Opera Singer Reacts: The Death of God's Will || Ultrakill

wow. This is shocking to me. Almost like an evolution of the standard liturgical writing you hear in Bach and Handel celebrating the church and God. Of course, Gabriel is the angel sent down by God to Mary so to hear it this way is...insane.
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[touchgrass]

"May your L's be many, and your bitches few."
-Gabriel, 2022

[ChrisTanner]

"all that remains is PERFECT HATRED. Now, peek this sick organ solo..."

[Henrink]

I love when a boss theme is not about you fighting them, but they fighting you. It's their desperation to stop you as if they were the protagonist.

[HafJaf]

His voice crack was so impressive on the voice actors part,
It even made the camera unfocus perfectly in time like a vine boom

[nightram]

Fun fact about this track
The creator, Hakita, is absolutely insane and made this song mere hours before officially releasing act 2 of the game
Respect for Hakita

[dazcarrr]

one thing about gianni is that no matter what he's voicing, he puts 100% of his effort into it. except for 6-2 gabriel, where he put in 500%

[Giganotus]

Gianni's voice acting as Gabriel is so good but I can't hear his voice without thinking of all the shitposts he has uploaded on his own YouTube channel. The dude is wildly talented and he uses it for chaos in his free time

[CCONX]

Fun fact: Hakita has mentioned before, that V1 (the player character) is not the protagonist of this story, Gabriel is as the character that develops over the course of the game. This series of tracks really showcases that, a character filled with pride, then hatred, then faced with reality he turns to introspection, and finally a sense of clarity.

[lorech.]

ULTRAKILL is the epitome of “saying more with less.” Gabriel has two major cutscenes at the end of 3-2 and 6-2 yet his character shows such depth. It really is something special

[just_dspairity]

Some fun facts about the tracks combined here!
The organ solo is played by gabriel as you come to him, and when the fight begins, he slams down and cuts it off before doing that Cut You Down line to silence, before drawing his swords at the end of the quote and the music starts abruptly.
Hakita did this track 4 hours before the launch of this chapter, having realized he didn't have one done for it by accident lmao
I'm honestly so glad you picked this version, as Gianni's voice acting in tandem elevates the track so much. It's good on it's own, it's fantastic together

[junewars]

That “NOTHING BUT SCRAP!” Hits so damn hard that I was actually kinda happy I died to Gabriel the first time. He’s broken, everything he knows is a lie.

[dachigobeja]

Small correction: at 5:48 Gabriel says "YOU need more power" not "I need more power" so he's just trash talking you as your fighting him

[Ashurman]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one. Gabriel starts off as an archangel, the mightiest enforcer of God's will on earth. But then...then a simple machine defeats him and that defeat completely BREAKS him. He goes from righteous protector to the avatar of hatred itself. A simple machine shook his faith so much that it made him realize that everything he stood for, everything he believed in was false. God is dead and soon, he will be too. But not before he has his revenge.
If I'm not mistaken this song plays during the second fight against him in Heresy, the climax of chapter 2 and I believe currently the final chapter of the game(Game is not yet finished BTW). In this fight he is known as the Apostate Of Hate and BOY does he hate you. This fight was not meant to be done by humans as it requires an act of GOD to beat. Especially phase 2, AKA Funny Mode

[ThundahPrime]

In ULTRAKILL, God has left. God is nowhere to be seen, and heaven has formed a council that now rules, and says they are following the will of god, which Gabriel has fought for for years, committing heinous crimes like dooming the souls inside the Leviathan to suffering and killing King Minos, but V1, has beat him, beat the father's light. Now the machine stands before him again, and as a result of this fight, he loses his faith in God, his faith in the council, and now he takes life into his own hands. He kills the council and... well, the rest is yet to be seen in

ULTRAKILL ACT III: GODFIST SUICIDE

[akanetsuzura]

"Face it brother, God is dead. The fire is long gone. You're chasing phantoms."
"YOU LET YOUR FAITH BE SHAKEN BY A CAMERA?!" God damn I love this game.

The "Altars of Apostay" is perhaps the most famous track amongst fans. I don't want to give any themes away, but there's a certain feeling that's hard to accurately pin down that goes through the players mind as they reach this level. You've gotten amazing accuracy from music alone in so many of your reviews, and I'd love to be able to finally put this feeling down into words. Give it a listen.

[SgtSushi-YEHW]

Removing the context of Ultrakill, 6:42 sounds like two fighters in a duel to the death dropping their weapons and just beating the shit out each other hand-to-hand. It’s my favorite part of the track

[comediccomrade]

Gianni is a modern voice acting marvel, he not only shitposts constantly but can also pull off some for tier normal voice work

[rafaels]

"NOW PEEK THIS SICK ORGAN SOLO"
"Machine, i have trained playing the organ for years, now i will SPLAY THE GORE OF YOUR PROFANE FORM ACROSS THE STARS!"

[coldbois]

Fun fact: Hakita (the guy who made the game) straight up mixed the track just hours before the release of the game's second chapter

[roxandlol_]

The songs reflect the story and characters of the game very eloquently. Who would've thought that a game with such a minimalist, retro type of graphics and design has such a powerful and detailed soundtrack. The songs in this game can be used as a story narrative in on itself. That is why i love you doing this because it just shows how much a person could take away from the themes, motives and traits of the characters just by having a more in depth analysis.

Also to note: Hakita, the developer of this game who also made the soundtrack, uses a lot of leitmotif repetition as stylistic tools in his music. Some tracks in the game connected to a setting or a character are always very similar but slightly modified. The second track you listened to happens in the second fight with Gabriel, one of the main antagonists in the game. A powerful, egoistic and short tempered Angel who was tasked to basically fix Hell after some things in the story happened. By this point in the story, Gabriel already encountered the player's character, V1 and fought against him. V1 in the story is a man-made killing machine gone rampage as its only way to uphold its 'life source' is by killing demons and other robots for blood they feed off of. Gabriel hates V1 with passion as he sees him as an easy obstacle. After being proven wrong when the player defeats him, Gabriel starts to question his power and ability to fulfill "God's Will" (hence the track's title). Gabriel is then persecuted by God's council after returning to Heaven. They punish him for not fulfilling his duty and cleansing Hell of all its imperfections. To prove himself worthy, he sets out to fight V1 again, though his motives are mostly filled with rage and egoistic hatred (imperfect hatred).
When you encounter Gabriel again in the Heresy layer of Hell (the levels are modeled after the story Dante's Inferno and are heavily inspired by its setting and themes) he is playing the organ in an empty, blood soaked cathedral where you fight him. After approaching him. Gabriel looses his temper and slams on the keys, then gives the monologue you hear after the first track.
The track during the fight is a more detailed, faster and more rhythmic version of the track played in the first fight with Gabriel ("Divine Intervention" which hints at Gabriel's role in the game), which shows how his anger has exponentially grown after swearing to refurbish his dignity.

After being beaten yet again, Gabriel is left confused and starts to question his own motives and the influences which led up to that point, which is heard in his voice at the end of this soundtrack. In a "post-credits scene", he retreats into seclusion to contemplate about his role which was given to him by the council and question his beliefs, to ask himself if cleansing Hell is actually for the greater good. In his introspection he comes to the realization that his egoism and lust for power has been forced upon him by the council and their ways of corrupted reign, which in his eyes are no longer the ones God taught them to follow. No longer wielded by the will of another but his own, Gabriel returns to Heaven and slaughters every member of God's council, thus cutting himself from God and the blessing which was bestown upon him by the council. Due to this, his life has been cut short and has only a few hours to live. This does not bother him as he knows he did the right thing and freed the people of Heaven from their tyranny. The only task that is left is to defeat V1 and stop its rampage once and for all.
Though we still haven't seen the continuation of the game as it is not finished by this point.

In my opinion, Gabriel is one of the most fleshed out characters in a majority of games i played. He has motives which change over time and show how reason influences his character progression. Blinded by hate beforehand, he now became a much more powerful and dangerous enemy to the protagonist as he cannot be stopped by this point, which parallels V1s abilities in game as a relentless killing machine.

i don't know if anyone's gonna read this fully but i just love to rant about things i like.
Overall great video! I love your ways of interpretation and look forward to watching some of your older videos as i just recently stumbled upon your channel. Definetly worth a subscribe and a like :)