Cata music

[IskatuMesk]

You can thank me for spending the menial grunt work to rip this out of xml files since the guy who upped this music to some random shitty streaming site neglected to enable mp3 download. It's not the best quality but it'll do until I get the opportunity to make a full rip.

Code: Select all

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LRV8M7N9

pw albertthebuttmaster

[Dread]

Fantastic! The music for Cataclysm is really rather impressive. Thanks!

[Dem0nS1ayer]

There's a password? O.o

[Lavarinth]

pw albertthebuttmaster

[IskatuMesk]

You know what? Every single person I linked that text to in IM asked for the PW. I'd reply "see above", there'd be a pause, and then some witty one-liner afterwards.

People have this instinct to not read op's I swear to Christ.

[Dem0nS1ayer]

Orly. I swear that line wasn't there before. ;o

[AA7Dragoon]

Thank you for making this thread, Mesk. I just so happened to listen to "The Shattering" last night on a Youtube video upload. I spent the next half hour going back and listening to the previous expansions music to make an analysis of this theme.

So far, I am neutral about the new expansion's music. The Burning Crusade had an excellent, memorable theme. I can still hum the theme of the cinematic closing in on the Dark Portlal in my head. The Sin'dorei and High Elf music accompanied by a rich array of instruments (the cello being the most memorable) made the soundtrack to the Burning Crusade even better.

Wrath of the Lich King expanded on one of my favorite pieces of Blizzard music that came out of WarCraft III. Arthas' theme was so well put together with the child falsetto. The theme is tragic, dark, and fit the mood of one of the canon's most important villains. There are also other enjoying tracks to the soundtrack, including the violin solo of Grizzy Hills that you messaged me about when I was trying to place the music to one of your videos.

Essentially, both Illidan and Arthas had great themes to their expansion's soundtracks.

My issue with Cataclysm is that the series of pieces in the login music does not illustrate a clear theme for the expansion or Deathwing. There are some interesting melodies, including a couple that expand on some of the vanilla tracks which adds a nice nostalgic touch to an expansion that focuses on the original vanilla world.

Some pluses to this theme is the instrumentation continually improves. Russell Brower continues to enrich the music he composes with more versatility and unique sounds from choirs, violins, and horn instruments. Unfortunately, we may not have heard a Deathwing theme yet. I am curious to see what piece Brower will compose when Deathwing is introduced in the opening cinematic. Here is a Youtube clip for those who want to skip on downloading it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-bVd9t2XA0[/youtube]
A Youtuber did his best to breakdown each melody here:
0:00-0:40 is Legends of Azeroth Tempo 0:40-1:31 new stuff 1:31-2:40 Legends of Azeroth 2:40-3:22 Stormwind Cathedral Theme 3:22-4:47 Cold Mountain theme ( Dun Morogh perhaps ) 4:47-5:27 New Moonglade Theme 5:27-6:00 Goblin Theme 6:00-6:40 Continuation of 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 Theme 9:29-10:04 Lootship 10:05-10:57 Ulduar 10:58-12:06 Vanilla Login Some of this confirmed by Dominika's videos


Any thoughts to any particular pieces you guys liked?

[AA7Dragoon]

By the way, I do have to say after listening to this a couple more times, this is the best login screen music to World of WarCraft so far in terms of the quality of instrumentation and themes touched on.

[IskatuMesk]

I'd say it's probably one of the best wc-related pieces they've ever made.

When they made sc2's music they just used whoever they could find, all their real talent is in WoW.

[Meta]

If there's one thing Blizzard remains top-notch, it's music.

The Night Elf themes in particular are amazing.

[AA7Dragoon]

Yeah, the StarCraft 2 music was decent, but nothing truly memorable. Even the ending cinematic's most memorable piece sounded a lot like Enya singing "Now We are Free" from the movie Gladiator.

There is a lot of talent in WoW development. I have been very impressed over the years just how they've expanded on the MMORPG in general. They are developing interactive questlines that previous MMORPG's never used. They've refined phasing, reworked all the talent trees, and are mainstreaming content for all users to access and enjoy on different difficulty levels.

I remember all the class balance issues in Vanilla. As a Priest, the class was broken and dissatisfying. Once Burning Crusade and the other expansions rolled out, I have been impressed by how Blizzard has improved the playability of their game. Going back to the vanilla world with Cataclysm proves the tremendous efforts Blizzard is making to round out their game.

The art design, music, and development is top notch when it comes to Blizzard's WoW. I can only hope the expansions for StarCraft 2 will build on that level of intensity.

[Lavarinth]

I'm simple disappointed the music is never truly programmed properly to play during specific events. There's always some quirky delay, honestly I feel like the loading screen is the only time you truly get to listen to the music. Instances, the second place would expect triggered music, hardly ever works in a timely manner. I still think WoW's first raid music is by far the best piece. I just hate that it's so bloody short and has no true end. Intended to repeat endlessly, I'm sure, it just never ended up that way.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5W2yuG ... re=related[/youtube]

[IskatuMesk]

WoW's music is positional based, not event based. I don't know why they can't have event based music. Seems like an odd limitation...

[Bryce Wrathbone]

Blizzard's early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when BC came out in '07, I think they really came into their own - commercially and artistically. The whole score has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost.

[RazorclawX]

I actually play with the music off...

I only turn it on for Trial of the Champion, Forge of Souls (especially for Bronjahm), Halls of Reflection, and Lootship. While Sindragosa's theme is fine, it really gets on my nerves when actually fighting her.

For the most part I wasn't all that pleased with WoW's music until they implemented Ahn Qiraj, when they got the Diablo II composer to do the music there (and it showed).