Most of us have a favorite poet or song. Give us an image that you think represents your favorite line, or what line inspires you most. You should probably include said line and *maybe* give some explanation/reasoning behind it, unless you’re feeling overly ambiguous.
This is one of the first songs I heard by Machinae Supremacy when they toured with Children of Bodom and Ensiferum earlier this year. I had never heard about them before, but I instantly fell in love with their SID metal style, how they played to the audience, unique vocals and lyrics. They have been one of my favorite bands since then. They aren’t very famous, not yet, so they don’t do headline tours yet but hopefully they will soon.
When I first read through and learned the lyrics of this song it made me think of Deathwing, how big he is and how we got no chance to survive if he flies over us and breathes fire at us. This screenshot was taken months back in Uldum when we progressed in Throne of the Four Winds and he killed everyone who took the portal.
I wield the true all-seeing eye My vision digitized and bright despite the veil of night Those really people on my screen? They run around in panic in between places to hide, as I tear up the street outside
Run, run away or remain with the ones with nowhere to go as The Sky falls to Earth
Stay down if once you have fallen It’s all coming down The world ends and fades out Stay down if once you have fallen to the ground Can you hear the sound of a demon in search of its prey?
I long to give them all a taste, a sudden breath of hellfire raised to send them all away A few more souls to make my day
As I burn down and murder I know that God forgives ‘Spite all the things I’ve done, my soul yet forever lives All those caught in the shadow of my wings have cause to fear I swear on all I’ve done No evil shall linger here
I think it’s about time to write another post about music, cause I love the in-game music so much and I know most people don’t listen to it at all, which is sad cause it’s really good. It’s like watching a movie without soundtrack. Or for me it is, the music is so important. I’ve told you about it before, how I sometimes just turn everything up on high and just listen, or fly around in different zones or instances and raids. I wish I could get people’s eyes, or ears, more up for the music in WoW.
We’re still early in the Cataclysm expansion, but there is already so much good music, and there is much more to come in the future patches I’m sure. So I’ve tried to pick my favorites, but it’s not that easy to pick just a few. So here is seven, I think.. Random order. And excuse my poor skills to describe music, I just say words which pop into my head.
Twilight’s Hammer (Eventide)
This is played in Blackwing Descent and in some zones where the Twilight’s Hammer are. Love this song. How it builds up from whispering. Then stronger vocals and the sound of the steel hammering. Wonder what the lyrics are, and if the lyrics mean something or if they are just for the sound of it.
Nightsong
This is played in Mount Hyjal, among other songs, sometimes just parts of it. This has to be the best song of Cataclysm. The vocal and music is just perfect! When I listen to it I imagine a night elf in the forest, singing, but when the tempo rises she starts running like the night elf in the WoW trailer. And we follow as she runs through the forest and when it slows down again you see her jump down a waterfall which runs out in a small river near the village where she’s from, a beautiful village where all the other night elves live.
Castaways
This is one of the goblin songs played in goblin cities and zones. This music fits the goblin areas perfectly, fun and playful, and very unique. My favorite part is from 3:38, which appears in the main title The Shattering and the trailer where we first meet the goblins.
Orgrimmar (Reforged)
One of the songs played in Orgrimmar. I loved the old music, but I love this one more. With the intro. War music, drums, strong, very Horde.
Vashj’ir
The zone music in Vashj’ir. Beautiful, mysterious, watery, fits perfectly.
This music is special to me as it was the first Cataclysm music I heard cause I was questing in that zone on the beta when they first implented.
Call of the Elements
This reminds me of the tauren house which was south of Silithus before Cataclysm, a version of this music was there and I always wanted to know which song it was, cause I don’t think it appeared anywhere else before Cataclysm. But that house had been there for a long time, maybe since vanilla, was the music that old too? But when I listen to this song I think of where I sat in that little tauren house in the middle of the night, with a fireplace, warming your hands on it, dark outside, the fire is the only light.Warm and cozy. I made a post and a video with in-game sound on of that place, so you can hear what the music there was like and how it reminds me of this new song. Here is the post and the video on YouTube.
Skywall 2
This is the music playing while fighting the bosses in Throne of the Four Winds, Conclave of the Four Winds and Al’Akir, so I always turn up the music volume when we’re there. Love the part from 2:21. There is more Skywall music, the part which plays in The Vortex Pinnacle which is more heavenly, slower tempo, you can find it here.
Finally the sound panel as the last panel on BlizzCon 2010. I had been waiting for this all day and was getting really tired, we’re 9 hours ahead of LA. But it was so worth it.
I’m a huge fan of the WoW music and have always played with ingame music on, I feel sorry for those people who play without, you’ve missed out on the most beautiful music ever made!
I feel like there is not enough talk about the music in the game, people forget about it, or don’t listen to it. When I now read on forums etc about BlizzCon most people only talk about the classes and dungeons, live raid, the D, and the dances and costumes, everything but the music? In one way, I feel sorry for those guys who don’t listen or care about it, as I said, in another way I’m like “pff, you’re the ones missing out”.
But these guys at the sound panel deserves a big thanks and some honor, they’ve done a wonderful job with the music and I’m so thankful for it. The game wouldn’t be the same without the music. Hours and hours of music have they composed, written and recorded.
On the sound panel we had Derek Duke, David Arkenstone, Russell Brower, Glenn Stafford and Neal Acree who are the composers of the music for Cataclysm. They told us how they fought over the zones, who should do which zone, everyone wanted to do the underwater zones, so they had to draw straws, but David made the Vashj’ir music.
David and some others played music live: Durotar, Feralas, Hyjal, Stonetalon, Vashj’ir, Temple of the Moon. I loved the flutist Susan Windberg, I played the flute in a marching band at school when I was younger, I enjoyed playing, but not the marching, so I quitted, but after hearing her on Saturday I want to start playing the flute again, realized how much I miss it, the sound of it.
They talked about the different ways to write music. Russell only uses a pencil and paper, but not everyone got the ability to “hear it without hearing it” as Glenn said. Neal uses keyboard, computer, Glenn uses piano, Derek prefers humming, David uses the computer and humming/singing to record his ideas wherever he is.
My favorite of those has to be the Night Elves song, it was one of the first I heard and it’s so special, never heard anything like it before. You just have to hear it and you will understand what I mean.
It’s really interesting to hear them explain how they work, how they get inspired cause it’s so fantastic how they can just see a zone or a character, read a story and then just know how the music should be, what instruments they should use. They also get inspired by things that happen in real life, and try to put the emotions into the music. It’s so amazing how they do that.
As the Cataclysm takes place in Azeroth and many of the old zones, they had to remake a lot of music for the zones cause as the zones change the music changes too. But Neal said it’s important to stay true to the old classic music that’s why they reuse it in the newer cinematics and main titles, make a new version, they don’t wanna remove anything.
Orgrimmar was reforged, a lot got changed and new buildings were build after Garrosh took over, as all this changed Orgrimmar needed new music. So David accepted the challenge and he said it was hard because it’s a popular theme. But he just added more instruments, more drums and metal and made it more “kick ass”. I love the new version of Orgrimmar and you can find it here. David also made the Thunder Bluff/Mulgore music. Derek made the goblin music. Glenn did Arathi and Plaguelands.
Invincible Music by Russell and Jason Hayes, lyrics by Neal Acree and Derek Duke.
Jason Hayes first made the song “O Thanagor” which was in Warcraft III The Frozen Throne closing cinematic, then the melody was putted into the WotLK main title and Neal wrote the lyrics. Then came the Fall of the Lich King patch and the first part which is in the main title called “Arthas My Son” become the Chorus and they wrote “Invincible” as verse to go with it, Derek wrote the lyrics.
And the lyrics contains a lot of lore. About Arthas’ feelings for his horse, how it was to be imprisoned, and feelings of the trapped souls. The song is named after Christie Golden’s book Arthas, and the title leaves you wondering if it’s about the horse or Arthas himself.
The BlizzCon 2010 Blizzard Sound panel can be found on YouTube.
I’ve been waiting for this since they announced Cataclysm and last week the music was finally out on YouTube, from the beta files I guess. Blizzard’s music department don’t like that people do that, but they understand we’re excited and I’m one of those who couldn’t wait for the launch to hear it.
I had really high expectations cause I loved the music from Vanilla, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. I’m a huge fan of classical, orchestra and choir music from games.
I have many favorite tracks, but I will try to only list a few ones here. Ok, that’s too hard.. I’ll pick some favorites from Wrath of the Lich King:
So I started to listen to the Cataclysm music. Most of the tracks are from new and old zones, some themes for races and events. I haven’t heard them enough times yet to say what I think about them, and kinda need to hear them in-game, in the zone with ambience etc.
But what I can write about is the Cataclysm main title, oh my, I’ve been looking forward to this for such a long time.
I remember when I first heard the WotLK main title, my jaw dropped and I had goosebumps all over. The music made me so excited and happy, it still does. I listened to it all the time, like every day, everywhere, on my phone, PC and the mp3 player I had back then. Had it as ringtone till I got my iPhone and sometimes when I log into WoW I wait a bit with the authenticator to listen to the music.
I think it’s hard to explain how music makes me feel sometimes, how I hear and experience it, I don’t know if anyone will understand how excited I am about all this music. I have never met anyone else who love this music as much as I do, but I bet there are some out there somewhere.
I found a video with the music and footage from Cataclysm beta made by 1Nefti1, very good quality and the music and clips fit perfect together.
0:00-0:40 Legends of Azeroth
0:40-1:31 ?
1:31-2:40 Legends of Azeroth
2:40-3:22 Stormwind Cathedral
3:22-4:47 Cold Mountain
4:47-5:27 New Moonglade
5:27-6:00 Goblin
6:00-6:40 Legends of Azeroth
6:40-7:38 Invincible
7:38-8:36 Eye of the Vortex Theme used in shattered areas
8:37-9:28 Worgen
9:29-10:04 Gunship
10:05-10:57 Ulduar
10:58-12:06 Vanilla main title
(not confirmed)
Now I’ve been listening to this music for hours, over and over again. First time I heard it was like two days ago but I didn’t really have the time to sit down and listen so carefully, so I did it first now.
And I’m so impressed! I had very high expectations and thought I would get disappointed because of it but no way, I didn’t. This music brings back so many good memories from the first time I saw the WoW trailer, played the game, heard the “Legends of Azeroth”. I love how they re-use “old” songs in the newer expansions, they did the same with Wrath of the Lich King and Burning Crusade.
Some of the songs here, the worgen part 8:37-9:28, reminds me of Disney movies, not sure which ones and why, but it’s only positive. The Gunship battle music is my favorite boss fight music in Icecrown Citadel cause it’s just so perfect and exciting, not that the fight is very exciting at the moment, but the music sure is!
Uldum is the land of the titans and Ulduar was also made by the titans, so I hope they will make similar music in the Uldum instances with choirs, cause I loved the Ulduar music and was so happy when I heard it in the main title. It sounds so powerful and I really wonder what the lyrics are, if there are any, maybe it’s only made up lyrics for the sound of it. Saving one of the best parts to the end: Invincible! Nothing can ever beat this song. What else can I say, it fits perfectly in.
But the most epic parts are the goblin part 5:27-6:00, especially 5:45, so beautiful! And the Vanilla main title part 10:58-12:06, especially from 11:35. Goosebumps!!!
Just have to say: Thank you, Russell Brower, you’re the best composer ever!
Have to add that The Instance podcast had their #200 episode August 23rd, with special interviews with Russell Brower, Veronica Belmont, Felicia Day and Tom Merritt. Check it out here.
