Bobby Krlic's first game score is only nine tracks but each one feels like being swallowed by a planet that hates you. "The Crash" opens Returnal with this fractured, glitching electronic pulse that immediately tells you nothing is safe here.
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"The Forest" layers organic textures over synthetic drones until you can't tell what's alive and what's machine. "Helios" somehow makes loneliness sound like a frequency. The whole approach leans into Krlic's Haxan Cloak background, all processed noise and subterranean rumble rather than conventional melodies.
"A Mysterious Device" is the closest thing to wonder on the album, and even that feels contaminated. "Dream Already Seen" closes everything in a loop, which... yeah. If you want to know what existential dread sounds like on the SSD, start here.