December 6, 2013

  • More from Castlevania

    Having just released the score for the Lords and Shadow release in the Castlevania mythology Sumthing Else follows uo with this new score by series’ composer Oscar Araujo.   follows Gabriel Belmont, a sort of holy knight, whose wife was murdered by evil forces.  The present score continues to expand upon the musical universe Araujo settled on in the previous score, expanding the Shore-like fantasy orchestral styles.  The music is well served by the Bratislava orchestra and chorus.

     

    The opening tracks present the main theme of this game.  The colors are muted more here with “Gabriel’s Farewell” providing a lyrical idea against starker harmonic support.  Such a restrained lyrical moment will be rare though.  Action styles begin to increase as we enter the “Prologue” with driving rhythmic ideas, exciting percussive interludes and chorus added for extra impact.  Horror elements begin to appear early in “Castle Arrival” with a blend of intense orchestral sonorities and contemporary techniques against repetitive brass statements for an exciting and intense experience.  The emphasis in the score will be on these more intense horror-like musical tropes as the score continues to provide often dense and dark orchestral textures.  Small thematic elements also help to hold the score together.  The music’s darker tone often means that we are in the realm of orchestral atmosphere and scene setting with less thematic unfolding for many tracks.  There is a modern rough edge to this score as well as appears in “Necromancer” with an ostinato that is missing all but electronic guitars to lend it a pop edge.  Here is a common example of where video game music must be able to loop effortlessly until one moves on and while this does work very well in game, on its own there can sometimes be too much of it when very little changes.  There are some interesting moments like “Sucubus” with its mesmerizing female vocalise cutting through the texture.  This also allows for slight variations in the otherwise repetitive action sequences here.  Again, these are likely quite effective in game play, but tend to be perhaps too much of a good thing when placed on their own as there is less opportunity for contrast in alternation.  One brief moment of repose does occur in the touching “Carousel.”  Some of the looping support still occurs here, though less so in another beautifully reflective track, “Trevor’s Farewell”.

     

    This is another good score by Araujo.  It tends to be a bit darker than its predecessor and explores more unusual soundscapes.  The narrative and intense horror-like elements of the score are given added depth by the orchestral approaches used throughout the score.  Certainly, this will be of great interest to fans of the series.  The music does not play as well on its own, though it is still quite fascinating and the more lyrical moments tend to shine best here with interesting thematic content.