a theory i have on DMC5 characters’ battle themes (and also Afterlife)
because if there’s one thing i love it’s overanalyzing character-centric music
alright guys buckle up, your girl has been having the music thoughts™ lately
theory: clean/straight vocals represent the character’s human side, the distorted vocals represent their demon side.
examples:
Devil Trigger: has a somewhat distorted spoken track (with a bit of screaming) but is mostly dominated by a clean main vocal. Reflection of Nero’s insecurity about and eventual acceptance of his demon heritage and abilities as a part of himself, though his perception of himself doesn’t change.
Crimson Cloud: human counterpart, clean vocals, self explanatory. there is exactly one scream in the song; guessing it refers to the tension between V and Urizen as two halves of Vergil. Though his halves are separate while V exists, they’re not mutually exclusive. V still has power relating to Vergil’s past as Nelo Angelo, and some of Urizen’s dialogue points to him having some sort of recollection of the past and not being entirely cold.
Bury The Light: Both clean vocals and distortion, but not in separate voices as in Devil Trigger. They’re both contained in the same voice, with fluctuations between the two. They eventually find a balance where both are heard clearly. *gestures vaguely to Vergil’s character development*
Subhuman: Entirely screaming. In suppressing his demonic half and keeping it beneath the surface, Dante implicitly acknowledges its existence. it’s only when he lets it into the open as his Sin Devil Trigger that he’s able to achieve what he’s been searching for- resolution and closure.
bonus! Afterlife: completely clean vocals. Dante hasn’t had his character development yet. the song mostly focuses on his human side, his sentimentality regarding the past. the Netflix series is very Dante-centric, so it makes sense that this song would be about him in his younger days, when the trauma of his youth was fresher and keener. he’s basically lost all hope of getting any closure for what happened with his family in this life, because he has no one else. all he can do is hope that he’ll be able to get closure in the afterlife. *gestures vaguely to the lyrics*
anyways yeah i love these songs and i love how they sum up the characters so well
