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Mick Gordon

Australian composer, producer, and sound designer

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Michael John Gordon is an Australian composer, record producer, musician, and sound designer, composing music primarily for video games.

Gordon has composed for several first-person shooters, including Atomic Heart, LawBreakers, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Prey, the soft reboot of Doom and its sequel Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and the first two seasons of the 2013 fighting game Killer Instinct.

01Career

Video games

Gordon began his musical career as a jazz/blues guitarist in his teens. He first began to work as a sound designer with Pandemic Studios, where he contributed additional sound design for Destroy All Humans! 2. In 2013, he scored the first season of the fighting video game, Killer Instinct, a reboot of the original 1994 title. The following year, Gordon scored the second season of Killer Instinct and the action-adventure first-person shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order (developed by MachineGames). He returned to the Wolfenstein series in 2015 to compose the score for Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, a prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order.

In 2016, Gordon completed the score for the science fiction first-person shooter, Doom, a soft reboot of the franchise, developed by id Software. His score for Doom won a number of awards including a D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, SXSW Gaming Award for Excellence in Musical Score, The Game Awards for Best Music/Sound Design, and was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award for Best Music.

In 2017, Gordon completed the score for the horror first-person shooter, Prey, developed by Arkane Studios. He also worked alongside Martin Stig Andersen to again return to the Wolfenstein series, scoring Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, developed by MachineGames.

In 2020, Gordon completed the score of Doom Eternal; while the music for the game was once again well-received, circumstances around the soundtrack release led to a public falling out between Gordon and id Software and a parting of ways. Both sides posted open letters alleging wrongdoing.

Production work

On 23 June 2020 British rock band Bring Me the Horizon announced they would be working with Gordon on their upcoming release. Vocalist Oliver Sykes discusses how he fell in love with the Doom Eternal soundtrack during quarantine. Being heavily inspired by Gordon's work, the band decided to reach out to him and offer a collaboration. The resulting work, titled "Parasite Eve", was released on 25 June alongside an accompanying music video. The collaboration then expanded into the commercial release, Post Human: Survival Horror, released on 30 October 2020.

Gordon produced the song "Paralyze" with industrial metal band 3Teeth in 2021. On 3rd May 2023 3Teeth released "Merchant of the Void", and on 31st May released "Slum Planet" again collaborating with Gordon.

02Musical style and inspiration

According to Gordon's official website, he "utilises a broad range of modern musical sound design and traditional composition techniques in order to be unconstrained by any singular genre," and that it is "inspired by the connection between the audience and the experience."

Gordon's work "considers the role of music as a translation of the world in which it exists rather than a simple accompaniment."

03Discography

Soundtrack albums

Title Release date Label Format
A Day in Pompeii 21 August 2012 Self-released Digital download
Killer Instinct: Season One Soundtrack + Original Arcade Soundtrack 14 October 2014 Microsoft Corporation CD, digital download
Wolfenstein: The New Order (Original Game Soundtrack) 19 May 2014 Bethesda Softworks CD, digital download
Doom 28 September 2016 Bethesda Softworks CD, digital download
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus 16 March 2018 Bethesda Softworks CD, digital download
Doom 27 July 2018 Bethesda Softworks Vinyl

Production credits

Year Artist Album Title(s) Notes
2020 Bring Me the Horizon Post Human: Survival Horror "Dear Diary," Additional production
"Parasite Eve"
"Obey" (with Yungblud) Percussion, synthesizer, additional production
"Itch for the Cure (When Will We Be Free?)" Additional production
"Kingslayer" (featuring Babymetal)
"One Day the Only Butterflies Left Will Be in Your Chest as You March Towards Your Death" (featuring Amy Lee)
2021 3Teeth EndEx "Paralyze" (featuring Ho99o9) Production
2022 Monuments In Stasis , N/a Co-production
Motionless in White Scoring the End of the World "Scoring the End of the World" Guest appearance
2023 3Teeth EndEx "Merchant of the Void" Co-writer, co-production
"Slum Planet" Co-production
"Higher Than Death" Co-production
"What's Left" Co-production
Architects The Sky, the Earth & All Between "Seeing Red" Additional Production
2024 Gravemind Introsphere "Failstate" Guest appearance

04Works

Year Title Notes Ref.
2006 Hot Dog King Music and sound design
2006 Destroy All Humans! 2 Additional sound design
2007 Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots , N/a
2008 El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera , N/a
2009 Real Racing , N/a , N/a
Need for Speed: Shift Co-composed with Stephen Baysted and Mark Morgan
Marvel Super Hero Squad , N/a
2010 Real Racing 2 Game sound effects , N/a
The Last Airbender , N/a
Need for Speed: World , N/a
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet , N/a
2011 Shift 2: Unleashed Composed with:
Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat , N/a
Need for Speed: The Run Additional music
2012 A Day in Pompeii Audio director; Museums Victoria exhibit
Battle Group Also sound designer , N/a
2013 Real Racing 3 Game sound effects , N/a
ShootMania Storm , N/a
Killer Instinct Season One (2013) and Season Two (2014)
2014 Wolfenstein: The New Order Additional music by Frederik Thordendal
2015 Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Additional music by Michael Tornabene and Casey Edwards
Project CARS Guitars with John J. Harvey , N/a
Soma Trailers
2016 Doom Additional music by Chris Hite and Ben F. Carney
2017 Prey Additional music composed by Ben Crossbones, Matt Piersall, and Raphaël Colantonio
LawBreakers Composed with Jaroslav Beck, Dieselboy, Mark The Beast, and Malcolm Kirby Jr.
"Faust" and “Toska-9” tracks in the official album
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Composed with Martin Stig Andersen; additional music by Frederik Thordendal
2019 Borderlands 3 Additional music support
Original game score by:
2020 Beautiful Desolation , N/a
Doom Eternal
2023 Atomic Heart Composed with Andrey Bugrov and Geoffrey Day
Diablo IV Music for Rogue Trailer
2025 Absolum Additional music support, with the song "Underking"
Original game score by:
Routine Additional sound design
TBA Defect

05Awards and nominations

Year Ceremony Category Work Result
2006 Game Developers' Association of Australia Best Audio Destroy All Humans! 2 Won
2012 Game Audio Network Guild Best Audio, Other A Day in Pompeii Won
2013 Game Audio Network Guild Best Interactive Score Killer Instinct Nominated
Game Audio Network Guild Best Original Song, Vocal (Pop) Killer Instinct ("Touch Me and I'll Break Your Face") Won
Game Audio Network Guild Best Original Song, Vocal (Pop) Killer Instinct ("I'm Back to Rise") Nominated
2016 The Game Awards Best Music/Sound Design Doom Won
2017 Game Developers Choice Awards Best Audio Nominated
SXSW Gaming Awards Excellence in Musical Score Won
D.I.C.E. Awards Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition Won
British Academy Games Awards Best Music Nominated
2018 New York Game Awards Best Music in a Game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
(shared with Martin Stig Andersen)
Nominated
D.I.C.E. Awards Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition Nominated
2020 The Game Awards Best Score and Music Doom Eternal Nominated
Steam Awards Best Soundtrack Won
Watch videos about Mick GordonExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Mick Gordon, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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