Music Composed and Produced by: Bear McCreary
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Format: Digital Download
Number of Discs: n/a (24 tracks, approx. 1.5 hours)
Label: Sparks & Shadows
About the Composer:
Bear McCreary’s unique combination of atypical instrumental background (he is a professional accordionist) with rigorous classical training prepared him to compose for disparate genres. By the age of 24, McCreary was launched into pop culture history with his groundbreaking score to Syfy’s hit series Battlestar Galactica, for which he composed “the most innovative music on TV today” (Variety). It “fits the action so perfectly, it’s almost devastating: a sci-fi score like no other” (NPR). Io9.com declared Bear McCreary one of the Ten Best Science Fiction Composers of all time, listing him alongside legends John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann.
McCreary continues to write for the television show The Walking Dead. In 2013 he will lend his talents to Syfy and Trion World’s groundbreaking entertainment experience, Defiance, a combined launch of a MMO videogame and television series as well as Da Vinci’s Demons, a bold new historical fantasy series from David S. Goyer (co-writer of The Dark Knight trilogy) for STARZ. His upcoming film projects include Europa Report and Knights of Badassdom. His other credits include critically acclaimed scores for series such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Eureka and The Cape. His swashbuckling score for Human Target featured the largest orchestra ever assembled in the history of series television and earned him his first Emmy nomination. His videogame credits include SOCOM 4 and Dark Void.
About Defiance the Game:
The game and the series take place in a future Earth, terraformed by invading alien races known as the Votan. Themes of exploration, racial tension and frontier life have been transplanted from the western genre and fit perfectly in this strange new vision of our world. The game and series share principal characters, visual effects, production design and story arcs. They also have one other important characteristic in common: the original score.
From the Composer:
A few months prior to being hired on “Defiance,” I had just completed scoring “Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome,” a project that allowed me to dip my toes into electronic synthesis… When “Defiance” came along, I realized I could go back to those synths and dig much deeper. Rather than hiding the synthesis behind layers of acoustic instruments, I decided that I’d put them right out there, front and center. Though “Defiance” features a large orchestra, ethnic soloists, solo percussion, group percussion, vocals, woodwinds and guitars, the sound of the synth programming stands out above all. The immediate sound of the score is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. Nevertheless, I hope fans will quickly recognize my style in the melodies, percussion and orchestration.”
Theme from Defiance
[youtube]http://youtu.be/FmxyNZBdwhE[/youtube]
The soundtrack to Defiance the Game is, according to composer Bear McCreary, his first all-in electronica soundtrack (still with orchestra, of course) as well as his first soundtrack for an MMO. I haven’t played the game, although I am quite familiar with the TV series. Because some themes cross over between the two media, parts of the themes in this soundtrack are familiar, but for the most part this is fresh to me.
My verdict? It is a near-constant head-bouncer, and I LOVE it. I LOVE the beat, LOVE the percussion, LOVE the mix of frontier and future which you can absolutely hear, and I especially LOVE the badass-ness.
What a combination of sounds we get here. Always the electronica, but the frontier violin in “The Battle of San Francisco”, the snake charmer in the “Hellbugs” track (I bet players WISH there was a snake charmer), the spooky harpsichord in “Mount Tam”, and more combine to give a rich texture and variety to these tracks that make the soundtrack an absolute joy.
The one and only less-favorite thing in this soundtrack for me is the raunchy nasty noisy electric guitar that dives in periodically. I’m sure that it’s great in the game, it’s just my less favorite thing from a listening standpoint. It’s nowhere near enough, however, to take it down one star level, and the rest of the soundtrack more than makes up for it to me.
McCreary has said that writing for an MMO (massively multiplayer online game) is quite different from writing for a standard single-player game because there is no control over where a player will go in the environment, so the music has to stand alone and not build by level. He claims that this kept him from having strong melodies, and while I see what he means, and much of the music could be considered “background” to an extent, I found myself humming and bouncing my foot to tunes in my head long after I’d finished playing the tracks.
Maybe that’s the reason why I have included some of the tracks in my regular listening rotation. Usually for me, soundtracks are best heard as a straight play-through. This one has several tracks that stand alone. All of them are terrific. Most have a driving beat, even if it’s a rare slow one; this would be a great epic workout soundtrack. The three more contemplative tracks are short, and never bring the mood down too far.
Here’s the playlist:
1. Theme From Defiance
2. The Battle of San Francisco
3. Ninety-Niners
4. Marin Explosion
5. Ridgecrest Mine
6. Hellbugs
7. Tranquility
8. Angel Island
9. Raiders
10. San Francisco Shadows
11. Mount Tam
12. Wrath
13. Dark Woods
14. Attack at Marin
15. Wandering Madera
16. Sausalito
17. Votan Romance
18. Dark Matter
19. Cronhite Bunker
20. Intellitons
21. Madera Combat
22. Mutants of Delta Bunker
23. The Volge
24. Theme from Defiance (Extended Version)
It’s a terrific, driving, epic, rockin’ soundtrack, and although it’s expected to come out late this summer as part of a multi-disc set that combines music from both the game and the TV series, don’t wait for that. Think of all the great workouts that this soundtrack will accompany in the interim. Download this soundtrack now, and get ready for a lot of great listening (and inspiration) ahead.
I give Defiance (Original Video Game Soundtrack) Five Out of Five Stars.
Defiance (Original Video Game Soundtrack) is available now as an MP3 download from Amazon; here’s the link:
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B00C27MUSE]
