and react to the context the music shows up in.
You mentioned slow steady pleading when commenting on the latter part of "The World Looks Red" and there is a very good reason for it... The violence layer is split in three parts, like Dante's Inferno and this one is about violence done to others. The heavens violence against humans, human violence against their own kind, the violence Hell inflicts on it's sinners, and of course the violence the sinners inflict on and in Hell. It is all here. The game explains that those that tried to escape this ring are tortured and transformed into beings that commit violence on those like them, against their will. Mannequins powered by the very violence of Hell, as it's own will is destroyed by that it wished to escape. Violence turns even unwitting victims and perpetrators to Violence. They are caught in a cycle and all the sinners can do is beg for death...
the garden of forking paths isnt based on any part of violence in dantes inferno, its a labyrinth at its entrance meant to keep sinners in, violence against others is 7-2
Bull of hell literally feels like a horror track put into the main game as a bossfight and it certainly delivers the terrror of a beast of the maze chasing you.
this piece is great. the world looks white really reminds me of the innocence of a child, but the child is uncomfortable, something is wrong but they don't know why or what to make of this feeling, where the chiming feels like they are slowly walking towards somewhere like their parents room or something. then bang, the transition to world looks red is the child finding their parents dead or something like that, and it sounds like pure agony in the form of music at the start of the song. the fast paced section is like the child wants to do everything and anything in their power to get revenge and in their eyes its like they are a hero, a saviour until the reality of the horrors of the world come crashing down back to them where we go back to the music box. this whole song creates a story for me, its beautiful. im not counting bull of hell here
The way I interpret the titles of the first two tracks is that often times those with anger issues (like me) don't just get angry easily, it's more so that your emotional reaction to strong emotion is a fight (angry) response. Often times this leads to young children with anger issues having outbursts of rage which generally leads to harming another or being harmed, thus our self-preservation response is to simply try not to feel anything. Which generally leads to a feeling of depression and emptiness (the "white" in the title). Which while oftentimes can be seen as someone simply being a calm person, the reality is that since that anger can erupt out of nowhere- it leads to a constant feeling of tension and unease, never knowing when you might next snap. The "Red" in this instance, is representative of an emotional outburst. It's not a chaotic mess of rage and aggression, like it may appear, it's a deeply and profoundly upsetting and unnerving experience, where you often feel out of control. (side note: the feeling of being out of control could be referenced by the mannequins being human flesh shoved into a porcelain shell, the husks of this later being forced to watch their body being used to tear apart others.)
I would LOVE to see your reaction to the rest of the music from the Violence layer, the songs are (i feel) some of the best in the game even after coming out so recently
layer 7 felt more like a cinematic work than anything done in ultrakill before, which is saying a lot with layer 6 right behind it there's an absolute fuckton of things to uncover in pretty much every other room in it and throughout the entire layer, you only "lose" like 7 seconds of gameplay, spread across 3 funny jumps the setpieces all happen quickly and naturally, by which i actually mean nothing keeps you from just shooting them on sight
"...witnessing an atrocity that could have been presented..." It's insane how well hakita manages to display emotion in the tracks of the funny blood game
What I like about world looks white is that even ingame its starts clam with no enemies which shows the deafening music that it brings plus the moment where the music stops is also my favourite since it shows why its call violence to begin with with the start of world looks red is where the music starts when the enemies that once look statues suddenly attack with no que only for you to react quickly in panic as it shows how violence can simply change a soul
its really interesting that it was pointed out at the clashing between the heroic theme and the more despondent theme because the heroic bit is a twist on "Order" the theme of the possibly only true heroic character in the game and the hopelessness being the more representing of the layer of hell itself. Where this theme is used isn't inside of Violence itself but this is a labyrinth outside meant to keep people in so that descent into madness tone you picked up on in "The World Looks White" was spot on and also why I think that bit represents Violence itself.
A lot of ULTRAKILL's music is heightened by the lore. For the most part, the gameplay is just over the top violence and action, and while the music boosts that, it also feeds into the lore behind your fights. The Bull is one of them where tiny details like the screams feed into the lore of the Bull.
something about the Bull of Hell that also stuck out to me is the feeling of not just Rage and Brutality, put especially Pain. This really does sound like a bull fight. Between the metallic scraping sounds and the guttural screams in the background, you can get the sense that no only is the bull angry, but he is also in tremendous agony at the same time. The scraping metal sounds don't just sound like pain, they actually physically hurt my ears unless I turn the audio WAY down.
something I find strangely ironic is how the "heroism" in looks red that you pointed out kind of refers to an enemy in 7-1, the mannequin you're technically putting several people out of their misery [in a very violent, """merciful""" way] since, as stated in their description, "..Each sinner was torn apart joint by joint, their broken and shattered limbs shoved into hollow statues, starting them to life as the flesh and blood of Mannequins..." and "..The gift of death is a rare privilege in Hell, so sinners who attempted to control their fate now lie in eternal agony, unable to now control even their own bodies..." the aforementioned heroism could also be a sneak peak at the third prime fight that's yet to be introduced, and very likely is, but its honestly up to interpretation.
Hi Marco, really love the videos you make. I was wondering if you could think about reacting to "Tearless Souls of Byakuya" and "Hope or Nostalgia". Both very beautiful themes from the Enkanomiya map from Genshin Impact. Keep doing what you're doing!
Gosh darnit, I'm late! Anyways, I'm really glad to see you cover the music of this layer. These are easily the most complex levels in the entire game so far, and it is important to listen to all of each level's music in its full context. I'm sorry I don't have much interesting to say, I'm just really hyped to see you cover this. Thank you for uploading as always, you're an inspiration :D
so glad you're still enjoying this soundtrack! you should seriously listen to the rest of the VIOLENCE layer, i think layer 3 of violence will be your favorite. edit: i just got to the end of the video, super excited. you're gonna love it, man.
@@epicjeongviolence in dante's inferno was split into 3 parts, first was violence against others, second was against self and third was violence against god i assume thats what he means
So, in game 7-1 is very unlike what you'd expect from the Violence layer, even more so if you're familiar with the Divine Comedy. It's basically set in a maze of unsettlingly pristine white marble halls that according to Hakita lays at the edge of the Violent circle, which didn't exist in the source material, but hey, artistic license is a thing and it's good sometimes. What did exist in the original is the Minotaur, which in the Inferno guarded the entrance to the seventh circle of Hell. Bull of Hell plays during the boss fight against it and it adds to the stress.
i like how you can hear a little bit of the motifs in minos prime's theme in the world looks red, foreshadowing the bull of hell (which is the theme of the MINOtaur)
the atmosphere is fucking brilliant too - it’s the main reason I want to experience it all for the first time again because the atmosphere - that *feeling* you get is just unbeatable.
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
I think it's really interesting and unique that for the Violence level of hell, Hakita (lead dev and composer) chose not to focus on the violence itself but the tragedy and trauma behind the violence, the needless and senseless nature of war, and how it turned humanity into monsters long before their souls were contorted by hell. It's a nice departure from the typical "violent hell" depiction (not that that can't be fun and engaging, but it's a well-trodden trope by now).
I'm pretty sure the last layers for Godfist Suicide are all going to not base themselves on the depictions in dante's inferno, but the many concepts there are for the idea of Violence, Treachery and Fraud
For example: 7-1 bases itself on the existence of violence in a peaceful land, or using that violence as a tool for adding color to the world
7-2, instead of following with the Paint-the-world-red immediately changes to the common depiction of violence: War.
According to Hakita himself, the reason why most of 7-1's rooms are white is because the blood is visible. Rather than depicting violence in general, it depicts your own violence.
well said
@@santinogirado5487 well i mean other than 7-1 violence is based on inferno
Violence is lower on Hell for a reason. The lower a circle is, more heinous the crime. In lore, for God, Violence in any form would be more terrible than commiting heresy.
Fun Fact: the scream at 23:29 is actually an aztec death whistle played by MandaloreGaming, a youtuber that is present in the game as a secret boss.
Yeah i saw it in the dev museum, its a really cool easter egg. Thanks for sharing it.
Oh, shit, it was played by Mandalore? I did not see this coming. That's metal AF
Funny thing, Mandalore actually plays that death whistle when his neighbors are smoking the lung-killing demon kush.
Mysterious Druid Knight (& Owl) appearing yet again to mess with V1 in Bull of Hell
I think it was gifted by Hakita himself that Mandalore started using to harass the hell out of his neighbours
Layer 7 is the definition of musical empathy and emotional resonance
As well as regret and lamenting the path that the layer has walked through.
and then there's bull of hell
Man, Violence is by far my favorite layer. As the World looks White plays, you're simply walking through the endless marble hallways. Then you pick up the first skull. The music stops, and the statues behind you move to face you. And it doesn't play until you reach the room where the first skull pedestal is when suddenly, they attack, their movements erratic and spider like. A great way to start the layer.
Out of every layer, i feel like Violence has hit the best first impression out of every other layer, the only one i believe gets any close to Violence is Heresy's 6-1
@@santinogirado54877-2 went so hard imo
i had to stop and stare at the atmosphere cause it was so god damn cool
I also really liked Wrath's introduction personally.
@@santinogirado5487 Every layer has such a good opener, so for Violence to stand out is really remarkable. I remember every layer giving me goosebumps on first arrival. Prelude's intro, Limbo's calm, Lust's vista, Gluttony's gruesomeness, Greed's sunset, Wrath's jazz, Heresy's scale, and now we have Violence's melancholy.
Hakita knows how to make a good first impression multiple times, which is a skill I didn't know existed.
Hakita really nails it with intros. The only intro I do not like is the one into greed.
I love "Bull of Hell" because that plays inside an underground railway, which it really fits the theme for.
Average Tuesday in New York subway
The clanging bells and metallic screeches really do make it sound like a train.
@@Dreigonixgamelan
The last track is for -minotaur- . A hulking mass of stone and flesh made to vaguely look like a bull. It was a gift for Minos before he started the renaissance in Lust. Minos was disturbed by it and sent it to a maze at the gateway of Violence in hopes of no one ever seeing it ever again. It isn't allowed even a name.
Also It is not fully a conscious being - since it's a demon, it is animated directly by Hell and its malevolence itself - Its theme's rage and chaos is largely due to it ravaging through the labyrinth attempting to leave and wreck havoc to everything in its path
@@gkk116 idk man I think being fully aware that your afterlife is being spent crammed from whatever husk you were in into a shittily made tumor of a body is finally crumbling and in spite of all the pain still wanting to try to see the stars (which despite being named after, you never got to see more than once) even just one last time is a pretty sapient, if not sentient, thing to want. leave poor asterion alone he's suffered enough.
that wasn't the real minotaur, imagine now how the real one would be, a complete abomination
HOUSE OF LEAVES REFERENCE SPOTTED
It is turly uncanny how almost everything you say about the music is true to the moment and story of the game.
You can really hear how Hakita combines enviroment, story and music perfectly. Awesome.
my thoughts exactly
I found it crazy how he described the movements of the minotaur's hammer swings just with the song
I really like how they added the guitar/drums to “The World Looks Red”, it really added that gritty feeling that the preview was missing
Honestly Hakita posting WIPs… makes me want to hear all his WIPs.
He truly deserves the place we are putting him in today.
Adds a bit of SALVATION to it
bull of hell is probably the most heaven pierce her-esque ultrakill track. like it sounds more like hakita's solo projects, and i fuckin love that
mmmmmmmm
some random fun facts:
> "The World Looks Red" first starts with basically a jumpscare where 6 Mannequins suddenly attack you as you walk back into a room you've previously been in
> "Bull of Hell" is an overt reference to one of the composer's favorite bands, Bull of Heaven
> the song also features the youtuber MandaloreGaming playing an Aztec death whistle
generally after playing through the level and the rest of the act I like to see The World Looks Red as a celebration of violence, which is quite fitting considering where exactly you are.
edit: idk why people are talking about minotaurs, there's not a minotaur boss thats kinda weird imo yall are crazy
Wait, Mandalore played that?!?!
Not the minotaur
The -Minotaur-
There’s not a minotaur boss what
@Bitch420how do you do that…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
@@lonelyshpee7873 yea check out the back right corner of the credits museum
The world is your canvas.
So take up your brush.
And paint the world
RED.
*
The world is your canvas.
So take up your brush.
And paint
the world
RED.
*
That mini cringe tho
@@isaaclopezruiz9597 It's literally a line from the game
@@melodysky1984 yeah but in the game it's not cringe cause context is everything
@@isaaclopezruiz9597what are you talking about
5:01 this droning noise kicked in when I for the first time realized the mannequins breathe, and holy shit it was unnerving
THEY DO?!
@@kristheultrakillfanyea, you just need to listen closely, terrifying shit
@@baco12sdand their poses change when you look away 😭
@@demoman5864 ya ik, they decide to change JoJo poses while being the most terrifying enemy in ultrakill
@@baco12sd Hakita himself said the poses were a mix of jojo poses and the flag alphabet, the cover of the world looks red says gay in flag alphabet, i love this little guy
The use of a cow bell and a dronning "moooo" in the background of Bull of Hell are my fave music details in all of Violence
they arent cowbells by the way, theyre called gamela
If I'm not wrong, the scream in Bull of Hell is from an Aztec death whistle
Yes, done as a cameo from Mandalore gaming
@@randomcrapstudios8398Its purpose is to scare stoners.
That stanky dank necromancer weed@@wheekwarrior1406
@@wheekwarrior1406
And to escape the mind-dissolving mundanity that is Garten of Banban
I think it represents the "Bull" putting all it's rage and desperation into killing V1 because it knows V1 will stop it from reaching it's goal.
Marco, you have no idea how happy seeing this video pop up in my recommendations made me. I just recently watched your original "the world looks white" reaction video with the release of Violence and was hoping you would take a look at it now that the completed track is in the game. I would HIGHLY recommend listening to the rest of the music for this level as it is easily some of Hakkita's best narrative pieces for this game thus far. One of the themes in "The world looks red" is the theme of Minos, the king of Lust and Judge of hell a charecter we have encountered before. His connection to the level is through the gift of a bull from another king of hell who's name is currently unknown and redacted. Minos was frightened by the horrific caricature of his past (of which we don't fully know, but it likely shares some similarities with mythology) and cast the Minotaur aptly translating to "Bull of Minos" to the Violence layer's horrific maze. The second theme present with Minos's could be a number of things such as the layer itself, the creepy demonic mannequin inhabitants, Minos's horror or potentially the Motif of the mysterious third king of hell and final confirmed Prime soul. This is the first masterpiece of the violence layer that acts as a canvas to hold the the rest of the layer, enveloping it with it's great walls and winding and entrapping geometry.
ME TOO
it is rumored that the 'one who gifted minos the minotaur' is actually hell itself
(edited to make the point of this comment clearer)
@@themetalsunyt8810it would break the trope of every prime soul boss be from greek mithology and that it is also mentioned in the Dante's Divine Comedy
@@themetalsunyt8810honestly P-3 being hell itself… while making sense, would delete any other tragedy to analyze as… it would just be a creation that gained sentience AND absolute power and knowledge…
Yes yes yes!!
The unending halls of the Garden! Ah, so dutifully decorated by the cross, the symbol that angels use for the Tree of Life. They praise their beloved Father who had planted it and filled us with the dew of its leaves and the nectar of its fruit, that which gives us life, courses through our veins...
For you however, our truth: Our bodies are not a vessel for the blood of the fruit, but its prison. The beautiful guts and gorgeous bone YEARN to be shown and seen! SPLAYED! Under the divine cross of the Tree of Life, we pay it tribute through the art of violence.
THE WORLD IS YOUR CANVAS
SO TAKE UP YOUR BRUSH
AND PAINT
THE WORLD
R E D .
I'm months late but I love how your profile picture fits LOL
The "bells" in bull of hell aren't really bells, they're "gamelan" it's a traditional music ensemble from Indonesia
It's honestly surprising because being from Indonesia when i first heard it i was like "oh wait a minute" and did some research, apparently hakita hired the finest (cheapest) gamelan group in Indonesia to compose it
that tweet was also posted on april 1st
@@vlad980hi vlad also
that april fools tweet was just a sped up version of bull of hell iirc
Gamelan is really cool
ruclips.net/video/0RKM2xj0qKc/видео.html like this one at 3:35
isn't gamelan that place ganon tried to take over once
somewhat believe the april fools vid was a teaser to bull of hell
Let's go! I can't wait for you to react to 7-4 War without Reason and the 7-3 ost's. They are some of Hakita/Heaven Pierce Her's best work so far.
I feel like emotionally "War without reason" is probably gonna be the weakest. But based on gameplay and how it almost jumps back to Prelude's tracks heavy use of sample's (plus, as people under the official soundtrack pointed out), it was V1 (player's character) finally fulfilling their purpose as a machine, it stands as strong as how tragic the rest of Violence soundtrack is
I think the point of the level/music is not emotional complexity. . . It's to make you realize something that might be even more terrifying, I haven't listened to song "War Without Reason" all too much, but I have played the level. And something interesting is that, there are idols in the Earthmover, which makes me think that we are not just killing another demonic, corrupted soul, we are killing a conscious, human soul. I'm not completely sure about the lore, but I don't think idols can be used on machines. And if that's so then that makes you realize something even more horrible about the world of ULTRAKILL. The Great War the humans waged, at some point, they started putting souls into machines, and forced them to do their bidding, again, I'm not sure about the lore, but it could have HUGE implications to the lore of the game. I mean, think about the title of the song, "War Without Reason," if my theory is correct, the machines left in hell, from the war, are still fighting, without a reason, only following their programming, and THAT is the punishment of the souls, to be left forever, fighting endlessly. Again, I'm not really sure about the lore so, take this with a grain of salt.
@@visibleconfusion.8858I wouldn't say that earthmovers have human souls, but iirc in Ultrakill's cosmology, anything that has blood counts as being alive. The 7-1 book says blood comes from the tree of life, so blood might actually have mystic powers which explain how it can be used to power machines. maybe that's why humanity could invent robots in WWI (called the Final War in lore): blood wasn't just a power source, but also a source of intelligence
@@visibleconfusion.8858 P-2 had Idol-protected Mind Flayers
@@visibleconfusion.8858 Idols are used on mindflayers in P-2.
These 3 pieces are sure really good ways to introduce the violence layer, i hope you react to the other songs this layer has
Hakita REALLY upped his game act 2 onwards. These songs and layers just keep getting better.
You can tell he's getting better at, pretty much everything just by comparing each layer. Music at prelude is great but Violence has so much better tracks. Violence feels way better than lust and lust was practically orgasmic ( ). Only Hakita knows what we have in store for layer 8/9.
Greed onwards slapped
I mean, Hakita’s going back and revamping Act I, so who knows what the game’ll end up feeling like by the time everything’s done?
"the world looks white" into "the world looks red" is probably the greatest display of the feelings of violence, you either go numb and feel hollow with the remorse, or you feel the quiet insanity of enjoying it. it feels like "the world looks red" should be the first theme, of the actual violence, into the consequences of that in "the world looks white"
The Bull of Hell theme really does justice for the boss it represents. It being a grotesque abomination of a bull, falling apart at seams, desperately seeking a way out and thrashing everything on its path. It was a gift to King Minos, which he was appauled by and called it the "caricature of his past mistakes". Whose gift it was? Well, we don't know, as their name was erased from the logs, but it's heavily implyied to be a Prime Soul of act III
i personally think its hell itself
This set of songs along with others in Layer 7 really show how far Hakita has come with his skills as a musician and painting scenes/concepts with sound alone. Another wonderful video Marco, great insights as always!
i am so unbelievably stoked to see him react to danse macabre from 7-3.
I really love your talk of dissonance and clashing tones within the music, because the way Violence is presented to the player is so different compared to the previous levels. There was already a level of tragedy present, but 7-1 really escalated it by making the player confront the consequences of violence (both theirs and mankind's as a whole), and although V1 (the character) has no emotional attachment, you (the player) really start to get an uncomfortable feeling from all the scenes of war and punished sinners that Hell seems to be deliberately showing us. It's nice to see that so perfectly reflected in the music.
The music was very good in classic ultrakill fashion but what really stood out was the overall quality of the levels, the game keeps getting better
The -Minotaur- was a creation by an unknown architect as a gift for the then Judge of Hell, Minos.
The terminal entry for this being is *fascinating* because for the first time EVER, the Terminal (the arcade cabinet-esque computers that have given us all our information thus far) is at a _loss of words_ for the -Minotaur.- There is no data on this being.
...but red text immediately beneath the entry, as though put there by some outside force, explains what the -Minotaur- is. This Red Text is not foreign to us, as it's appeared before to mock the player and force US into interactions we may have wanted to back out from. It's crossed out in white, as though the Terminal ITSELF was attempting to expunge this information. Said information being:
_"The Minotaur, one of the oldest known surviving demons, was sculpted by ████ ██████ as a gift for the then Judge of Hell, Minos, in an attempt to form some kind of rapport._
_Though its creator considered it beautiful, a personalized monument of death and despair, Minos was terrified of the gross caricature of his past mistakes and cast it into the Garden of Forking Paths, hoping it would never be seen again._
_Now the Minotaur is old and its body failing, falling apart, running blind through the labyrinth in a desperate attempt to break out. Its only desire: to see the sky for one last time."_
People have speculated that the entirely redacted name that gifted Minos the Minotaur was *Hell Itself.* The red text that follows V1 (and by extension, us) with seeming fascination.
This however, is just theory.
It is VERY likely that Hell is saying this. What’s frightening is that in 7-4 and 7-2 we can really tell that V1 is interacting with Hell more often and is starting to get the attention of such a disturbing creature- it’s also highly unsettling how Hell isn’t even really retaliating against V1 - Hell is not trying to preserve itself. Quite the opposite. This hyper-intelligent organism wants 1 thing - and that is *no* trace of mankind to be left remaining at the end. It wants absolute decimation of man and that includes its own destruction. Which fucking terrifies me.
I think the same. Fırst we saw sisyphus' name was on the Fırst layer of the second act and now on the Fırst layer of the third act we see this unknown guy or thing and itll be on the p-3 bro think about fighting something prison and it actually turns out to be hell
A GAAAAAME THEORY thanks for watching
How do you even do the redacted text????
Just surround a word with "-"
Example:
Word not surrounded by dashes
-word surrounded by dashes-
(Only works on one word)@@MaybeMyo-Rabbit
so, on the slim chance that you haven't decided to atleast listen to the rest, I can highly recoomend 2 tracks (that of course doesn't mean that you shouldn't give the rest a listen).
7-3 - Danse Macabre (yep)
7-4 War Without Reason
In any case, I love listening to your thoughts on OST especially. Keep it up!
also, 1:40 DOG, please give em a pet
I think you really hit the nail on the head with your descriptions of The World Looks White and The World Looks Red. Especially regarding that disillusioned feeling, waking up to face harsh, cold realities.
Every time I hear those tracks, I always think back to my father's passing four years ago. He and I were more like brothers than we were father and son, and to basically wake up one morning to a phone call was something I can't put into words.
I basically lived out The World Looks Red in a couple ways from that point, but the biggest way was that first week after getting the news. I was basically completely numb for that week, only leaving my couch to go to the bathroom or maybe eat. Then it was right back to the same spot, just staring into nothing and trying to wrap my head around everything. But after that week, the "heroic" note kicked in, and I finally started trying to live my life again. I knew that was what my dad always wanted for me, but I needed time before I could. The dissonance over those heroic tones, for me, is the sadness I still feel when I think about my father. But I'm still doing what I know he wanted for me.
im in honest amazement on how you can identify melodic ideas from songs. specifically in The World Looks Red how you’re able to identify heroism and despondence from the change as they conflict with each other
a blood fueled war robot splaying the gore of sinners who were made into still objects in a labyrinth for trying to escape their eternal torture.
a hero helping them break free of their despondency
bravo macro. bravo. 👏
awh yes my favorite youtuber MacroRecorder
At about 5:05, i believe that the droning in the background is actually the sound of plane engines (probably propeller planes) which i think is a subtle but extremely intelligent reference to war and the violence layers theme
Also i think that it is specifically planes in the distance, representing the arrival of bombers
i love how melancholic the music for the violence layer feels
I love the ultrakill soundtrack, and I hope you listen to more of the songs cuz they're really cool. Personally I love the vibe of the VIOLENT layer as at first you feel safe - the safest you've been but you realise something is off. So off that it makes you uncomfortable but you don't realise it until you pick up the red skull.. and then BOOM - mannequins just dash at you and stare at you. That thrill made me understand Hakita's vision and now I appreciate every detail in ultrakill. Especially the fact that the mannequins change poses when you look away.
Also, I love the fact that Hakita focuses on more than just Breakcore - the main genre of all songs in ultrakill - in this layer. The violence layer is supposed to be unsettling and as a person who loves violence and ultrakill, it's perfect for me.
i'm so glad you revisited this song after it was completed
i think marco will enjoy analizing the rest of the songs of 7-2, 7-3, 7-4
is just fun to see his perspective
Hakita is a masterpiece, I never thought a game that makes you fight through hell, have a wide arsenal of weapons would make me afraid or uncomfortable about a bull chasing you through a subway with "bull of hell" playing
ah yes hakita is a masterpiece
mmm yes my favorite game, Hakita
When i first started to watch your videos about 3-4 months ago. I just wanted to listen to someone gush, about the VGM i loved so much. You seemed in the way back then. You would pause, and talk about the little things I never noticed. You would vocalize and explain what you're talking about. At the time I thought you were annoying. I just wanted someone to say THIS IS GOOD. However now that i hsve sat with you whilst you talk about VGM as a possible modern evolution of opera. I started to really enjoy the little tangents you go on. I absolutely love the way you think about music. I cannot wait to see more of what you put out no matter what it is. Because you are teaching me. Growing my musical ear even if not in a theory sense. As a listener i look for the background texture now that just floated over me and made me feel things unconsciously.
Thank you for making this. Its very important to me.
Looking foward to you reacting to Suffering Leaves and War Withouth Reason, those are my favs from this layer
To me, the Bull of Hell really, really makes me imagine the brazen bull or bronze bull from ancient greek. It was a torture and execution device, where people were put inside a bronze statue of a bull, and fire was lit under the bull to cook them alive. The structure was apperantly made so the screams coming from the ear and nose would sound like a bull. Especially with the brass bells at the begining, and the constant rising of adrealin reaching a scream that resembles a bull's roar.
Forget how good the music is for a moment, your hoodie is fly as hell Marco.
Makes me excited for the possibility of an analysis of 'War Without Reason' from 7-4.
*Praise be unto Benjamin.*
I really like these videos, just found them through the recommend feed. I played ULTRAKILL and I could definitely feel and appreciate some of the breadth and depth of the music, but this analysis has helped me to understand how, why and what I feel, allowing it to resonate even better and me to appreciate it more.
And man, did it really resonate. The music of this layer didn't hit quite the same at the time, since I was focused on the gameplay, but out of context and coupled with the analysis the melancholy, the discomfort, the tragedy, the fear, the _despair_ all piled on until I just found myself crying, more and more and harder and harder. At the end, when it stopped, I was left with a strange feeling of...resolve? As if I, as V1, *must* persevere. I *must* triumph. I *MUST* end their suffering.
I don't expect a video for them but I highly recommend listening to the entire soundtrack for Layer 7, what you listened to is just songs from one level and the rest of them are also absolute bangers but are also musically amazing and really show off how far Hakita (aka Heaven Pierce Her) has come in music production.
You should expect a video for each theme
@@MarcoMeatballWe're eating good boys.
I know the list is getting bigger but I hope you check out Strive's new theme, Extras.
Much love, your videos are great and sorry if we're pressuring you to check things.
I remember when I played violence the afternoon it came out, I streamed it to a friend on discord, and the stream quality wasn’t the best so when I picked up the book early into 7-1, he couldn’t read it, so I read it out loud to him. And as I got towards the end of the book, the world looks white was reaching its most terrifying point, and the music crescendoed and cut out right as I read the final line - ‘so paint the world red’.
Chills. That was when ultrakill officially became one of my favourite games of all time.
Suffering leaves suffering leaves from Ultrakill is a must listen for emotional analysis.
I think seventh layer in Ultrakill it is Hakita's Magnum Opus of all game. After six layers with drive, speed and action you entering in pure light and white world with calm music like from old but familiar music box. You are going through without any resistance. But you are not allowed to be here. And after opening the last door, your main objective is paint the world RED
One cool thing about The World Looks White and The World Looks Red is that the former is a lot calmer and peaceful but haunting, representing how the Garden of Forking Paths is a Labyrinth and many of the enemies are initially statues that don't move, even though it is still horrifying to have the enemies there, and once one ventures into the Garden there is no escape. The World Looks Red sounds like the enemies are struggling to get out, which is central to the lore of this level, and these enemies that were once in stasis are moving around at very fast speeds. The tragedy is represented in the song by the dissonance. Because these demons will never escape, and any attempts will only hurt them further. The guitar that overlays the entire track represents V1, the player, who comes in and suppresses the enemies and their tragedy, waking them up from their stasis to kill them and desecrate the beauty of the Garden, but perhaps there is more beauty in the liberation of these tormented souls who would do anything to escape the Garden.
I love the rushing anxiety bull of hell gives you. Really feels like it captures the emotions of the creature rather than your own
Always happy to see ULTRAKILL!
Always happy to ULTRAKILL!
Always happy to see ULTRAKILL!
Always ULTRA to ULTRAKILL
Marco the reason for the heroicism in The World Looks Red is because that is an organ rendition of Minos' leitmotif. If I'm not wrong you can also hear it directly at the start of Bull of Hell.
This music has to much feeling to it I don't know how to describe it but as soon as i began playing 7-1 and was met with the bleak music and plain white surroundings I got goosebumps, especially when the song becomes more dramatic.
You gotta do the rest of the violence layer especially the last song
Every day this week
Hakita could've simply made the 7-1 ost a balls to the walls, heart pumping song for the Violence Layer and it still would've been really great, it still is heart pumping though. Instead of celebrating the Art of Violenece, the ost emphasizes the tragedy that is Violence
10:51 You’re singing Crucified by Army Of Lovers. XD
Which is a song that gets interpolated a LOT in this soundtrack, actually. Very fitting.
You are pretty much spot on on the emotions these songs are trying to elicit. The World Looks White/Red are not about any specific character, but more about the Violence layer itself and the souls trapped in it. Twisted malevolent people guilty of the sin of violence are doomed to suffer eternally (explored more on 7-3) and those who mustered the courage to try and escape are caught and trapped in these human-like statues (mannequins), feeding them with their blood. Those, in turn, will hunt down the next souls trying to escape to condemn them to the same fate
Glad you've finally got into listening these tracks! Personally not only the violence layer has a crazy quality increase gameplay wise compared to the previous layers, but it also has some of the best soundtracks in the game so far
I would like to give a bit of context though, for the most part i think most if not all of ultrakill's soundtrack is more the theme of that particular layer of hell and the story of the sinners subjected to it. Because i can tell you for a fact that the main protagonist is NOT at all a hero since we're playing as a literal bloodthirsty killing machine whose journey to decent hell is purely driven by it's instinct to get more blood for fuel since the machines have driven humanity to extinction
Also yes, Bull of hell plays when you are fighting a bull boss which in this context is the minotaur in the labyrinth in violence. It is also one of my favorite tracks in the game because i'm Indonesian and it has gamelan in it lmao
i cant wait for you to listen to "Hear! The siren song call of death" its like my absolute favourite one from layer 7!
Yes, everyone seems to sleep on that track not gonna lie.
@@ZaviahNorwoodit’s cuz everything else is just so great as well. This is not to shit on that one, it’s one of my personal favorites too, but Layer 7 is such a step up that the beautiful OSTs on Layer 7 overshadow the other beautiful ones on the same layer.
You know, I was trying to pin down what Bull of Hell's instruments remind me of, and I think it's something along the lines of some of the boss themes in OFF, an old RPG Maker game - specifically Zone 2's boss and the final boss themes. I think it's the hollow sounding percussion along with the drums that's dragging it back to mind. 🤔
the kind of happy triumph part of an otherwise tragic sounding theme (the world looks red) is something i love so much that fits with ultrakill so perfectly. it's kind of like this beautiful, orchestral, biblical glory, and you see these sort of happy parts all over the game in tracks like glory or altars of apostasy and i think it kind of speaks to ultrakill's intense focus on excessive violence and bloodshed. i love the book in 7-1 that talks about how the bones yearn to be seen, and the gore wants to be splayed and seen and such, "so take up the brush, and paint the world red" - it's this elevation of violence to a glorious, holy level that mixes so well with the kind of horrible mangled ideas of gods will and holy glory in a universe where he's completely gone, and it's those musical moments where these tragic songs burst into a sick joy that i feel really reflect the crumbling and corrupted structure of ultrakill's world and characters (ESPECIALLY in the world looks red where this beautiful movement is kind of offputting and dark, maybe like how we power on as V1 into the deep bowels of hell, literally bathing in the blood of the countless creatures we slaughter). maybe i'm reading into it too much but i just adore the way this game depicts excessive violence and destruction as such an incredible yet horrible spectacle
All of these themes are actually for first level of layer of Violence - "Garden of Forking Paths" (7-1)
The World Looks White - Calm/Non-Combat theme.
The World Looks Red - Combat theme.
Bull of Hell - The boss theme of 7-1.
Ps: I misread the description as I thought that Marco said all these themes were for 7-1, 7-2 and 7-3.
The world looks white does not have a combat theme.
Yeah I know, that's why I called it as the calm/non-combat theme of the level.
@@karolpx1000 I'm making USTManager, a mod to change songs and in the game The world looks white is called "7-1 Intro". It's only played until you pick up the red skull
@@karolpx1000 and a fun fact. The MusicManager (when Hakita decides to use it instead of placing random AudioSources in the level) works with 3 songs. CleanTheme, BattleTheme and BossTheme. They can change thorough the level
i wouldn't call TWLR a combat theme, considering how it literally has a seperate calm and combat theme
I will forever love Hakita's musical takes on the seven layers of Hell, Violence especially. It's so incredibly haunting that, of all layers, *this* is the one that is filled with the most reflection and hesitancy despite the nature of ULTRAKILL as a game.
“the seven layers of hell” there’s 9 buddy
@@Kkbleeblob my mistake, buddy
Something you said reminded me of some awesome tracks I haven’t really seen anyone bring up before. The game is Asura wrath. The main theme, “In your belief” is amazing. It reminds me of old movies with this sort of epic, yet melancholic, build up. Then there’s “unleashed” which feels like watching an explosion in slowmo, and “wind fang” which sounds like a ninja went to the wild west. The two are character themes for the protagonists.
What is interesting is, that for a layer called "violence" there is a lot of ways to actually avoid conflict. 3 of the 4 levels are beatable barely killing anyone, the challenge in 7-2 even requiring to spare everyone. This fits perfectly with The World Looks White, focussing on looking around and reflecting on your own actions.
A couple days ago I rewatched your reaction to the WIP of these songs (minus Bull), so glad you not only came back but also reacted to the entire level's songs.
I feel like after you've gone through all the various songs for this layer, you could stream yourself playing through the game and react to the context the music shows up in.
You mentioned slow steady pleading when commenting on the latter part of "The World Looks Red" and there is a very good reason for it... The violence layer is split in three parts, like Dante's Inferno and this one is about violence done to others. The heavens violence against humans, human violence against their own kind, the violence Hell inflicts on it's sinners, and of course the violence the sinners inflict on and in Hell. It is all here.
The game explains that those that tried to escape this ring are tortured and transformed into beings that commit violence on those like them, against their will. Mannequins powered by the very violence of Hell, as it's own will is destroyed by that it wished to escape. Violence turns even unwitting victims and perpetrators to Violence. They are caught in a cycle and all the sinners can do is beg for death...
the garden of forking paths isnt based on any part of violence in dantes inferno, its a labyrinth at its entrance meant to keep sinners in, violence against others is 7-2
Bull of hell literally feels like a horror track put into the main game as a bossfight and it certainly delivers the terrror of a beast of the maze chasing you.
this piece is great. the world looks white really reminds me of the innocence of a child, but the child is uncomfortable, something is wrong but they don't know why or what to make of this feeling, where the chiming feels like they are slowly walking towards somewhere like their parents room or something. then bang, the transition to world looks red is the child finding their parents dead or something like that, and it sounds like pure agony in the form of music at the start of the song. the fast paced section is like the child wants to do everything and anything in their power to get revenge and in their eyes its like they are a hero, a saviour until the reality of the horrors of the world come crashing down back to them where we go back to the music box. this whole song creates a story for me, its beautiful. im not counting bull of hell here
Bull of hell is the child discovering that Moo-Moo their pet cow was the culprit all along
funfact: the *character you fight during the "bull of hell" section is a recreation of minos' m̶i̶n̶o̶t̶a̶u̶r̶
Funny blue house
you can just put 2 dashes, one before the word youre trying to cross out, and one after like - this - (except without spaces) (like -this- )
Yay! He actually did it!
He reacted to the full releases!
Once the music started playing i knew it was gonna be a wild level
I really hope you do the rest of the Violence layer. My personal favorite is "Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death!"
theres alot of potential leitmotifs for the prime boss in here but we never know
No mentions of any Greek kings, besides possibly the creator of the -Minotaur-
@@epicjeongwhich was Minos right?
@@IIiiiLiiOiiIiii'm pretty sure the minotaur(atleast in Ultrakill) was a gift for minos
Ultrakill's soundtrack feels like every little thing is purposeful, not just "oh yeah, that sounds good", it just has so much soul in it
It’s always really fun to see how much you enjoy these tracks, keep up the insightful analysis
I can't with your reaction to 7-2, 7-3, and finally 7-4.
The way I interpret the titles of the first two tracks is that often times those with anger issues (like me) don't just get angry easily, it's more so that your emotional reaction to strong emotion is a fight (angry) response. Often times this leads to young children with anger issues having outbursts of rage which generally leads to harming another or being harmed, thus our self-preservation response is to simply try not to feel anything. Which generally leads to a feeling of depression and emptiness (the "white" in the title). Which while oftentimes can be seen as someone simply being a calm person, the reality is that since that anger can erupt out of nowhere- it leads to a constant feeling of tension and unease, never knowing when you might next snap.
The "Red" in this instance, is representative of an emotional outburst. It's not a chaotic mess of rage and aggression, like it may appear, it's a deeply and profoundly upsetting and unnerving experience, where you often feel out of control. (side note: the feeling of being out of control could be referenced by the mannequins being human flesh shoved into a porcelain shell, the husks of this later being forced to watch their body being used to tear apart others.)
I would LOVE to see your reaction to the rest of the music from the Violence layer, the songs are (i feel) some of the best in the game even after coming out so recently
layer 7 felt more like a cinematic work than anything done in ultrakill before, which is saying a lot with layer 6 right behind it
there's an absolute fuckton of things to uncover in pretty much every other room in it
and throughout the entire layer, you only "lose" like 7 seconds of gameplay, spread across 3 funny jumps
the setpieces all happen quickly and naturally, by which i actually mean nothing keeps you from just shooting them on sight
Dude i love your videos, i love music but your descriptions give me a whole new appreciation. Thank you.
"...witnessing an atrocity that could have been presented..."
It's insane how well hakita manages to display emotion in the tracks of the funny blood game
You never miss with your analysis, its always so inciteful and fascinating
fun fact: one of Hakita's friends played a death whistle in bull of hell
MandaloreGaming, to be specific.
What I like about world looks white is that even ingame its starts clam with no enemies which shows the deafening music that it brings plus the moment where the music stops is also my favourite since it shows why its call violence to begin with with the start of world looks red is where the music starts when the enemies that once look statues suddenly attack with no que only for you to react quickly in panic as it shows how violence can simply change a soul
its really interesting that it was pointed out at the clashing between the heroic theme and the more despondent theme because the heroic bit is a twist on "Order" the theme of the possibly only true heroic character in the game and the hopelessness being the more representing of the layer of hell itself. Where this theme is used isn't inside of Violence itself but this is a labyrinth outside meant to keep people in so that descent into madness tone you picked up on in "The World Looks White" was spot on and also why I think that bit represents Violence itself.
A lot of ULTRAKILL's music is heightened by the lore. For the most part, the gameplay is just over the top violence and action, and while the music boosts that, it also feeds into the lore behind your fights. The Bull is one of them where tiny details like the screams feed into the lore of the Bull.
OH MY GOD I ASKED YOU YESTERDAY ABOUT THIS YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
something about the Bull of Hell that also stuck out to me is the feeling of not just Rage and Brutality, put especially Pain.
This really does sound like a bull fight. Between the metallic scraping sounds and the guttural screams in the background, you can get the sense that no only is the bull angry, but he is also in tremendous agony at the same time. The scraping metal sounds don't just sound like pain, they actually physically hurt my ears unless I turn the audio WAY down.
LET'S GOOOOOOO!!!! I WAS WAITING FOR THIS!!!!! Also, I really love the fact that you re-reacted to The World Looks White and Red
something I find strangely ironic is how the "heroism" in looks red that you pointed out kind of refers to an enemy in 7-1, the mannequin
you're technically putting several people out of their misery [in a very violent, """merciful""" way] since, as stated in their description, "..Each sinner was torn apart joint by joint, their broken and shattered limbs shoved into hollow statues, starting them to life as the flesh and blood of Mannequins..." and "..The gift of death is a rare privilege in Hell, so sinners who attempted to control their fate now lie in eternal agony, unable to now control even their own bodies..."
the aforementioned heroism could also be a sneak peak at the third prime fight that's yet to be introduced, and very likely is, but its honestly up to interpretation.
Hi Marco, really love the videos you make.
I was wondering if you could think about reacting to "Tearless Souls of Byakuya" and "Hope or Nostalgia".
Both very beautiful themes from the Enkanomiya map from Genshin Impact.
Keep doing what you're doing!
Gosh darnit, I'm late! Anyways, I'm really glad to see you cover the music of this layer. These are easily the most complex levels in the entire game so far, and it is important to listen to all of each level's music in its full context. I'm sorry I don't have much interesting to say, I'm just really hyped to see you cover this. Thank you for uploading as always, you're an inspiration :D
can’t wait to see your reaction to 7-2’s “Hear! The Siren Song Call of Death” and 7-4’s “War Without Reason”
so glad you're still enjoying this soundtrack! you should seriously listen to the rest of the VIOLENCE layer, i think layer 3 of violence will be your favorite.
edit: i just got to the end of the video, super excited. you're gonna love it, man.
I assume you mean “level” 3 of violence, not layer 3
@@epicjeongviolence in dante's inferno was split into 3 parts, first was violence against others, second was against self and third was violence against god
i assume thats what he means
@@epicjeong true
Oh my god marco thank you I am so happy to see this I love this ost so much
Layer 7's tracks have become my favourite ones out of all Ultrakill music so far. Really excited to see 7.2 - 7.4
So, in game 7-1 is very unlike what you'd expect from the Violence layer, even more so if you're familiar with the Divine Comedy. It's basically set in a maze of unsettlingly pristine white marble halls that according to Hakita lays at the edge of the Violent circle, which didn't exist in the source material, but hey, artistic license is a thing and it's good sometimes.
What did exist in the original is the Minotaur, which in the Inferno guarded the entrance to the seventh circle of Hell. Bull of Hell plays during the boss fight against it and it adds to the stress.
i like how you can hear a little bit of the motifs in minos prime's theme in the world looks red, foreshadowing the bull of hell (which is the theme of the MINOtaur)
I really wish you could watch or play a little bit of Ultrakill because you'd LOVE the lore and more of the music
the atmosphere is fucking brilliant too - it’s the main reason I want to experience it all for the first time again because the atmosphere - that *feeling* you get is just unbeatable.
you just explained how the levels playout just by the music witch i find awsome