Mass Destruction: the best battle theme

I really liked that analysis I did on Persona 3’s theme, so I figured it would be just as fun to jump into Persona 3’s well known battle theme, Mass Destruction! 

BabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBaby

...Ok, but in all seriousness, this is a great way to start the battle. It’s like they took the typical *whoosh* sound effect you have in classic RPG’s (and this game too) when transitioning to battle and integrated it right into the music. It’s a jarring shift right before it lands into the groove of the song, and settles perfectly into the gameplay.

We then get a quick instrumental piece before going into the song, with the usual spoken lyrics that often comes with the rap genres. What I really wanna talk about here is the drum beat, real quick. It stays mostly constant throughout the song, and established here is a really quirky and unique beat on the kick drum. Beatbeat. Snare. Beat beatbeat snare. If I’m confusing you, just listen for the beat in the song, you’ll catch it really quick. This is not a typical way to use the drums at all, and really serves as a distinct and memorable way to lay the groundwork for a song full of quick sounds and sudden stops.

Most of the next part of the song is rapping, and the lyrics are more meant to serve a beat than convey a specific message. I’m gonna highlight specific lyrics and parts of the song that are interesting musically or thematically, rather than combing through the entire thing. 

Spoilers in the next paragraph only

One of the more interesting lyrics is “the enemy you're fighting covers all society” (0:22), which quite straightforwardly references the all encompassing terror and threat that Nyx is. Also probably a call forward to The Answer in FES, where it’s revealed that all of society unconsciously wishes for death in some way. It’s a lyric that’s super easy to miss and won’t make sense until you know the full story, but I like it quite a bit.

Soon after, there are 2 quick interjections in the lyrics from a backup singer (0:22):

The enemy you're fighting covers all society

(Damn right)

Mom's not here, gotta fight

(All night)

Really they’re just there to prevent the song from devolving into an endless stream of words and make it more interesting, but damn if it’s not really cool and fun regardless.

Much of the rest of the rapping bit is just some cool sounding words and a nice flow. You’ve got another interjection (0:33):

Freaked out now, and dead on arrival

(What?)

Some lyrics make nice reference to more themes in the game, like “right here, Shadow 10 o'clock direction”, evoking the common clock thematics this game employs. There’s not much more to say about this segment regardless, besides that it’s just a dang good time to listen to in general.

So, the transition to the next part is pretty cool too. The final lyrics Lotus Juice provides for the song are (0:47):

You're the only one, one world, one love

But the battle goes on, Shadows of Mass Destruction

Repetitive use of the word “one” forms  nice flow in your head already, backed up by how this line has no pauses in it, makes it slide through nicely. Finally, there’s a noticeable pause before “destruction”, giving weight to the explosion of sound that’s about to come right after.

With a crash, the song moves into the next part with a very emphasized “Oh yeah!”. The aim of this song, after all, is to provide the player with some great backing music for battles, and energetic jumps like this make is engaging and groovy.

This part of the song is really meant to be high energy, more than anything else. “Da da dada, da da dada” aren’t like, actual words at all, but there’s a lot of energy put into it, as they clearly wanted this part of the song to be that more than any lyrical mastery. The occasional “baby baby” breaks it up and makes sure this part of the song isn’t monotonous either.

And as one final note, the backing music takes a turn for more energy here too. Trumpets are added to the song for the phrases right after the transition. It moves into some twang-y synths afterwards to keep the energy sustained and not boring. And finally, if you listen, you’ll notice the snare drum is louder in this part compared to the earlier rapping part.

And that’s Mass Destruction! An excellent battle theme that feels like it was built to be a battle theme in every aspect. No getting bogged down in thematics, no trying to overcomplicate things, just a few shoutouts to the story thrown in and a killer beat make this a battle theme that you’ll never truly get tired of. Oh yeah, indeed.