4. Doom
Level: E1M1 (Hangar) Music: At Doom's Gate From the moment you begin playing Doom to the moment your sweaty hands come away from the keyboard, the entire game is backed by what would pass as heavy metal on primitive sound cards. It may be a far cry from sounding like real instruments, but it does a fantastic job and sticks in the brain like a garden fork. From the entire soundtrack, which is absolutely brilliant, the first level's music is the most evocative. Maybe it's just nostalgia because "Hell yes, I'm playing Doom again", or maybe it's the fact that the music rocks and rocks hard. Don't get me wrong, the music was memorable right from the first time you tentatively walk the red planet, it's just that in later levels as the soundtrack becomes slower, the feel of the game switches from awesome to terrifying in a dramatic mood shift. As a kid, this is when the game would get too hard/scary, so I would go back to the opening levels just to reassure myself. Gradually, after many speedruns through Hangar, the music would give me a psyche boost, and encourage me to once again face the Spider Demon which guarded the credits screen. I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers every pixel of the first level and every synthesised note of At Doom's Gate. Also, I think this music started my fascination with Metal - and BFG's.