Growing up in the South Bay Area of Greater Los Angeles, Uelmen began taking piano lessons at age six from his tutor, Lenee Bilski, who provided him with a strong theoretical foundation. At 13 years old, he moved with his family to San Jose, California, where he completed high school. During this time, Uelmen was self-taught, mostly influenced by jazz, classic rock, and classical music, especially Liszt and Debussy while he was in high school, and Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Tom Waits later on. He later diversified his instruments to include the flute, guitar, keyboard and percussion.
He studied at Georgetown University from 1989 to 1993, where he earned the Mary Catherine Mita Prize for his thesis Cannibal Culture, Technology and American music in 1993. During college, he was also a keyboardist in a six-member bar band, where he acquired practical experience and learned about "arrangement, interaction and economy". He began working in video game music in 1994, when he was hired by Condor. His first notable work in this period was on the game Justice League Task Force for Sunsoft, released in 1995 for the Sega Genesis.
In March 1996, Blizzard Entertainment acquired Condor, which was renamed into Blizzard North. On December 31, 1996, Blizzard released their first game of the company's successful series, Diablo. His work in Diablo was so well received that Uelmen was loaned to Blizzard's StarCraft team (but stayed in Redwood City), where he did sound design; that game was released two years after Diablo, in 1998.
On June 29, 2000, Blizzard launched the second game of the Diablo series, Diablo II. In 2001, Uelmen, who composed the Diablo II Soundtrack, and cinematic soundtrack composers Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino won the International Game Developers Association award for Excellence in Audio for their work on Diablo II. Continuing his work in the Diablo series, on June 29, 2001, Blizzard launched what would be believed to be the last game of the series, the expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. In an interview with Gamasutra, Uelmen was asked about his time at Blizzard between 2001 and 2005. When asked whether he had worked on the earlier version of Diablo III prior to the shutdown of Blizzard North, he responded, "I guess at this point I can say, yes, more or less. Blizzard has always had a number of projects, though, that may or may not see the light of day. Some of those have been talked about, but there definitely was more than one thing going on development-wise at the time."
From 2005 to 2007, Uelmen created some of the sound and music for Blizzard's popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft's expansion pack, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade; his work represents the majority of the music in the new area of the game, Outland. He is one of about ten composers who have contributed to World of Warcraft. After his departure from Blizzard, his work was used as the basis for some of the tracks in the Blizzard Entertainment and Eminence Symphony Orchestra collaboration, Echoes of War (2008).
In 2009, Uelmen joined the newly formed Runic Games, which includes several former Blizzard North and Flagship Studios employees. He composed the score for their 2009 game, Torchlight and served as sound designer. He continued to work at Runic on Torchlight II, which released in September 2012. Runic Games closed down in November 2017, shortly after releasing Hob.
In 2016, Uelmen followed his former long-time colleague Max Schaefer as he started the new game company Echtra Games. As of April 2020, he is working on the soundtrack to Torchlight III.
Cave
Matt Uelmen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
"This is another of the older tracks in Diablo II, going all the way back to summer of 1997. This was the last track to be largely assembled on the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler, and was originally intended to be in Act IV. Because I felt it had some of the better elements of the dungeon music in Diablo, it seemed appropriate as the music for the first indoor enviroment the player would face in the game, giving a sense of familiarity after what might be the strange experience of fighting in the open air in the first few moments of play.
The creaky orchestrations of the first minute were created over a year after the middle section, which uses the heavy beats and choral textures which predominate many of our indoor/dungeon sequences. When we finally inserted musical resolutions for the quests in March 2000, it was fun to hear a track which had existed for so long in a new context, providing a glimpse of the kinds of musical interactivity which I hope we will be exploring in the future.
I originally threw this one out, along with the rest of the original pass at Act IV music, in 1997, but reinserted this track in the game at the insistence of Bernie Wilkens. Edits from this tune also appeared under the title screen of the DVD which came with the Collector's Edition. There's some very strange stuff in those last twenty seconds, if you listen closely enough..."
- Matt Uelmen
The song "Cave" by Matt Uelmen is one of the older tracks featured in Diablo II. According to the liner notes, the track was originally intended to be in Act IV of the game, but was later used as the music for the first indoor environment the player would face in the game. The purpose of using this track was to give players a sense of familiarity after what might have been a strange experience of fighting in the open air in the first few moments of play.
The first minute of "Cave" features creaky orchestrations, whereas the middle section of the song uses heavy beats and choral textures that are typical of many indoor/dungeon sequences in the game. The song has existed for a long time, and was created over a year after the middle section. When musical resolutions for the quests were inserted in March 2000, it was interesting to hear how the song had a new context, providing a glimpse of the kinds of musical interactivity that the composer hoped to explore in the future.
Interestingly, Matt Uelmen originally threw out this song, along with the rest of the original pass at Act IV music, in 1997. However, he reinserted the song in the game at the insistence of Bernie Wilkens. Furthermore, edits from "Cave" also appeared under the title screen of the DVD that came with the Collector's Edition. There are some very strange elements in the last 20 seconds of the song.
Overall, "Cave" is a compelling track that showcases Uelmen's penchant for creating evocative music that fits perfectly with the mood and atmosphere of Diablo II.
Line by Line Meaning
This is another of the older tracks in Diablo II, going all the way back to summer of 1997.
Cave is one of the older tracks in Diablo II, composed in the summer of 1997.
This was the last track to be largely assembled on the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler, and was originally intended to be in Act IV.
Cave was the last track to be largely assembled on the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler and was supposed to be in Act IV.
Because I felt it had some of the better elements of the dungeon music in Diablo, it seemed appropriate as the music for the first indoor enviroment the player would face in the game, giving a sense of familiarity after what might be the strange experience of fighting in the open air in the first few moments of play.
Matt Uelmen deemed that Cave had some of the better elements of the dungeon music in Diablo, making it suitable as the music for the first indoor environment in the game. This would offer the player a familiar feeling after the initial unfamiliar experience of fighting in the open air.
The creaky orchestrations of the first minute were created over a year after the middle section, which uses the heavy beats and choral textures which predominate many of our indoor/dungeon sequences.
The creaky orchestrations in the first minute of Cave were produced over a year after the middle section. The middle section uses choral textures and heavy beats that are present in many indoor/dungeon sequences.
When we finally inserted musical resolutions for the quests in March 2000, it was fun to hear a track which had existed for so long in a new context, providing a glimpse of the kinds of musical interactivity which I hope we will be exploring in the future.
In March 2000, when musical resolutions were added to the quests, it was enjoyable for Matt Uelmen to hear Cave in a different context. This provided a preview of the musical interactivity he hopes to incorporate in the future.
I originally threw this one out, along with the rest of the original pass at Act IV music, in 1997, but reinserted this track in the game at the insistence of Bernie Wilkens.
Matt Uelmen initially discarded Cave with the rest of the original Act IV music in 1997. However, he reinstated the track in the game at the request of Bernie Wilkens.
Edits from this tune also appeared under the title screen of the DVD which came with the Collector's Edition.
Edits from Cave were also featured on the title screen of the Collector's Edition DVD.
There's some very strange stuff in those last twenty seconds, if you listen closely enough...
If listened to carefully, there are some peculiar elements in the last twenty seconds of Cave.
Contributed by Logan P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@adammostbeast
The music in this game has a serious psychological effect. It's terrifying, truly makes you feel like the world is ending.
@WeisserAllan
True, but in Diablo 1 was even worst, very depressing
@Edelhif
And also that you fight with REAL evil. But somehow, going deeper and further, killing thousands of demons and beasts doesn't make you feel heroic or that you are winning, the more you touch those things, the more you are just present in those filthy tombs and forests the more you loose your pureness and sanity and get stains on yourself that will never go away.
@philcollinshill2951
This is the only good song in the entire game. The music is pretty lame in this game compared to the first one.
@Thorocious
@@philcollinshill2951 compare that to diablo 3... The music in D2 is awesome, I never played the original diablo so can't comment, I will however take a look (listen) after this comment.
@Delpnaz
@@philcollinshill2951 D2 music is lame? compared to D1?
You must be on drugs pal,
D2 has one of the best soundtrack as compared to its predecessor and successor.
@EdouardPicard0224
"So, this is where evil hides."
@jimhuffman9434
Personally I prefer the Necromancer's "I sense death within this place"
@Weldedhodag
@@jimhuffman9434 I like them both, but then again, Necro and Druid are my favorite classes in D2
@ytgc-royalewarex5190
Beware The Foul Demon And Beast !