Akira Yamaoka

Example Album: Silent Hill (Original Soundtrack)

Location: Japan

Years Active: 1991-present

Style: Machine samples, industrial noise, soundscapes, metal percussion, soundtrack

        Akira Yamaoka is a Japenese composer and musician from Niigata. He joined Konami in 1993, working on various video games, until Silent Hill went into production, where he volunteered to compose the score. The Silent Hill OST is a legendary moment in industrial music, as well as Japanese industrial in general. While the sound can be quite diverse, having more traditionally musical gestures, the soundtrack traverses moments of dark ambient, industrial soundscapes, sequenced scrap metal, atmospheric uses of machine samples, as well as straight up metal percussion at certain points, especially on tracks like "Until Death." A famous moment in the score is on the song "Over," which features the sound of a dentist's drill but slowed down significantly.

    After the first Silent Hill game, Akira Yamaoka went on to score several other Silent Hill games, including the soundtracks for other video games.

    At this time, I am only familiar with the first Silent Hill OST, so I am unaware of whether his other works have industrial elements in them.