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Adema 'Immortal'-ized On New Mortal Kombat

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In an odd juxtaposition, Adema are lending a song about living forever to the soundtrack of a video game about fighting to the death.

The Bakersfield, California, rockers' recently recorded track "Immortal" will be used as the theme music for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the fifth version of the ultra-violent video game series slated for a fall release, according to a Midway Games spokesperson.

Not only are Adema the only artists offering a tune to accompany the onscreen action, but a special DVD element featuring game footage woven throughout the band's in-studio performance of the song — which will be shot before a green screen in New Orleans in late June — will also be included on the Mortal Kombat disc. Scenes from Adema's showcase for Midway, at last week's E3 video game conference in Los Angeles, are expected to be on the disc as well.

"Immortal," which grew from a set of looped beats that guitarist Mike Ransom riffed above before fellow axeman Tim Fluckey came up with the chorus, is one of "about five or six" new songs Adema has penned for their new album, frontman Marky Chavez said.

"The whole song is based around confusion and chaos," he explained. "The chorus hook is, 'You can't kill me, I'm immortal.' " So when the game developers asked the group to contribute a song to the game, in which two sorcerers must put aside their differences to overcome the ultimate challenge and gain immortality, the choice was obvious.

As clear-cut as Chavez's choice for a song was, the decision to contribute one in the first place was a bit more clouded.

"At first [the decision] was challenging for me," Chavez said. "I don't ever want to compromise my artist reputation by putting out some bullsh--. I really took some time and wrote some lyrics that I'm really happy with. They're descriptive without being cheesy ... because you don't want to be categorized as some commercial-writing band."

As such, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance might be the only video game to feature Adema music, though Chavez was quick to point out that if the makers of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, a tour-bus favorite, were to come knocking, he wouldn't turn them away. He did, however, reserve the right to lend himself, and not the full band, to future game soundtrack work.

Having their music become part of the nearly decade-old Mortal Kombat franchise comes as quite an honor for Chavez, who harbors fond memories of plunking quarter after quarter into the arcade classic for yet another chance to "finish him!"

"[Mortal Kombat] was one of my favorite video games as a kid," he said. "So it's going to be kind of neat to see that my music branched out far enough to make it to a video game that I used to play as a kid."

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance will be available for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Game Boy Advance platforms.

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