The Devil May Cry anime series is out now on Netflix, and while the animation is certainly incredible for some of the fight scenes, it's the playlist that often steals the show. The soundtrack is definitely evocative of the era in which the games arrived – you might have heard Limp Bizkit in the title sequence and Papa Roach in the trailer. However, Evanescence went one better by recording the new song 'Afterlife' for it. Retro Gamer got a chance to chat to vocalist Amy Lee all about Devil May Cry, putting together the new track for it, and the games she loves.
Retro Gamer: What kinds of games did you grow up playing? Do you have any particular favourites?
This feature originally appeared in Retro Gamer magazine. For more in-depth features and interviews on classic games delivered to your door or digital device, subscribe to Retro Gamer or buy an issue!
I'm very fortunate to have been a kid in the Eighties, so I kind of watched it all go down. We used to rent an Atari from the video store and play Atari games like Pong and Toobin'. I had an older cousin who had a NES, and it was just the coolest thing to go over there and play that. I think we finally got one in when I was nine or ten – it was whenever Super Mario Bros 3 came out. But my true love in games is The Legend Of Zelda series, and I really fell in love with that, along with my younger siblings when Ocarina Of Time came out on the N64. So we played that game, we played Majora's Mask, and then fast forward to now, Breath Of The Wild made me so happy. It's so huge and so gorgeous, and then Tears Of The Kingdom too. I have a son now who's ten, so I've got a gamer buddy again, and I don't think of myself like a gamer, but honestly I play a little bit of a videogame pretty much every day. It's part of my chill out routine, like, solve a couple of shrines, do some puzzle solving.
RG: When did you first encounter Devil May Cry, and what did you make of it?
I've never played the game – I don't know if you should tell anybody that! But I was aware of the game, I'd seen the artwork, I'd actually seen some gameplay, but really I have been introduced to this world through this project. Netflix approached me along with Mako [Alex Seaver], who I co-wrote the song with, and I got to watch the whole first season of the show before it was totally finished. Right away, I was hooked on it and binging it every night, and I feel like the visual possibilities of anime are something else that's always appealed to me a lot. It's just one of those things where anything is possible.
RG: Tell us a little about the new song, Afterlife, and how it fits into the show.
It's the first thing that we've put out in a couple of years, so that's exciting. It's different for us – the beautiful way that it starts, that mood and that vibe all really came from Mako and the show. But I see myself in that. I know what to do here. I think it's just a killer rock song – I feel like it expresses both the pain, the scars of someone who's been through a lot, but also standing in resolve, unafraid because you know you have nothing left to lose, and you're ready to just give it all you got. I couldn't be more flattered and happy with how they used it. I can't give it away, but it's a very special episode.
RG: So, we heard a story about Rock Band failing you when you tried singing your own songs…
It was like, “I don't hear you, I just hear the voice.” Isn't that weird? I really like all those games. I got to go to Japan a long time ago through our music – I've been plenty of times since, but we got to go in 2003 and back then, they had a lot of the games that they weren't playing in America yet. They didn't have Guitar Hero or Rock Band. So I remember going over there back then and falling in love with Taiko Drum Master at the arcades, and they sold a mini version, but you couldn't play it on an American PlayStation. So I bought Japanese everything, and brought it all back – the drums and everything – so that we would have it at our house.
RG: Have you introduced your son to any of the games you played when you were young?
Oh, of course, and he likes that. Like, he'll ask for that specifically, “I just want to play something 8-bit.” So he likes Star Fox – you know you can buy the pack on the Switch, with all the old 64 games, and he will scroll through those. I actually used to really like – I still do, but we just don't play it as much anymore – Katamari. I find that relaxing, because it's like, all this clutter everywhere, and you're just a big ball, just picking it all up until you've just rolled up the whole world. It's the best feeling. He's also super into Lego Star Wars, they're fun because you can actually still do two player with somebody in the room. I feel like there's hardly any games like that anymore.
RG: Do you have anything else you'd like to say to the readers?
Thank you for welcoming me to the Devil May Cry world – I am in, and we're really just so excited to have new music out. It feels like it's been too long and it has just popped the cork, and we're writing like crazy, and we're stoked to play this live.
You can listen to Afterlife here!
What did we think of the show? In our Devil May Cry Netflix anime review we said it "captures the anarchic spirit of the games". There's also plenty of new anime to come, or consider taking a look at our best anime, and best anime on Netflix lists for what to binge next.
