Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - Introduction: The Dark Wanderer | Текст песни

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• Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino
• Introduction: The Dark Wanderer

About the Music:

The score of Diablo II is as iconic as you can get. Just the same as with Mario, Zelda, and the Final Fantasy series, you know what you are hearing as soon as it plays. Diablo II has long ago become the standard of the clickfest RPGs, in both it’s game mechanics as well as it’s musical landscape.

Uelmen did not go for an orchestral score with the core game, although he did for the expansion pack “Lord of Destruction” (represented in tracks 41 through 50). He often used guitars, both steel rimmed and electric, drums and a small arrangement of flutes, with some electronica in the background to give it that “experimental” edge. For larger than life instruments, such as the organ and chorus, he used samples.

There are no motifs here, although there is plenty of them in “Lord of Destruction”. There isn’t much in the way of the narrative links. Rather, Uelmen uses the music to describe the landscape of the regions that your character fights across. Also just as interesting is the lack of any typical action pieces. The closest is probably “The Lord of Terror” and “Siege” and even then they are slow paced.

Diablo II is an interesting score to be sure, but it suffers in the way of the personal. You never really get a sense of what the characters are feeling in all this madness. Hell is invading the world; why don’t we get a musical direction in terms of how bad they have it. Uelmen says plenty of the chaos of the world, but not much of the chaos in the world. It’s unfortunate, and can mostly be blamed on the game having practically no character scenes whatsoever. It’s nearly all combat, cutscenes aside.

While we are on that topic; Uelmen did not compose the cutscenes. That was done by Blizzard regulars Glenn Stafford, Jason Hayes, and Blizzard one timer Andrea Pessino. These tracks are a great deal more orchestral in nature, and they feel grander as a result. Some of the best music in the entire score are from these cinematics. And they aren’t brief either – they average around 3 or so minutes, with the longest “The Calling” measuring at 7 minutes. Unfortunately, they are also filled with dialogue and sound effects. Still, beneath it all is great music. I apologize for this, but I am no sound engineer.

Let’s talk about Lord of Destruction for a bit, because it is an interesting side note. It is very much influenced by Wagner. None of these tracks would seem out of place in any of his Operas or Symphonic Poems. In fact, “The End with Baal” contains a direct reference to “Tristan and Isolde”. All four of the pieces have a musical reference or quote. Most obvious to those with a good ear is “Siege”. At the 2:26 mark, the opening sequence of “Mars: The Bringer of War” from Holst’s “The Universe” is quoted.

The Lord of Destruction is musically the best part of the entire soundtrack. It is the most involving, it is Uelmen at his most creative, and it is just superb in every way. It is the shortest portion, but it is by far the sweetest. It also boasts the honor of having the two cinematic pieces that are the most “silent” and easiest to listen to.

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