Once in a while, every DM needs to depict a giant horrible monster rising out of the sea during a thunderstorm, right? Use this track to score those scenes. The product description tells you what you'll hear in the track; it all comes together into a wonderfully raucous package. The title suggests Cthulhu rising from the South Pacific, but the monster roaring in this track could just as easily be Godzilla, Leviathan, a kraken, an ancient aquatic dragon, or whatever else your GMing mind can cook up.

Honestly, this track puts me more in mind of Call/Trail of Cthulhu investigators combing through a decrepit insane asylum, or Batman prowling the halls of Arkham, than of fantasy heroes in a dungeon. The entire track is suffused with a "crackle" that makes me think of a vinyl record spinning on an old gramophone. The track also features light instrumentation and mysterious sound effects that I can't quite place. Occasionally you'll hear water dripping, and a swell of sound, not quite a Doppler effect but it makes me think of a car or train swooshing by. I really think this track is more at home in modern horror than high fantasy. In the right situation, it could be very evocative.

This track evokes a cemetery atmosphere chiefly through the sounds of digging (by grave robbers? necromancers? mortuary staff?) and heavy breathing (by tired workers? recently-raised undead?). The bird cries sound more like daytime sounds (at least for the crows that love to roost in our sycamore tree)—not entirely consistent, to my ears, with the constant chirping of crickets. Hooting owls would have been better. But overall the track is quite effective. In fact, I had to pop in my earbuds to listen because my dog kept trying to answer the dogs he heard barking in the track. True story.

Take a low drone resembling the sound of a door desperately in need of WD-40 being opened very, very slowly, add heavy, shuffling footfalls, and you've got the basics of this track. These monotonous noises are occasionally punctuated by groans, growls, and screams. Admittedly I'm not that interested in zombie stuff anyway, but this track does very little for me. I can see (well, hear) how it would work in the right setting, but I just don't like it very much (and I normally find Gil's soundscapes very enjoyable).

I don't quite know what's "hidden" in this track, unless it's the uncanny resemblance to the theme from "The Exorcist." But the track does a good job of evoking a sense of mystery, melancholy, and perhaps subdued menace. I could easily imagine using this in-game when the PCs are investigating any kind of "dungeon"—from the mines of Moria to a haunted mansion—where the emphasis is on exploring and a mounting sense of dread rather than combat.

This may be one my favorite tracks from Gil Luna yet. The pulse of drums, twittering of birds, ambient vocals, and other audible elements of this track deliver a feeling of awe, sacredness, and nature. Admitting the influence of the track's name, I can easily picture myself at Stonehenge or some other circle of standing stones, looking on while druids do their thing. I also like this track just for listening; earlier today I had it looping for over an hour while I worked on another project, and it never became distracting or boring.

A noticeable but unobtrusive sound of wind, as if from a fan, sits at the base of this track, as it does so often when Gil Luna wants to convey a sense of abandonment or desolation. The sounds of creaking metal and rhythmic thumps suggest the “carnival” atmosphere. I was already “primed” to envision a carnival by the title, but those sounds really do make me think of an empty roller coaster, Ferris wheel, or similar ride—empty and stuck in an endless loop. Which means there’s either live electricity or some kind of mystical motive force around here somewhere. Soundscapes like this one inspire me to want to set RPG encounters in the locations they suggest, thereby earning my highest ratings.

What would you expect a ghost town to sound like? Wouldn’t it be practically silent, since it has been abandoned? This track somehow manages to make that desolation audible. The track consists essentially of the dull sound of a constant wind, lightly accented with an occasional low “thrum” or breathy “moan” and crackly/chittery sound that makes me think of tumbleweeds, but that’s probably the track name imposing itself on my imagination. It’s spooky and nonintrusive, setting the mood without drawing attention to itself.

This track should probably bear the title “Outdoors in a Thunderstorm” instead of “Haunted Forest.” The cries of ravens (or a similar bird) punctuate the sounds of a thunderstorm throughout the soundscape. Only the ravens, though, imply any kind of “haunting” or, for that matter, any kind of “forest.” This could just as easily be a thunderstorm in a prairie wheatfield. If you’re looking for sounds of ghosts or spirits or whatever, look elsewhere. But if you reframe your expectations, you can put this track to great effect under a scene where travelers are caught in a thunderstorm in a desolate area frequented mostly by scavenger birds.

I’m really not much into zombies, but I could definitely imagine using this track during an RPG where zombies, genetically-engineered monstrosities, overly intelligent chimpanzees, or whatever escape from a high-security biocontainment facility. Any kind of modern horror game might find a use for this soundscape. Be forewarned, though: it’s noisy. A claxon sounds throughout, glass shatters, trapped people (?) pound on metal doors, and the zombies or demons (Buffy) or whatevers occasionally growl, grunt, or screech. The screams are presumably the zombies’ victims. I think there are even some fire extinguishers being fired off about halfway through. But that’s what happens in a zombie lab outbreak, isn’t it? One relatively minor technical complaint: the track name was encoded in the MP3 as “ZedLabOutbreak” rather than “Zombie Lab Outbreak.”

It’s raining when you enter this haunted mansion, judging by the crashes of lightning. Breathy sounds, spooky near-voices, creaky floorboards, rattling chains, and a scream or two punctuate the rain. The track is great for any haunted house scene. That scream I mentioned keeps it from being near-perfect, though. Distracting and it might come at just the wrong time at the gaming table. Otherwise, fantastic.

Get your Frankenstein on with this well-crafted soundscape! From the opening crash of lightning through the heavy footfalls (is that Igor or the monster?), arcs of electricity climbing parallel electrodes, and strange breathy noises, you’ll find yourself in the titular “evil laboratory.” The mad scientist may have stepped out of the room for a moment, but he left plenty of equipment and maybe one or two of his experiments behind. Great mood-setter.

This track consists mainly of a dull roar, like the sound of a fan or a heavy, steady wind, along with rainfall. If it’s raining in the city by the bay (a hard rain), this is a good soundscape for your scene. Especially if the city is pretty much abandoned, or as title says “in ruins,” since there is no sound of any other activity. This city is not a post-apocalyptic population center, but a bombed-out husk of its former self. The track is good for what it does; it meets its goal but doesn’t inspire.

Guns and screams, screams and guns, plus the occasional scream, shattering of a window, and that sort of thing. Whether the PCs are trying to bring down the government, squelch the uprising, or just get off the blood-soaked streets, this track can provide an appropriate background. It is maybe a bit intrusive and slightly hard on the ears, so you might not want to have it running too long, or you may want to keep the volume fairly low. In any case, it will do its job nicely if you take steps to keep it in the background.

Maybe the recording level on this track is too low, or maybe I have my volume turned down to low, but this track boils down to near-silence punctuated by footsteps and the occasional slamming door. I won’t say that it’s useless, but I can say that it doesn’t do much for me. I cannot really see myself using this track. But please don’t let that reflect poorly on Gil’s work in general; I really like most Ambient Environments offerings.