Brian Reitzell turns Mars into the loneliest place you've ever heard. The Red Faction: Armageddon score ditches the big orchestral action approach and instead builds layers of electronically manipulated instruments that feel alien and deeply uncomfortable.
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"The Swarm" uses nothing but wooden percussion processed through enough effects to sound insectoid, and it works disturbingly well. "Cavern" hums with synth drones that make underground caves feel like living organisms. "Madman's Sermon" brings Reitzell's industrial influences forward, all Einsturzende Neubauten grit with a sci-fi sheen.
Even "Breathe" stays tense. Only twelve tracks, but each one is a dense, textured world. Play this if you want your Mars to feel genuinely hostile.