Mick Gordon

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.

Career 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.

Musical 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."

Monuments In Stasis Co-production Motionless in White Scoring the End of the World "Scoring the End of the World" Guest appearance

"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

Works Year Title Notes 2006 Hot Dog King Music and sound design 2008 El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera 2012 A Day in Pompeii Audio director; Museums Victoria exhibit Project CARS Guitars with John J. Harvey SomaTrailers 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 supportOriginal game score by: 2020 Beautiful Desolation Doom Eternal 2023 Atomic Heart Composed with Andrey Bugrov and Geoffrey Day Diablo IVMusic for Rogue Trailer 2025 Absolum Additional music support, with the song "Underking"Original game score by: Routine Additional sound design Defect

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