Port Sulphur Band have released a music video for its atmospheric Hunt: Showdown track ‘Rise Up Dead Man’ – check it out exclusively at NME.
Released back in 2018, ‘Rise Up Dead Man’ marked the debut of Port Sulphur Band, an in-house band of developers at Crytek – the studio behind gothic extraction shooter Hunt: Showdown. The dark gospel track was a hit with fans, and the band has since followed it up with two albums – 2021’s ‘The Sinner’s Songbook’, and ‘The Devil’s Match’ in 2022.
Today (February 26), Crytek and Port Sulphur Band are going back to their roots with a new music video for ‘Rise Up Dead Man’, which you can check out below.
Speaking to NME, Port Sulphur Band singer-songwriter Nicolette Stewart shared that ‘Rise Up Dead Man’ was chosen to receive a music video because of its iconic status within Hunt: Showdown‘s community.
“It’s been our soundtrack – as developers and as players – since the beginning, and with over eight million streams on Spotify, it’s a fan favourite,” they explained. “So when we started talking about making a music video to celebrate Hunt’s sixth anniversary, ‘Rise Up Dead Man’ was the obvious choice.”
“For me, this was the only song it could have been,” agreed guitarist and composer Chris Green. “The video features a new arrangement of ‘Rise Up Dead Man’, where you can hear more guitar, piano, and drums subtly introduced throughout, building to the final verse where the whole band come together and explode out into the light – our first real appearance as more than in-game fictions and behind the scenes developers.”
As Hunt: Showdown is set in 1895, much of Port Sulphur Band’s inspiration comes from the era’s blues, gospel and country music. Their work also needed to fit within the game’s setting – a gothic extraction shooter, where players fight monsters and fellow players in the Louisiana Bayou.
However, the music video itself was inspired by a time much closer to our own – specifically, shared Green, the “realness” of ’90s music videos like Nirvana‘s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and Blur‘s ‘Song 2’. “At the end of filming, we were standing exhausted in a barn in the middle of nowhere, soaked, dirty, covered in dust and soot, with two smashed guitars and a burned-out piano by our sides,” he adds. “You can’t get much more Hunt than that!”
Though many of Port Sulphur Band’s songs are based on characters and events within Hunt: Showdown‘s world, none of the band members find the setting restrictive. “We are writing music with a very specific artistic identity and context,” shares drummer and composer Simon Lomet. “I know some people might see that as a challenge or constraint, but I find that really creatively stimulating.”
“A huge part is that the music is very authentic – it doesn’t come from outside the game, but developed and grew with it,” added bassist-composer Jonas Obermüller. “We’re all Hunt developers, and it helps to give the music that unique Hunt feeling. Even the humming choir on “Rise Up Dead Man’, which I always imagined to be Hunters getting ready for battle, is Crytek devs who we recorded and used to create the humming that forms the base for [the song].”
“What’s challenging now is writing music for anything else,” joked pianist-composer Dominik Zingler. “But to be honest, when working as a sound designer on a game like Hunt: Showdown, you get a special understanding of the game’s world. All of us live and breathe the different facets of Hunt which directly reflects our music and songwriting.”
As for the game itself, Hunt: Showdown turned six this month and is currently celebrating its birthday with several weeks of giveaways on Twitch. If you’re yet to play the game yourself, you can check out Hunt: Showdown here.