HEALTH has created a soundtrack that beautifully blurs the line between score music and music you would find on an official album from the band. As a band, HEALTH works stunningly as composers, perfectly finding a way to match their music's signature sound with the attitude of the Max Payne series, while pushing their sound in new directions and showing off their composing skills in how well they comfortably adapt to the score music format as well. This is a sweeping soundtrack that has a cinematic flow with an identifiable introduction, climax, and conclusion, much like the video game's narrative itself. The score track dedicated to each unique level introduces the chapter to listeners by setting a distinct tone and then surrounding and immersing listeners by masterfully conveying the mood and even scenery of the game only through music alone. The soundtrack matches the visuals of the game and equates to the personality of Max Payne's cynical hero character well, ranging from disorienting spasms of the distorted color schemes from a drugged-out haze, to looming and brooding piano symphonies that wallow in feelings of a mournful past, and violent, vengeful wails of noisy feedback over guitars that chug like bullets being pumped out of an assault rifle, and tribal jungle drums that pound like a racing heartbeat in the feverish overcast of the atmosphere in the setting of a hectic Brazil.
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