Slay the Spire by Clark Aboud
“Do you like this rug? It’s not for sale.”
Exordium
Shuffle your deck and choose your own fate this week with Slay the Spire by Clark Aboud. Pressed on bright red vinyl by Ghost Ramp comes the soundtrack behind Mega Crit Games' unique card-based roguelike. Join Clark and I this week as we sit by the campfire to heal our wounds and discuss the story behind his intense and harrowing music.
The Guardian Emerges
Clark Aboud is a musician, composer, and producer based out of Australia. Best known for his work on Slay the Spire, Clark has worked on many games including TIMEframe, Make Sail, Factory Town, and most recently the ever-charming Kind Words! Clark's diverse and ever-changing musical compositions span across some of the industry’s best indie games and it has been an absolute joy to witness his sound evolve with every project he tackles. I asked Clark to give me a little window into his life as a musician, what got him to where he was, and the profound things that motivated him along the way. This is what he had to say:
"I grew up with my mum & grandparents being music teachers, so I was very privileged to have an environment where music was all cool to pursue and spend time on. Starting on piano, I wouldn’t really say I was an incredible student or particularly interested in performing pieces, more interested in working out little ideas and bashing stuff out on the low keys. There was for sure a period around 2009 where I became more aware of music in films & games and that being something I’d like to do, around when I first got a PS3 and Uncharted 2. I’d always liked video game music, but maybe it was just a right place, right time situation with Uncharted that made me want to look closer."
The City
Uncharted and it's sequel are prime examples of the kinds of formative gaming experiences many of us young gamers still hold onto dearly from back in the heyday of the 7th generation. The sheer talent and creativity that was poured into making all of these cinematic and explorative adventures became catalysts to our imaginations that has sprung forth many creative minds from this golden age of games. This sort of "awakening" through musical exposure that Clark describes here is a truly deep-rooted experience and one that I think feeds directly into his love and passion for game composing. The profound effect that games and the music that inhabits the worlds we explore are so evident in Clark's work with Slay the Spire. Fueled by his love of games and the experiences that their musical moments offer to our hearts, he has set out to share a piece of himself to the world — and his unique writing style helps mold this story into one that is worth experiencing for yourself.
"The music I’m drawn to is always melody focused, so that’s where I like to start, just on the piano, sketching out the main melodies, motifs, and harmonies. On Slay the Spire, with its more unique take on fantasy, I tried to reach for chords that were less common for me, anything that stepped outside of the normal, which would in turn set up different paths for the melody to follow, so there could be moments where it’s ready to battle and then moments where it’s leaning towards something a little stranger."
The Beyond
This branching and dynamic approach to melody creation is such a cool parallel when looking at the kind of gameplay Slay the Spire delivers to the player. The execution in presenting a dynamic score that melds to the current flow of the randomness that each run contains helps to deliver one of the most creative gaming experiences I've had in some time. With Clark innovating on his own sound throughout the writing process of this album, you truly get a sense of exploration and experimentation that pours out of the grooves. Pushing the momentum of each battle forward, Clark's discordant tones kept me enthralled and practically glued to my speakers with every swath of chilling notes that bounced around my listening studio. The translation to vinyl here is exquisite and allows me to appreciate the gauntlet of dungeons Mega Crit Games designed in a totally new way! With Slay the Spire being an early access game, I wanted to know just how much of the game Clark got to see, and how he managed the ever-evolving process that comes along with it:
"Pretty much from the moment I jumped on board, there were playable builds that were always being updated, so I was able to become the audience whenever I liked and test whatever I was working on with the game throughout the process to hear what was working and what wasn't. The whole process of creating the soundtrack with Casey & Anthony was perfect. While working on the game, we’d only ever talked via email & slack, so it was awesome to properly meet them after the game had fully launched last year. And of course, awesome to work with Anailis Dorta, the artist on the game and the one responsible for making the vinyl's album art look as good as it does.
Getting to add more tracks to the game was great, being able to expand on each of the level’s ideas in new ways, and have some more variety on each of the runs. Another of the blessings was being able to rework the mixes of the first tracks when adding those newer ones and tighten things up after getting more and more of a grasp on the soundtrack as it was being written."
The Awakened One
Being able to test the game live, and become an audience member to his own work helped to flesh out the world of Clark’s sound in a really meaningful way. This constant reflection throughout the entire writing process for Slay the Spire is something that I think translates very well through the music when you listen to the final album. The cohesive and dynamic passages of notes help to truly sell Mega Crit Games’ fantastic adventure in a way I don’t think anyone could have foreseen. But what instruments or programs were used to create this world for Slay the Spire's soundtrack?
"For the orchestral sounds, it was a blend of Berlin Woodwinds, Cinebrass, and Spitfire libraries for the strings and a little bit of layering for the woods and brass. Alongside the orchestral palette, I wanted something that could hang with the more unique fantasy aspects of the game’s world, with its weirder enemies and encounters, so mellotron choirs and other old string synths found their way into the mix"
Mind Bloom
Spires of strings shower down as you cast your needle into the dungeon of grooves below. Melancholy vocals cry out, cascading through the corridors of your mind as a trilling piano trickles behind you at every rotation of this bright red vinyl. Spinning ever inward, the gothic chorus draws you deeper and deeper into the disheveled and long-forgotten past of a world in despair. Ever faint, the glimmer of campfires pierces through the darkness in sweeping orchestral motifs that will send shivers down your spine — sundering through the catacombs like tiny stars. Clark Aboud's orchestrations are altogether triumphant as they are disparaging, making this a truly dynamic and memorable experience. The marriage between these two equal yet opposite voices helps to deliver one of the most cryptic and vibrant albums I have heard from Ghost Ramp's catalog to date.
The Heart
Ghost Ramp has done such a wonderful job in bringing Clark's incredible music to vinyl. One of my favorite aspects of this Los Angeles based label is their dedication and love to bringing some of the neatest indie titles to viny I have ever seen. Being a company that primarily focuses on indie-rock and alternative music, it's always a joy when they set their sites on an instant classic soundtrack! The mastering here carried out by Joel Ford is absolutely superb. The dynamic scale of Clark’s score is highlighted very well through the grooves here. The loud sections are so bombastic and carry much of that emotion and passion from Clark’s writing sessions that you feel it surging out of your tonearm and through your speakers in a tangible way — This is elevated to an even greater level once the album enters those quieter sections, you really do get to take the album in through the totally different lens of clarity that vinyl provides to orchestrally driven music. I can’t say enough how impressed I am with how this album sounds. The tracklisting here does leave a little to be desired for me... While I absolutely love every track included in this album, I couldn’t help but wish for even more when the album got done. Inguess that could be considered a good thing, although a double LP release would have been much appreciated here. Given the constraints that a single LP provides, in the end, I am very happy with the tracks that were chosen. Design-wise, the album is presented beautifully with a few flaws here or there. The artwork by Anailis Dorta might be a little minimal for some, but I find the stylized character logos to be wonderfully executed and charming. The choice of a very dark, almost black at times, navy blue just adorns the whole jacket nicely and helps the featured colors within the designs contrast in a really pleasing way. The spine for this release left me very confused, however. The only thing present here is the Ghost Ramp catalog number on the very bottom, leaving the whole spine a barren and missed opportunity. I guess if you are going to slot this one away in your collection look for the really dark blue one with nothing on it? The included art print is welcomed and offers even more gorgeous art to pour over while this album spins and spins. Overall I feel like this is an incredible addition to anyone’s collection and one that I will be listening to for some time to come.
What's next for Clark Aboud?
"I’ve got a few projects in the oven, but I’d like to hope that you could expect anything next really. Every time I listen to a great album, whatever genre it might be, I think ‘I want to do some of that’. There's definitely a cool game out there that needs a good Shoegaze soundtrack."
Shoegaze?!?! Yes Please!
I want to give a huge thanks to Clark for providing me with a few Bandcamp codes to share with all of you beautiful people. Keep an eye out on social media and around the site here for a chance at snagging one!
Album Details
Music by:
Remastered for vinyl by :
Joel Ford
Artwork by:
Anailis Dorta
Vinyl produced & distributed by:
Where to Buy?
This album is still readily available directly from Ghost Ramp and distributors around the video game vinyl scene. For those of you in the UK and abroad, Black Screen Records has a few copies available on their website as well. The full soundtrack is also available directly from Clark via his Bandcamp page. If you like this vinyl release and want to hear the rest of the music, consider nabbing the album directly from Clark!
Purchase Vinyl Here: $25.00
