Resident Evil 2 - Music

Music

The music for Resident Evil 2 was composed by Masami Ueda, Shusaku Uchiyama and Shun Nishigaki. The compositions were meant to convey "desperation" as their underlying theme. In his role as lead composer, Ueda provided the motifs, while Uchiyama was responsible for the horror-themed music used for the investigation and movie scenes. The main theme of the score, a versatile three-note motif, is utilized several times throughout the course of the story, being included in compositions such as "Prologue", "Raccoon City" and "The Third Malformation Of G". Various musical styles, ranging from ambient horror music to industrial pieces, are used to represent the different environments of the game. For example, the streets of Raccoon City are emphasized with militaristic percussion-based music, while the police department features ominous piano underscores. Key events of the story are supported with orchestral and cinematic compositions – a move that was inspired by blockbuster films.

Two albums containing music from the game were released in January and August 1998, respectively. The first, Biohazard 2 Original Soundtrack, is the main release and includes most of the significant compositions. The second, Biohazard 2 Complete Track, largely encompasses less prevalent themes, but offers an orchestral medley and a second CD with sound effects and voice collections, as well as an interview with the sound staff. Biohazard 2 Original Soundtrack received an identical European CD titled Resident Evil 2 Original Soundtrack. In the North American album of the same name, the opening theme "The Beginning Of Story" is split up into four individual tracks. Five orchestral arrangements of the game's music were included on the Bio Hazard Orchestra Album, a recording of a live concert performed by the New Japan Philharmonic. Disc jockey Piston Nishizawa created electronic remixes for several of the compositions, which were later released as the album Biohazard 2 Remix: Metamorphoses.

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