Is Ultrakill’s 'Tenebre Rosso Sangue + War' a Bach-level masterpiece?

I have to say, generally speaking, Ultrakill's music is not something I would think to listen to in my day to day. However, there is something so powerful and beautiful about this style of music that is still somehow rooted in classical music, amazing.
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00:00 Start of the level and WHO Sisyphus was
01:45 Tenebre Rosso Sangue
08:35 Pandemonium
08:50 This Prison...
08:57 Sisyphus Intro
09:55 Sisyphus Fight
14:55 Death of Sisyphus

[MarcoMeatball]

Y'all. I did my best. I tried a longer version so i could get everything in here. You're all telling me the same thing. Lol.

[screamineagles]

fun fact: the plushie for Sisyphus's actor in the credits level says "This plushie to hold ME?" when you pick it up

[damaton]

"rage" in Tenebre Rosso Sangue is probably my rage because of getting ganked by 2 invincible mindflyers and later 4 sentries

[jamarswope]

“No emotion is a bad emotion, it’s just how we lean into those emotions”

Damn, came here for fun and cool music man, now I’m walking away with this pearl of wisdom.

[HittingBandy]

So basically, the ingame Tenebre Rossa Sangue is split into two posts, Calm and In Battle. That's why you'd have parts majorly dominated by piano keys, but then it would cut to a mix of electric guitar and organ notes. Compared to the previous Prime soul, Minos, you are forced to face quiet possibly the hardest gauntlet of enemies currently in the game before actually facing Sisyphus, with everytime you move into the next room would the calm music play, only for it to immediately switch to the battle theme.

[elliewilson]

Something I love about ULTRAKILL is how the speaking characters refer to V1 (The machine the player controls).
Gabriel usually goes for 'machine' to be plain and to the point, but in threatening it he refers to it as 'inanimate' and 'a mere object' showing how he looks down on V1, this reflects how much of Heaven sees machines, as abominations, as affronts to God's creations, humans trying to play god.
Minos, however calls it a 'creature of steel', seeing V1 as just another living being made to walk Earth and now Hell. And he even thanks it for freeing him, treating V1 as an opponent to respect but not hold back against. He says that 'but the crimes thy kind have made against humanity are not forgotten', showing that he doesn't have a personal grudge with V1 but does see machines as a threat and for good reason.
Sisyphus calls it a 'child of man' and 'weapon', respecting the creation of machines as relation almost, and recognizing the power of V1 being a killing machine. Rather than hold a grudge, Sisyphus' fight is him fighting out of curiosity and his easygoing 'go with the flow' nature. It shows how happy Sisyphus is to live and to hold his own, to stand his ground and be proud.

[CongaYT]

"I'm gonna unleash a tidal wave of everything you hate to kill you"
Yep, that sums up what Hakita did to us pretty nicely

[thatreallycooluser]

I wanna see Marco guess the entire ultrakill lore by listening to all songs

[dachigobeja]

Just in case you didn't understand, the reason why "pandemonium" was so short is because it plays while you fight the boss called "flesh panopticon" which was a prison created by the heavens to contain sysiphus prime. Shortly after the fight begins, sysiphus simply busts out (hence the sounds of gore before his speech and also why he says "this prison... To hold... ME!?!?")

[ObsidianHunter]

8:48 I know it's really hard to hear over the music but as Sisyphus is breaking out of the panopticon he's saying: "This prison, to hold, ME??" The fact that it also looks like he just casually broke it too really adds to the scene imo

[Ad-KJ]

the way marco just thrashes around just bopping to the song and the shock on his face is just hilarious to me 😂

[Tolly]

The piano bit at the beginning is a badly distorted version of 'God Save The King', which gave me all kinds of chills when I realised. Very sneaky, Ultrakill.

[jdasleigh]

In the Ultrakill lore, Sisyphus waged war against the armies of heaven, creating a legion of Insurgents to join his cause. Once the council was established, he was captured and essentially kept in a high security prison. So yes, Tenebre Rosse Sangue is technically the theme of a prison break. Pandemonium is basically a fake fight, like 30 seconds in Sisyphus breaks out due to the weakening of the seals that kept him inside (that we break). Similar to Minos, Sisyphus’ theme contains a Leitmotif (2 i believe but one isn’t essentially linked to his character) which links back to an earlier stage in the game, where you actually fight an essentially mummified and controlled insurgent of his. Real interesting stuff. Once again, love the content!

[ny]

you really do feel like sisyphus rolling the boulder for all eternity while playing that stage, no joke

[qeccilecci]

I love the amount of consideration Marco had to take to fully enjoy what happened during 3:14.

3:20 - shock
3:38 - rethinking
3:41 - organ
3:46 - thinking
3:52 - slight jamming
3:59 - licks his lips
4:02 - "Fuck it, time to jam out."
4:16 - thinking again before hearing a different melody
4:23 - slightly more jamming
4:28 - utter shock in the stop
4:33 - pure amazement
5:00 - one more think
5:05 - mouths "OH MY GOD."
5:07 - finally jams out more
5:27 - exhausted and amazed

*"What happened to my chill music?"*

[eduardodiaz]

Aw man, the version of Pandemonium in this is the WIP MIDI version. The actual track in game kicks all kinds of ass

[Captain_Torres]

Tenebre Rosso Sengue is the theme of the city of Dis, the giant wall that separates the upper and lower layers of hell. It actually isn’t made by Hakita, but by a guest artist, Keygen Church.

Pandemonium is the theme of the Flesh Panopticon, the prison designed for Sisyphus. Unlike the simple Flesh Prison, it was designed to house his entire army. The reason its cut short is because he literally punches his way out midway through the fight.

And Sisyphus’ theme, “War”, is a lot better once you understand his story. When God left and Heaven was in chaos, Sisyphus started building an army in the Greed layer (which is why you hear the Sands of Tide motif). When he invaded heaven, Gabriel told the army of heaven to focus all of their fire onto Sisyphus. When he was beheaded, his army crumbled, since their only motivation was the imposing presence of Sisyphus, which is why the other cells in the Panopticon are empty. Unlike Minos, who was a noble and generous king, Sisyphus wasn’t against lying, stealing or cheating others to get his way. He isn’t fighting you because he hates you or his kind; he is fighting you purely for shits and giggles.

I absolutely adore Hakita’s rendition of Sisyphus. Not as a sad man, cursed for eternity to do a futile task. But a proud one, who, through his futile task, rebels against the heavens. His rebellion might not have succeeded, but to him, the simple fact that he DIDN’T just waste away, that he even tried to rebel, was in itself the ultimate act of defiance

[calebjones]

Ultrakill's take on Sisyphus, this bloody-handed warlord of the Greed layer who knew his rebellion against the angels was pointless but still went on out of spite, is definitely an interesting one.

Though it'll never not be funny that the man is a walking apocalypse and his first act after freeing himself from Hell is fighting the toaster that walked into the wrong part of town.

[Esylus]

Tenebre Rosso Sangue is easily one my favourite songs in Ultrakill, goes so hard.

[TheDiggity]

Some background lore
Sisyphus punishment in hell WAS the boulder, along with having molten gold scorch out his eyes. He bided his time in the layer of Greed, waiting for any moment to be free of the demons and angels who tortured him and his fellow man. When the time finally came, Sisyphus swiftly assembled a grand army of those who would help him rebel against heaven. However, the battle ended quickly when Sisyphus was beheaded by Gabriel, the Righteous Hand of the Father. Due to the immense power of Sisyphus’ soul, he needed to be imprisoned so that he could not reform into a Prime Soul, a being of pure willpower, capable of razing heaven to the ground. Sisyphus was imprisoned within the Flesh Panopticon, which was far more heavily guarded than Minos’ Flesh Prison. When you fight the Flesh Panopticon, Sisyphus *punches his way out of it* and kills it himself. Then he monologues, and your fight begins. Sisyphus is a man purely fueled by his spite and his willpower, the indomitable human spirit. He gives you the hardest single enemy fight of the game, and dies regretting nothing.