Close Up: Death Stranding 12″ Single
Coincidences are a funny thing. If Hideo Kojima hadn’t walked into a small record shop – recommended to him during a chance encounter – while visiting Iceland in 2014 for location scouting, and if they hadn’t been playing LOW ROAR’s track at that exact time, this product probably wouldn’t have existed right now. Charmed by this band’s music Kojima ended up using two of their tracks for his Death Stranding trailers. The song ‘I’ll Keep Coming’ was used for the E3 2016 trailer, and ‘Easy Way Out’ was featured in the trailer at PlayStation Experience later that year. During the latter event Kojima also announced a limited edition single on vinyl containing both tracks.
First some details on this single. It was sold through web store Mondo for a price of $15, though it is currently out of stock. According to the product description, it is pressed on a 12” 180 gram vinyl, clear with heavy black splatter.
The artwork on the album jacket is created by Randy Ortiz, and it features a hand with what looks like the ‘strands’ that will play a role in the game somehow.
On the back of the jacket are some more details. There’s a PlayStation logo, a Kojima Productions logo and a Mondo logo, and a list of credited names – the artist behind the music and record, and trademarks associated with Death Stranding.
The art seems to be mostly inspired from the setting of the first trailer for the game, with the black sand beach on what appears to be Iceland. Considering LOW ROAR is from Iceland as well this is fitting in more ways than one.
The record itself looks really cool. The black spatter almost make it look organic, or like something from a science fiction movie.
It has ‘I’ll Keep Coming’ on the A side, and ‘Easy Way Out’ on the B side. Below are the two trailers that featured these tracks.
I’ll Keep Coming
Easy Way Out
To conclude, this is a nice collector’s item. The presentation is great, from the jacket to the record itself, and both tracks are well worth listening to. Since the company selling these items, Mondo, is based in the US, the shipping costs for those living outside America can be a bit high though. But we do need to compliment the company on their customer service: the jacket was slightly damaged, however they immediately proposed sending a replacement jacket free of charge. Currently the item is out of stock.
The single was also sold at the PlayStation Gear store outside of the convention centre during E3 2017, and will likely be available at future events.