ΤΗΕ ΜΑΚΙΝG ΟF...METAL: HELLSINGER

From a cancelled project to locked-down singers: how the heavy-metal shooter was forged 

- KHEE HOON CHAN

Picture it: an FPS in which you don’t just slay creatures from the bowels of hell, but do so in time to the pit’s music genre of choice: heavy metal. Metal: Hellsinger’s concept is an unholy union – and one that was born out of an appropriately demonic experience. Creative director David Goldfarb remembers playing Id’s 2016 Doom reboot while listening to Swedish metal band Meshuggah: “I was shooting on the beat, just because it was fun. And then I thought, oh, it would be cool to do this with a shooter, rather than a typical rhythm game.”

At the time, though, he didn’t give the idea much consideration. The Outsiders, the Stockholm-based studio led by Goldfarb, was busy working on Darkborn, an action-adventure game that cast the player as a monster being hunted by Vikings. All that changed, though, after development on Darkborn ceased in 2019. Seeking a publisher to help revive the project, Goldfarb approached Funcom CEO Rui Casais. It didn’t work out, but another idea mentioned during that meeting caught Casais’ attention: “A metal album come to life”.

It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that the people responsible for Metal: Hellsinger’s soundtrack – Swedish duo Elvira Björkman and Nicklas Hjertberg, aka Two Feathers – were involved right from the beginning of the project. The pair were already working with The Outsiders on Darkborn’s sound design; when they caught wind of this new prototype, they were keen to get involved. The initial assumption was that Two Feathers would play a similar role as on