Metal veteran Clifford Meyer, best known for his tenure with post-metal band Isis, has teamed up with Nate Purkeypile, the lead artist on the 2018 action role-playing online game Fallout 76. On December 2nd, Purkeypile announced his new game, The Axis Unseen. The video game veteran describes The Axis Unseen as a “heavy metal open-world horror hunting game.” Meyer (also a member of the post-rock band Red Sparowes) is the game's composer.

Meyer, who is responsible for some of Isis’ best songs, including The Beginning and the End, does an excellent job of setting the atmosphere for this new heavy metal horror game in the trailer through his music. An ominous feeling comes over the viewer as the music builds, slowly adding drums and guitars while transporting players to a new world where it’s hunt or be hunted. Despite only coming out on December 2nd, there’s quite a bit of buzz surrounding The Axis Unseen. That’s because Purkeypile has a solid following in the gaming community, having worked on classics like Skyrim, another open-world video game. It’s also because the heavy metal genre is popular within the gaming community.

Heavy Metal And Gaming Have A Special Relationship

We see heavy metal's relationship with gaming especially in niches like online gambling, which analysts forecast the market will reach $81.71 billion by 2022. For instance, casino operators have released dozens of heavy metal-themed games to accommodate fans of this genre. One of the most popular is an online slot called House of Doom. Described as a heavy-metal, head-banging game, the House of Doom online slot is every metal fan's dream: you have the chance to win prize money while listening to a metal score. You can find House of Doom on online platforms like SkyCity Casino, where you can play hundreds of different slot games that have been inspired by metal and rock music, including Spinal Tap. This online slot game centers around a British parody heavy-metal band. It’s worth mentioning that even heavy metal artists have partnered with online casinos, including Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne, who partnered with a rock-themed online casino in 2017.

Video game fans also rush toward metal-inspired games or games with metal/rock soundtracks. Many have even become cult classics within this community. For example, Twisted Metal, a vehicle combat video game, is still a fan favorite despite being released in 2012. The game’s soundtrack has a collection of licensed tracks from heavy metal legends, including Rob Zombie, a founding member of White Zombie, and Australian hard rock band Wolfmother. Twisted Metal’s score also features several original compositions by multiple artists, including Dan Monti, who has worked with bands like Guns N’Roses, Slayer, and Metallica.

Since the 1980s, metal and rock music have had a special relationship with the gaming industry. Over time, this relationship has branched out of just video games, and now we can see elements of these genres in casino games, too. Clifford Meyer working with Nate Purkeypile on his new horror game is the latest example of this.