God of War III
by Gerard Marino, Jeff Rona, Ron Fish, Mike Reagan, Cris Velasco
God of War III
Buy online
God of War III Composed by Gerard Marino, Jeff Rona, Ron Fish, Mike Reagan, Cris Velasco
Sumthing Else Records (2010)
Rating:
6/10
Soundclips below from AmazonMP3
“So while it lacks
the intricacy and personality that could set it apart and give it a
sense of uniqueness, the music of GOD OF WAR III delivers on its
promise of a loud, wrathful bundle of tunes you can kill gods
to...for better or worse."
One Angry Spartan Review by Marius Masalar
You’ve got to hand it to Kratos: he’s one persistent bugger. In the third
installment of his revenge plot against the gods, the former Spartan faces
even larger foes (yes, it’s possible), more enemies, and continues merrily
dispatching them while exercising his disinclination to die. Fans of the
series were only too happy to get their hands on the latest title, and
Sony thankfully delivered a suitably epic and brutal sequel, bringing back
the composer veterans from the series to provide a score of similar
proportions.
If you haven’t yet experienced the sensation of being punched in the face
by an angry orchestra, then I invite you to pop in your copy of the GOD OF
WAR III score right now and hit play. From the mighty “God of War III
Overture” (1) in which the series’ simple but effective theme is reprised,
through “Call to Arms” (2), “Poseidon’s Wrath” (3), and “Revenge Falling”
(4), you are in for an assault of loud and energetic action scoring to
accompany the game’s impressively cinematic opening sequences. Each track
seems like an extension of its predecessor (with “Poseidon’s Wrath” being
the highlight), and together they make up 12 minutes of the most fearsome
war music you could hope for. The strings are nervously chattering and
slicing, the choir is shouting and chanting, the brass are growling and
roaring…altogether GERARD MARINO gives us the kind of music that makes you
want to just slay some deities.
After the initial onslaught, JEFF RONA, RON FISH, and MIKE REAGAN take
over for some subtler scoring. I use the word “subtle” in a comparative
sense here, since the sense of grand scale never quite leaves the
soundscape. “Anthem of the Dead” (5) and “The Forge of Hephaestus” (7) are
both moody choral dirges bookending the rich environmental music for the
underworld, “Depths of Hades” (6). “Labour of Destruction” (8) unleashes
some of the most ferocious low brass stabs in recent memory, leading into
a magnificent choral introduction in “The Three Judges” (9) and some
mellow ambience in “The Lost Souls” (10).
“Duel With Hades” (11), a percussive battle track, leads us into the
second half of the score. GERARD MARINO returns here with “Tides of Chaos”
(12), a surprisingly patient and dynamic cue featuring some very haunting
woodwind effects that briefly make an appearance out of the wall of
orchestral and choral sound. Passing the torch to CRIS VELASCO, the score
brings in some more instrumental colour in the form of more prominent
Middle-Eastern percussion in “Stalker” (13), an Armenian Duduk solo in
“The Muse’s Song” (14), and both in “Lure of a Goddess” (16). One of the
more interesting tracks is “Brothers of Blood” (15), which brings together
many of the elements we’ve already become familiar with by now into a very
cohesive and blood-pumping action track with more complex rhythmic figures
in the percussion and choir.
Following a completely lackluster “March of Tartarus” (17), MIKE REAGAN’s
“The Great Machine” (18) offers a strong thematic opening before
dissolving into tense underscoring. At this point we finally reach one of
the more heartwrenching themes of the score, “Pandora’s Song” (19), which
brings a solo vocalist into the mix to represent the voice of the first
woman in Greek mythology.
The beauty is short-lived, with the final five tracks unleashing the full
wrath of the ensemble once more. By now, the sound is getting tired
though, and while the tracks maintain the energy and scale of their
predecessors, none of them set themselves apart, smearing together in a
cacophony of anger before fading to a plaintive Duduk solo to foreshadow
the inevitable fourth game in the series.
It must be said that the Skywalker Session Orchestra and Czech National
Symphony Chorus both deliver extraordinarily aggressive performances,
captured in a pristine mix…so where this score falters is in its lack of
perspective: there is so much ferocity here, so much intensity, that it
becomes tiresome and stale. The writing is predictably thin, with very
basic figures given scale simply through the sheer size and volume of the
ensemble. There is perhaps some authenticity in that, since Kratos’
single-minded fury seems to call for transparent brutality, yet I am left
wondering what a more sophisticated score (like, say, GARRY SCHYMAN’s work
on DANTE’s INFERNO) could have done for the game. The fact is that behind
all the pomp and noise, it’s a rather derivative and bland score — one
with many highlights, but one that gets tiresome to listen to nonetheless.
So while it lacks the intricacy and personality that could set it apart
and give it a sense of uniqueness, the music of GOD OF WAR III delivers on
its promise of a loud, wrathful bundle of tunes you can kill gods to...for
better or worse. Enjoy in small doses.
