2XKO Composer Jesse Zuretti on How Riot’s Fighting Game Became a Haven for Metal Music
Ahri in 2XKO ©Riot Games
“I was raised by the metal world. I've spent more than half of my life dedicated to it. So I wanted to make sure to represent Team Metal as much as I possibly could.”
Posted 01/29/26
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Digital Only
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series
Polyphia and Spiritbox are band names that will likely wash right past your average radio listener. But utter them in front of a metal fan, and both should elicit immediate recognition. That two current stars of metal and progressive rock found their way into partnerships for Riot Games’ new fighting game, 2XKO, is no mistake. For composer and longtime metalhead Jesse Zuretti, 2XKO was the chance to shine a spotlight on a community that’s provided a home and sense of place to him throughout his life.
The drums of metal have set the tempo for Zuretti’s life since he joined a band at the age of 16. Riot and League of Legends, by contrast, brought worlds with which he had only passing familiarity. It was only through what he describes as “nerd out” music production sessions with Riot’s in-house composer and fellow metal musician Mike Pitman that the opportunity to jump aboard unexpectedly arose. To his delight, Zuretti soon discovered a greater overlap than he’d expected.
“The metal community is very similar to games,” Zuretti says. “In the ‘90s playing video games, to adults, was like you're wasting your time. There was this whole negative perspective and it lingered on. It still does in a lot of ways. It's become more acceptable, and metal is the same. People were like, ‘Oh, that guy's scary, walk on the other side of the street.’ And now our music sells out arenas.
“I can go to a football game and that arena could be filled to the max, and then the next day a metal show could come through and do the same thing. It's amazing. I believe it's a sign of the passion from the fan base and the creators within. There's just so much passion that it's infectious, and it's a breeding ground for creativity and advancing entertainment and how it affects people's lives. It's just incredible.”
Zuretti credits the sense of welcome and acceptance he experienced in both spaces – game development and metal music – as a cornerstone for creative success. But even with that first connection in place and an offer on the table, partnering with Riot was still a terrifying prospect. This is a studio with musical lineage.
League of Legends has long woven soundtracks and singers into its promotion and celebration. The opening ceremonies to its yearly Worlds esports competitions are arena-filling events. The immensely popular Netflix series Arcane is overflowing with music-driven action sequences, and Riot sports a suite of virtual bands like K/DA and Pentakill, each comprising in-universe characters.
Both League of Legends and Valorant, Riot’s tactical FPS, regularly reveal songs to promote upcoming seasons. The expectations for 2XKO would likely be no different. Even with his limited exposure to the studio, it took Zuretti a full two weeks to build up the courage to respond to their interest.
“I get so intimidated even just thinking about the music,” admits Zuretti. “Welcome to Noxus, the video that came out [with the song] Bite Marks, every time I expose somebody to that video for the first time, they're like, ‘What?! I've never seen this, this is incredible!’ They don't know anything about League, they're always so blown away.
“Those people are the standard. We can only hope to start climbing their mountain. If it was Skyrim, it's like how many different things do I have to learn before I can even be a part of this and ascend the mountain? It's super intimidating, and I also love that about Riot. It's why we're such a good match in terms of music philosophy.”
Fighting games, too, are inextricably linked with music. Guile’s Theme from the Street Fighter series is one of gaming’s great iconic tracks. For those invested in the genre, even character select themes have achieved a legendary status. Zuretti felt he had to deliver for fans of fighting games and those who love League’s sweeping cast of characters. To achieve that meant first serving the community he knew best.
©Riot Games
“I wanted to represent metal as best as I possibly could, where applicable, because not every character is going to have metal music,” Zuretti says. “Those moments I wanted to be as deeply woven with the DNA of what metal music is and the culture and the community as humanly possible, because – it's not a criticism, it's just an observation – but a lot of the times it's implemented into games and soundtracks from a much more voyeuristic perspective, not having been to shows, played shows, toured, spent money, and been hurt for the genre.
“I always felt like I could feel it more than I could hear it. So I wanted to bring the feeling of being from the metal community as much as possible and continue to be as authentic and respectful to the community that's built my entire life. I was raised by the metal world. I've spent more than half of my life dedicated to it. So I wanted to make sure to represent Team Metal as much as I possibly could.”
Titles like Brutal Legend and Metal: Hellsinger have helped the genre begin to find a broader footing within gaming, but for most players, the aggressive thrash and industrial metal soundscape of the modern Doom games still stands as a solitary reference point. For 2XKO, Zuretti was keen to demonstrate the spectrum of hybridization open to metal music.
“It feels common to metal fans, but it's not common from the outside perspective,” says Zuretti. “Metal doesn't really experiment too deeply outside. And when it does experiment outside and it brings in other genres, it usually blows up and does really well because it's so unique. The coffee beans have been passed under my nose and now I can finally smell everything else that I've been looking for; it cleanses the palate. I wanted to do that deeply for this soundtrack.”
What’s on Zuretti’s personal playlist?
Metal might have made Zuretti’s career, but it’s far from all he listens to. Quizzed about his current personal playlist and favorite artists, American pianist and producer Robert Glasper is the first name in his mind. In particular, the track Better Than I Imaged which features artists H.E.R. and Meshell Ndegeocello.
“[It’s] one of the most devastating pieces of music I've ever heard in my entire life," says Zuretti. "It's so saccharine, but also forlorn at the same time. His chord vocabulary, it highlights human emotion in a really special way.”
Low-tuned, thrumming guitars and drums might dominate tracks like March of the War Machine (theme to the Annihilator’s Reach stage), but metal presents a decidedly less aggressive face elsewhere. The League universe’s Piltover is known as the city of progress, so the music accompanying its gleaming Ferrous Promenade stage needed to convey a fitting sense of optimism.
“I played heavy guitar still, but the overall track is more rooted in Pat Metheny Group and Aaron Copland and his fanfare expression through Westerns and stuff like that,” Zuretti says. “I wanted it to feel regal and hopeful and positive. How do you do that with heavy guitars and really processed drums and synths? We had to do a really delicate balancing act there to make that work, and it was so much fun. I’ve never done anything like it.”
©Riot Games
For both characters and stages, the vast swaths of lore Riot has released into the world made it easy for Zuretti to get a sense of the driving emotions and atmospheres each track should convey. Though he quickly learned not to spend too long listening to any character’s existing music.
“All the guys that are working over there on the League stuff are worlds above anything I could possibly do at this point,” Zuretti humbly concedes. “All it is doing is teaching me what I need to get better at. It was cool to do that, except it intimidated me so much that I would get paralyzed by it sometimes.
“So as we went on, I started ignoring that stuff. I would go listen to the references after I had already started. And I got very lucky that what I was doing without listening to references was getting a thumbs up, because at first I was terrified to do that. … With music and all art forms, I believe you can really talk yourself out of starting if you just don't get going. And that's the muscle that a lot of people have to learn to exercise for this industry”
For 2XKO’s main theme, Let’s Go, Zuretti collaborated with progressive rock band Polyphia. The group had already shown an interest in gaming music, with band members Scott LePage and Clay Gober having previously contributed to a Cult of the Lamb cover album. Zuretti had already started the track, but he was thrilled to hand it over and see what Polyphia came back with.
“The coolest thing about Riot is the respect to the artists that they want to work with,” says Zuretti. “Okay, you guys do your thing, we trust you. Go ahead, go be Polyphia, let's hear what happens. So we gave them what I worked on and we got this incorporated thing. They took it over the finish line at the highest level humanly possible.
“The musicianship alone is just so incredible, but the mindset of how they elevated it in this really cool cinematic way that we hadn’t really discussed … it was such a pleasant surprise. They did an amazing job. I truly hope Polify does more work for soundtracks in the future.”
For the pre-release Ties That Bind cinematic, Riot also had the chance to include the vocals of Courtney LaPlante from Canadian heavy metal band Spiritbox. It was a collaboration Zuretti didn’t contribute to directly, but was nonetheless thrilled to see reach fruition.
“Courtney, she absolutely crushed it,” says Zuretti. When I heard the first version that she did, it moved me. I don't know how a person can communicate so effectively the lyricism and the melody and the phrasing, everything was perfect right away. Her first demo was done as quickly as possible before they went on tour. And we were just like, ‘Wait, how? This is so cool!’
“It makes sense to me when I think about it, because when I think of metal musicians, I think of: ‘You need me to get something done? I'm going to do it right now, I got it. I'll drop everything. I'm at a funeral right now, but don't worry, I'll run out and I'll go record vocals and come back.”
It’ll come as no surprise to any League or Valorant players that Riot has lengthy plans for 2XKO and the music that’ll accompany it as it evolves. But for anyone looking to get a feel for the fighting game’s themes now, Zuretti recommends listening to the Fireflight Run stage theme, Mechanist Slam. His favorite track, however, comes courtesy of fellow artist Casey Hudson, who concocted what Zuretti dubs “pirate gent music” for the Scuttler’s Strand stage theme, Mist on the Water.
Our thanks to Jesse Zuretti for taking the time to talk to us about his work. The 2XKO soundtrack is available to stream on various platforms including Spotify. Looking for more chats about video game music? We’ve got your eyes and ears covered via conversations with Clair Obscur composer Lorien Testard and The Outer Worlds 2 composer Oleksa Lozowchuk.