Trent Reznor will be writing the soundtrack to the next Call of Duty video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II, according to USA Today. The NIN frontman has reportedly composed the theme song for the game, which will be availiable in Australia from the 13th November.
The game takes place around the scenario of a new cold war between the US and China, with an international villain in the middle, playing off two countries’ rivalries. Reznor has described the music as “aggressively sounding” guitar-driven rock that will also have bass and drums, and says that “there is a lot of reservation and angst and sense of loss and regret and anger bubbling under the surface”, which fits in with the feeling of the game.
Recent work has seen Reznor working on the soundtracks for films Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for which he won and Golden Globe and an Oscar, but this isn’t his first move in soundtracking video games, previously working with id Software on their FPS pioneering game Quake, which saw him create the various sound effects, and then return to help with Doom 3, only to abandon the project.
He also provided an update on the debut album from his side project How to Destroy Angels. “We have a finished album. It’s been finished for a little while,” he said. “We’re doing a little bit of tweaks on it. The record will be out soon. We are doing a different type of distribution this time so it’s taking a little bit longer to coordinate stuff. There’s a lot of music about to be unleashed, and videos, etcetera.”