| Kevin Riepl | |
| Birth Place: | Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Genre: | Epic music, orchestral, industrial, electronic, ambient |
| Occupation: | Composer |
| Years Active: | 2000–present |
| Associated Acts: | Damage Vault[1] [2] |
| Website: | kevinriepl.com |
Kevin Riepl is an American composer for video games, films and television shows.[3] He is best known for his work on the Unreal series of games as well as Gears of War and .[4] [5]
Riepl was born in Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey. His interest in music started at the age of six, when he began to play piano and guitar under the instruction of his uncle.[6] In the fourth grade he began studies on the trumpet and piano and that continued throughout his high school years in which he was a member of a variety of bands and orchestras.[7] After high school, he began private independent studies in composition and orchestration at the Village East Conservatory of Music. Following the years at the conservatory and few scoring projects, he attended Mannes College of Music in New York City for further education in composition and orchestration.[8]
Riepl began his career working as an assistant and co-writing partner for Kevin Manthei in the early 2000s.[9] At the time, Cliff Bleszinski, former design director at Epic Games, who was then looking for a different musical sound for the Unreal franchise, played his demo reel. This led him to work on Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Championship 2.[10] In February 2005, Riepl became attached to Gears of War. Initially, he was asked to write the main themes for the game, but after submitting the pieces he had written, Epic liked what he created and signed him on to create the entire score.[11] In March 2007, Riepl recorded the score for the massively multiplayer first-person shooter computer game Huxley, developed by Webzen Games.[12] [13]
In October 2010, Riepl suffered a sudden heart failure and was hospitalized. He had a pump installed in his heart until a donor heart could replace it, and underwent the heart transplant in July 2011. Shortly afterwards, a rare tumor was found on his adrenal gland, which was affecting his blood pressure. He has since made a good recovery.[14]
In addition to his work on the video game industry, Riepl has composed for films and television series, including his recent scores for horror films such as Silent Night, Contracted and the Cabin Fever films (Patient Zero and the 2016 film remake).[15] [16]
Kevin Riepl has composed music for the following media:[17]
| Year | Title | Developer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Additional music (uncredited) | ||
| 2002 | New Legends | Infinite Machine | Additional music |
| Dead to Rights | |||
| Unreal Tournament 2003 | |||
| Additional music | |||
| 2003 | |||
| 2004 | |||
| Unreal Tournament 2004 | |||
| Shrek 2: The Game | |||
| 2005 | Unreal Championship 2 | ||
| Shrek SuperSlam | 7 Studios | ||
| The Bible Game | Credited in-game with Original Music Composition[18] | ||
| City of Villains | |||
| 2006 | Gears of War | ||
| 2007 | Huxley | ||
| Unreal Tournament 3 | |||
| Soul of the Ultimate Nation | |||
| 2008 | Gears of War 2 | Additional music | |
| 2010 | Crackdown 2 | ||
| 2011 | |||
| 2012 | |||
| Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage | |||
| 2013 | Themes by James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith | ||
| 2014 | Vlad The Impaler[19] | Section Studios | |
| 2015 | |||
| Nosgoth | |||
| Rocket League | |||
| 2016 | Battleborn | ||
| TBA | Unreal Tournament[20] | ||
| Bedlam[21] | Skyshine Games | ||
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Look | Eric Blue | |
| 2005 | Sky High | Credited as music programmer | |
| 2007 | Lost Crossing | Eric Blue | |
| Rogue 379 | Douglas Choi | ||
| 2008 | P.J. Pesce | ||
| 2009 | Broken August | Marc Pilvinsky | |
| New Hope Manor | Danny LeGare | ||
| 2010 | Clemency | Joseph Albanese | |
| Broken Moment | Eric Blue | ||
| Breathe | Danny LeGare | ||
| 2011 | Mama's Baby | Drew Daywalt | |
| Ruin | Wes Ball | ||
| 2012 | HENRi | Eli Sasich | |
| The Aggression Scale | |||
| Dead Shadows | David Cholewa | ||
| The ABCs of Death | |||
| Silent Night | |||
| 2013 | Contracted | ||
| 2014 | |||
| Resignation | |||
| The Night Crew | Christian Sesma | ||
| Criminal | |||
| Beacon Point[22] | Eric Blue | ||
| 2015 | Butch Lukic | ||
| 2015 | Grandpa's Psycho | Danny LeGare | Credited as music supervisor |
| 2015 | Vigilante Diaries | Christian Sesma | |
| 2015 | Butch Lukic | ||
| 2016 | Cabin Fever | Travis Z | |
| Get The Girl | |||
| Curt Ceda | |||
| 2018 | Higher Power | ||
| Doug Murphy | |||
| 2019 | Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Jake Castorena | |
| 2019 | Greenlight | Graham Denman | |
| 2019 | Pureza | Renato Barbieri | |
| 2020 | Sung Jin Ahn | ||
| 2020 | Chris Palmer | ||
| 2021 | Jeff Wamester | ||
| 2022 | |||
| 2023 | Legion of Super-Heroes | ||
| 2024 | |||
| Year | Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Invader Zim | Additional music | |
| 2003 | Xiaolin Showdown | Additional music | |
| 2004–2006 | Brandy & Mr. Whiskers | Co-composer | |
| 2005–2006 | Johnny Test | Main Title Composer / Add. Music | |
| 2006 | Six Degrees | Orchestration / Score Prep. | |
| 2016 | Justice League Action |