Snake Eaters composer on its enigmatic lyrics and staying power

A conversation with composer Norihiko Hibino about his Bond-inspired earworm

Musician Norihiko Hibino didn’t have much material to work with when composing “Snake Eater,” the iconic theme song for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. He had an unfinished script of the game’s story, some early concept art, and the knowledge that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima really liked James Bond music.

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Hibino also knew what Kojima didn’t want for Metal Gear Solid 3’s lead song: the tune originally intended to be the game’s theme, “Don’t Be Afraid.” That composition from fellow former Konami musician Rika Muranaka wound up playing much later in the game.

“[‘Don’t Be Afraid’] was originally the main theme, but it was too quiet and too smooth as a main theme,” Hibino told Polygon in a recent interview. “Mr. Kojima was thinking about a more James Bond-ish style, and since we did not have any more budget for new songs, I came [up with something] myself, writing the music and lyrics. I presented it to Mr. Kojima and he really liked it. That was the beginning.”

Hibino joined Konami in 1999, not out of passion for video games, but for music.

“I really didn’t care about what kind of genre I was gonna work in,” Hibino said, “as long as I could create good music in a good environment. I didn’t even know about Metal Gear until I got into Konami. In the first few weeks there, they asked me to play Metal Gear Solid, the original PlayStation version, and it was so hard for me to clear the game. That was the hardest mission for me.”

Konami hired Hibino to work on Metal Gear Solid’s 2001 sequel and to collaborate with the main composer of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Harry Gregson-Williams. “I could speak English,” Hibino said, “so I was kind of in charge of connecting with those Hollywood studios on how we create the music.”

It was a job, and Konami had something Hibino desperately wanted: the budget to pay for the best music gear and technology. Hibino was used to having access to Pro Tools, Adobe Premiere, and other expensive tech during his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston. So when he applied at Konami, he asked, “‘If I work there, can you buy all of that gear?’ It was something I could not afford. They said yes, and so I knew I’d get to make good music in good quality. That was the reason I [went to work at] Konami.”

Image: Konami

During his five years at Konami, Hibino contributed music to Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Boktai games. But “Snake Eater” is assuredly his most famous work, in no small part thanks to the powerful vocal performance of singer Cynthia Harrell.

Hibino said that he wrote “Snake Eater” very early in the development of Metal Gear Solid 3. “Mr. Kojima was almost finished with the script,” he said, “But there were no fixed visuals, maybe some illustrations that [Metal Gear Solid artist Yoji Shinkawa] made, but nothing like vivid, CG-based [imagery]. So it was very much in the beginning stage.”

To craft his theme, Hibino said he immersed himself in Hollywood movie soundtracks, especially those of composers Hans Zimmer — Kojima’s first choice for scoring Metal Gear Solid 2 — and Harry Gregson-Williams, who would go on to compose multiple Metal Gear Solid entries. Composer John Barry, who wrote much of the music and themes from the early James Bond movies, was also an influence.

“I knew that Mr. Kojima was really into the ’60s James Bond music,” Hibino said. “So I got used to that kind of music. I knew I needed to go into that style, but at the same time include something from the game.”

Hibino’s composition and lyrics for “Snake Eater” closely modeled those of Bond theme songs like “From Russia with Love,” “Goldfinger,” and “Thunderball,” incorporating the title “Snake Eater” and its narrative themes into the lyrics.

“The main concepts of why we have to live and why we have to go on, you know, were the kinds of things I wanted to incorporate into the lyrics,” he said.

Composing “Snake Eater” early had an added benefit, Hibino said, giving the rest of the development team a stronger aesthetic sense of the game they were working on: “Once the music is formed, it’s a really good way to make the team [come] together, even for the programmers and designers, because they know what kind of style and direction we want to go in. Music is the fastest way to create those kinds of concepts.”

Hibino said that composing “Snake Eater” was a solitary experience. He wrote the music and the lyrics, and sequenced a demo version with scratch vocals to get Kojima’s approval. The recording process was more of a collaborative effort, though. Recorded with an orchestra, conductor Mark Holden gave the song “more and more of a James Bond-ish” brass instrument arrangement, Hibino said, and singer Cynthia Harrell recorded her memorable vocals with just two takes. It was “really powerful,” Hibino recalled.

Harrell’s vocal track would be isolated and later in the game played a cappella over Metal Gear Solid 3’s infamous two-minute ladder-climbing sequence. That wasn’t the original plan, as Hibino had composed something else for that segment of the game, “but it didn’t fit well,” he said.

“I think that was someone’s idea, not mine,” Hibino said, to replay the “Snake Eater” vocal track sans instruments, giving the segment a more “relaxed” feel.

“Snake Eater” has endured as a Bond-esque earworm for 20 years, and stands alongside the franchise’s best vocal themes, including “The Best Is Yet To Come,” “Sins of the Father,” and “Quiet’s Theme.” Hibino’s song will return for Konami’s upcoming remake of Metal Gear Solid 3, the project known as Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Hibino said he’s not involved in that project, but he did remix the song for another upcoming project, the Metal Gear Solid: Vinyl Selections collection coming from Laced Records later this year.

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