Ongaku Cafe (2010-2019): DAEMON X MACHINA Original Soundtrack (September 2019)

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Disc.1
1. DAEMON X MACHINA
2. Hangar
3. Testing Ground
4. Lab
5. Ice Cream
6. Distant Memory
7. Briefing
8. Overkill
9. Battle Dance
10. Destiny
11. Grand War
12. Mercenary Life
13. Tears of the Hound
14. Vow
15. Arms of Immortal
16. DAEMON X MACHINA Resolve

Disc.2
1. Open Fire
2. From Beyond
3. Grief
4. Terrors
5. Bulletworks
6. Artist
7. West VII
8. Panzer Crown
9. Messing Around
10. Shell
11. Shell (Vocals)
12. Metalfacer
13. Innocence
14. Solomon
15. Bravery
16. Full-on Assault

Disc.3
1. Fate
2. Move Out
3. The First Day
4. Memories of War
5. Oval Mystery
6. Soldier’s Dilemma
7. Burning Sky
8. Hope for Tomorrow
9. Live for Today
10. Brothers in Arms
11. Inherit the Stars
12. Life’s Journey
13. Credits

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Back on September 2019, the Marvelous third-person shooter action game “DAEMON X MACHINA” was released for the Nintendo Switch.

The game which was directed by Ken Awata, Ken Karube  and produced by Kenichiro Tsukuda also featured wonderful designs by the legendary Shoji Kawamori  (known for his work on “Macross”, “Patlabor”, “Eureka Seven”, “The Vision of Escaflowne”, “Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory”, to name a few) and artwork by Yusuke Kozaki (character designer for the anime series “Speed Grapher” and for video games such as “Tekken 7” “No More Heroes” series, “Xenoblade Chronicles 2”, “Fire Emblem Awakening” and “Fire Emblem Heroes” games and many more).

And to go along with the video game’s unique visual style, Marvelous wanted rock and metal elements for the game’s soundtrack.

And brought to compose songs for the soundtrack was Junichi Nakatsuru, best known for his musical work for the “Soulcalibur”, “Ace Combat” and recent “Super Smash Bros.” video games, Bandai Namco composer Rio Hamamoto , who is known for his work on numerous “Tekken” video games, LindaAI-CUE (Ishikawa Akihiko, known for his work on the “THE IDOLM@STER” video games) Syuri Misaki  (known for his work on “SOULCALIBUR VI”) and Toaki Usami, who composed songs for “Megami Meguri” and “THE IDOLM@STER” video games.

As well as Bandai Namco’s composers Yoshinori Hirai, Mitsuhiro Kitadani, Yusuke Yamauchi and Katsuro Tajima .

“DAEMON X MACHINA Original Soundtrack” comes with a 12-page booklet with comments from the composers and a slip cover.

In addition, the soundtrack also features over an hour’s worth of music in each of the three-discs included.

Personally, I found the soundtrack to be cool because many soundtracks I have review, may it be for film, TV series or video game tends to feature a single composer or two.  But for the “DAEMON X MACHINA Original Soundtrack”, you get a variety of musical styles.

The first disc on the soundtrack kicks off with Rio Hamamoto’s “DAEMON X MACHINA” which is a wonderful introduction score for the video game, action-packed and a glorious track.

The first disc also showcases the distinct style of each composer, from Yoshinori Hirai’s rock style for “Hangar”, Syuri Misaki’s orchestral fantasy style of sound for “Testing Ground”, Mitsuhiro Kitadani’s bubble gum/cutesy pop style with “Ice Cream” but switches it up with acoustic/orchestral track “Distant Memory” and rock track “Destiny”.

For the second disc, it’s a mix bag of composers as Rio Hamamoto kicks off the soundtrack with “Open Fire” which is rock-inspired with frenetic beats and making it an action-driven track. But can easily switch to creating heavy metal with tracks such as “Overkill”.

While Toaki Usami’s “From Beyond” features an orchestral track with background choir that many who play JRPG games can enjoy.  The same can be said with LindaAI-CUE’s “Shell”.

Junichi Nakatsuru’s “Bulletworks” sounds like a score that comes with a blockbuster Hollywood film, while Yusuke Yamauchi’s “Artist” has 50’s doo-wop style of rock track.

While the third disc is where composer Toaki Usami’s work is featured a lot.  And I have to say that Usami’s work was quite fascinating because I’m so used to his work on “THE IDOLM@STER” but he is able to create wonderful orchestral tracks.

“Fate” kicks off the third soundtrack and is a moving piece, “Move Out” gets into more adventure, while “The First Day” is like a track about dread, “Live for Today” is like a track about pursuit and action,

Mitsuhiro Kitadani’s “Memories of War” is actually one of my favorite tracks in the “DAEMON X MACHINA” original soundtrack.  The orchestral composition and the piano is wonderful!

And you also have mood-enhancing tracks by Rio Hamamoto  for “Hope for Tomorrow” and LindaAI-Cue’s “Inherit the Stars”.

As Junichi Nakatsuru was the primary composer for disc one, UsamiToaki   is the primary composer for disc three and he does a magnificent job.

Overall, if you are a big fan of the Nintendo Switch video game DAEMON X MACHINA and love the soundtrack, definitely check out the “DAEMON X MACHINA Original Soundtrack”.

Awesome music, cool variety, wonderful compositions.  Recommended!

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