

Well I have to say that one of my favorite Christmas gifts

for this year is an old CD released in 1993: Mortal Kombat: The Album.

Upon first seeing it I figured it was just a nifty release of the in-game music, but

when I popped this in to my car I discovered what kind of ride I was really in for…

Just looking at the cover you expect this to be some heavy death- metal or something – but you would be disappointed, and then totally repaid in full. Back in 1993, the musical sensation was techno as it burst upon the world from the Belgian underground with heavy synth keyboard and percussion. I would definitely not just call this album just techno either, it has a couple different styles to it, which I would compare more to artists than genres. The initial track, “Johnny Cage (Prepare Yourself) is a heavy beat based techno with Scooter-styled rapping of the lyrics. It’s pretty fantastic: the refrain being “prepare yourself” and “Johnny Cage is not afraid to die”.

I would definitely have to point out the fifth track on the album also, because opening shout of “Mooortall Kombat!” became the rallying cry of Mortal Kombat fans everywhere.

The fantastic features of this album, besides some pretty catchy beats and keyboard melodies (and piano on sub-zero’s song) are the unbelievably painful, yet great lyrics to each song that span the line of epic and bad so close that you have to choice but to love them. Sonya’s song is particularly notable for this. All jesting and flinching aside, this album is still pretty bad ass and can get you pumped for some Halo any day.

The album was crafted by The Immortals, which is composed of Belgian’s Maurice Engelen and Oliver Adams. The pair are more well known as Lords of Acid, which is famous for their controversial techno songs stemming from their first album: Lust. The goal of the album was to promote the games as they first came out on the SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy.

So if you’re looking for a cheap last minute gift, a little piece of video game and techno history, maybe some nice gaming music, or just a fantastic collection of techno songs: Mortal Kombat: The Album is worth it.

~Dan

Share this: Facebook

Reddit

Twitter

Like this: Like Loading... Related