Cult of the lobby

A sheep is what you should be: Standing sheepishly in the pasture all day, grazing. You also don't have to go to the hairdresser. And it's super easy to create a pegan cult, with yourself as its leader. Or something like that. I myself know about as much about farming as top politicians know about correct citation in a doctoral thesis. But to my knowledge, this is the rough story structure of Cult of the Lamb, an indie game that came out this year and has received a lot of praise - including a nomination for 'Best Independent Game' at this year's Game Awards. All in all, it looks nice, has an interesting premise and seems very well-rounded.

Reason enough to listen to the OST by River Boy, whose real name is Narayana Johnson and who hails from Australia. To what extent this plays into the composition of the 42-track score, I don't dare to say, even if I can attest to a blatant lack of didgeridoos. Joking aside, Johnson describes himself as an 'electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist'; and this in turn can be heard throughout Cult of the Lamb . The music is progressive over the duration of the OST and (presumably in line with the gameplay) becomes increasingly action-packed and fast-paced - and that's a good thing!

Where we hear the typical game-opening music in Praise the Lamb and Start a Cult, which with their chill-out character and downtempo rhythms are reminiscent of a lobby jingle, we get more variety later on: Sacrifice makes our heads nod and transports us into a kind of fever dream with jungle flair thanks to the synth beats. Meanwhile, outliers such as Knucklebones bring a welcome change to the repetitive, buzzing variety and are more reminiscent of Bastion or Hearthstone. Towards the end, things really speed up with (presumably the boss themes) First Son, Baal and Second Son, Aym, even if the class of a The Binding of Isaac is never reached.

That's why the winner of this year's Australian Game Developer Awards in the 'Excellence in Music' category receives a rather low overall rating from me. For me personally, there was simply nothing that stood out. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize the coherence and the 'one-piece' feeling of the score. In general, techno fans who like repetitive (and sometimes short) tracks will get their money's worth. Personally, it reminded me a little too much of those guys who sit in the shopping mall with a wild construction of pipes and bang out various sounds with their sandals: It can be entertaining, but in the long run I miss the variety. But it is definitely art.