That being said, it still sounds "good enough" for me. No doubt there will be an enormous variety of music in the game to suit everyone. If enough people want a copy of the 2018 version, I'm sure CDPR will make it available somewhere.
I agree, tho, it's still pretty nice they asked Refused to make the song, rather than a "cool kid" band that'll disapear in 2years.
Refused has an history and a solid reputation in the punk/Hardcore scene, I hope we'll get other "nice" suprises like that.
I liked the old one much better. It had something that the new one lacks totally "Pacing." I know is supposed to rally people in to rebellion but the best thing would had been having a crescendo that in the end would boring the rage and the scream.
The new one is just someone screaming at the microphone it has not charisma at all.
Well... That's hardcore (punk) for you.
It's usualy harsh, violent and angry... Because it's supposed to convey the hard life of the street.
Would you put some Coldplay over some gang beating each other while bums snort crack on the pavement behind them?
Wouldn't really fit.
Last hardcore concert I went to, my right cheek were split open by a high kick from a dude making some KDS dancing...
(Thanks Pollux about that if you read me...)
That's a part of the scene.
It's brutal, violent, engaged, political, etc... Pure sweat, anger and blood, Been like that for decades.
Fits the Johnny Silverhand personna, I'd rather see him in a Hardcore band rather than a "mainstream" one.
"Johnny's music became explicitly political after Samurai's break-up, when a rival label unearthed the truth of his desertion and tried to blackmail him into signing with them. Instead he went public, owning up to his past and releasing a solo album called SINS of Your Brothers about his experiences as a soldier. It forced the government to own up to its wartime atrocities, and made him even more famous."
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/johnny-s...backstory-makes-him-perfect-for-keanu-reeves/
The "Chrome Metal" concert are described kinda like hardcore show, bunch of angry punks beating each other to pulp on a frantic beat, pretty far from something "nicely musical".
Take Marylin Manson as example. In his songs there is always a crescendo than then evolves in screams and yelling.
I get your point, but you're talking from a pure "musical" perspective.
You need to see this as a way of life.
Hardcore and punk aren't just some fancy clothes etc... There's some integrity and a rage in it, calling over injustices and real stuff, it's not just music, it's a scream from the street, that's where the Hardcore punk came from (Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Bad Brains, etc...) it's underground and angry, that's basicaly more fitting to Cyberpunk than Marilyn Manson which is seemingly more interested into having his cocaine around than being aware about the state of the world.
(even Trent Reznor who produced his albums descibed him as a mean and manipulative person, only interested by his own success).
Also there are tons of subculture into the Hardcore genre, from punk, to grindcore, to straight edge, skinhead, etc...
It's really a "social" musical movement, the message comes before the music (reason why often... the music sucks)
Even in the sub-subcultures you have different branches, you have the casual skinheads (nice guys in most parts, listening to Oi, ska, hardcore, etc...), the boneheads (the racists one, with hatecore, Rac, etc...).
it's really not just about the music, it has a whole history behind it and I really find it interesting that CDPR pushed that forward, kudos for them!
I really expected something like that for the cultural part of Night City. It's more than music, everywhere you'll go in the world, you'll stumble over peope sharring the same value and ideas as you, it's really a culture in it's own.
Also, Marylin Manson has a bigass record label and has access to a bigass recording studios, punk and hardcore are more "Do it yourself", it comes from the street, that's why IMO Refused is a good choice (even if they're not the best hardcore band in my book, but at least it really fit the "tone" of how the song should sounds like)
I mean, take "our" world, and how the underground is.
Take "Cyberpunk"'s world; in 2077, a shitty world slowly dying, and imagine how brutal and "not giving a fuck" the underground culture would be.
I guess it would be pretty brutal and nasty.
You don't want to sing about flowers and make cute creshendos when you live in a dumpster and starve to death haha.