CD Review: JOURNEY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 02/25/2013
JOURNEY soundtrack | ©2012 Sony

As innovatively great as videogame scores have proven to be, they’re often anything but relaxing. But then, the musical Zen equivalent of a Japanese water garden isn’t exactly apropos to accompany the slaughter of first person combat or raging fantasy battles that are the stuff of the major game studios. So it’s no wonder that the relaxingly adventurous score of JOURNEY and its flowing robe figure was originated by the indie Thatgamecompany, who’ve given composer Austin Wintory the opportunity to compose a soundtrack that’s taken the genre to a new level of melodic poetry, not to mention acclaim by a […]Read On »


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CD Review: CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/08/2013
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II soundtrack | ©2012 Activision

When so many kill-crazy videogame scores are basically comprised of rock guitars blasting over shock waves of electric percussion, it’s nice to have one mega-popular franchise offering far more than you’d expect from the usual musical campaign. Not that there’s any less of the shredding action stylings that have become as popular on consoles as theater screens. But it’s just how interesting Jack Wall makes the nearly 2 ½ hours of score offered on CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 2 that merits attention, especially when divorced from the game’s bazooka-level sound design. A hardened warrior of such weapon-packed games as […]Read On »


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CD Review: WORLD OF WARCRAFT – MISTS OF PANDARIA soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/02/2012
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: MISTS OF PANDARIA soundtrack | ©2012 Blizzard Entertainment

While there’s no doubt that what’s left of my life would be gone if I fully ventured into the WORLD OF WARCRAFT, the scores for these games are certainly a journey well worth taking for listeners who want to submerge themselves into fantasy music environments. Like such mythic cinematic score quests as Howard Shore’s LORD OF THE RINGS, these various extensions of WARCRAFT keep adding to the complexity of what will likely be an eternally expanding tapestry of dungeons and dragons. Now the landscape goes beyond the “ethnic” qualities of fantastical good and evil characters to encompass a real-world land […]Read On »


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CD Review: DARKSIDERS II soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 09/30/2012
DARKSIDERS II soundtrack | ©2012 Thq Records

Having made a musical killing for such button-mashing slay-a-thons as ASSASSIN’S CREED, BORDERLANDS and HITMAN, Jesper Kyd gets one of his most intriguingly violent soundscapes for his first entry into DARKSIDERS, a game which now marks its second venture into post-apocalyptic territory. It’s a world wiped of humanity, where a horseman named Death battles a horde of angels and demons to bring back mortals to reap. It’s a clever conceit that straddles sci-fi, fantasy and horror, and Kyd pretty much hits every note, all while remaining remarkably light on his feet. Not nearly as cruel in its approach as the […]Read On »


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CD Review: STARHAWK soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 06/23/2012
STARHAWK soundtrack | ©2012 La La Land Records

Though Christopher Lennertz is prolifically onscreen with the comedy-centric likes of HORRIBLE BOSSES and HOP, it’s the videogame arena that truly lets this composer strut his creative stuff beyond giving humorous oomph to male bad behavior and talking animals. You can tell the first-person blast he has at the controls, often when bringing new energy to musical styles set long ago in the traditional movie realm, whether it’s the military action of MEDAL OF HONOR‘s European and Pacific assaults, the grooves of classic and current 007 music for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE, or being far more […]Read On »


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CD Review: SILENT HILL: DOWNPOUR soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 06/17/2012
SILENT HILL: DOWNPOUR soundtrack | ©2012 Milan Records

Daniel Licht certainly knows clever ways to kill people in the company of DEXTER, not to mention a gore-splattered musical past that includes HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE, THINNER and BAD MOON. It’s a set of eerie skills that suit him well for entering the video game netherworld for the first time with two entries into the SILENT HILL mythos. Up first is SILENT HILL: DOWNPOUR, which has an escaped convict being thrown into this twisted Twilight Zone after a Richard Kimble-style bus crash. Starting off DOWNPOUR with a bang is a catchy theme song by Korn’s Jonathan Davis, whose thrash makes it […]Read On »


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CD Review: KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RECKONING soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/30/2012
KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RECKONING soundtrack | ©2012 38 Studios

An undead knight is out for Kratos-level payback in this fantasy RPG, and it’s up to Grant Kirkhope to go Medieval with a far more mature bit of musical creature-trouncing than he’d dealt with in such previous child-friendly games as GRABBED BY THE GHOULIES and BANJO KAZOOIE. Thankfully for Kirkhope’s sake, KINGDOM‘s warrior will have everything on his lethal list of grievances except for this score, as Kirkhope does RECKONING‘s wrath proud with an exhilarating soundtrack that plays like equal parts LORD OF THE RINGS and STAR WARS – minus much of the dirge-like bits that go along with a […]Read On »


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CD Review: ARKHAM CITY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/26/2012
BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY soundtrack | ©2011 Water Tower Music

It’s a very dark musical night when the bats are ruling the belfry, or in this case the unleashed, insane inmates of comics’ most infamous asylum- one that’s also become video gaming’s most acclaimed lock-up. Arkham’s gotten expanded to its own bizarro Gotham in BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY for the latest edition of the smash franchise, with Batman / Bruce Wayne trapped behind enemy lines. However, the most sonically important dual identity belongs to Nick Arundel, a man who’s served as the audio director and composer for both BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM and ARKHAM CITY. Given a powerful orchestral expanse in which […]Read On »


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CD Review: HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED ANNIVERSARY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/24/2012
HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED ANNIVERSARY soundtrack | ©2011 Microsoft Studios

It’s been ten years since The Master Chief took on The Covenant to essentially create the modern video game industry. And through numerous sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs, the legend of the HALO name brand has been the one ringworld to rule them all. But just as importantly, HALO helped show the non-gaming industry that music for the medium could rival the musical quality, and production values heard on television and film. Credit for that can be given to HALO composers Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, the distinct voices that have been heard through all the main HALO games. While it […]Read On »


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CD Review: DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/29/2011
DEUS EX soundtrack | ©2011 Square Enix

If you dug the techno sheen of TRON LEGACY then you’ll likely love the vibe of DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, an impressively atmospheric score that also paints its game grid in hypnotic, neon-sounding colors. Before you cry foul on composer Michael McCann for trying some unfair light cycle move on Daft Punk, know that DEUS EX was generated even further back, making McCann’s to-the-second technological wash of eerily pulsating samples and electronics that much more futuristically impressive. Having composed the ruthless spy suspense for SPLINTER CELL: DOUBLE AGENT, McCann gives DEUS EX’s industrial operative a propulsive sense of mission as […]Read On »


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