The Halo 4 OST is a fantastic soundtrack. Yes, it's different, but it has some amazing tracks on it. My personal favourite are 117, Green & Blue and Requiem. Everytime I get to that bit in the Requiem track where you step out onto the cliff, I get shivers. I just wish it was a bit more prevalent in campaign.

I posted this over on GAF on November 13: [url]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=44283386&postcount=3082[/url] I'm going to write up my initial impressions of the thing I've had the longest regarding Halo 4: the soundtrack. I'll have an overall analysis, an implementation analysis, and an individual track analysis. So long post incoming. Overall, Davidge has done an amazing work with the soundtrack. It definitely ranks up as one of the best audio experiences I've had in the past 10 years. There is one issue, moderate in size, and one that is incredibly minor. The minor issue is that the tracks don't match up with the game or there isn't a transition from one theme to the next. What I mean by that is that there are certain pieces that simply go together. Awakening matches very well with Arrival, Legacy matches with the end of Solace, Revival and Nemesis go quite well together, etc. It jumps from one track to the next similar to Halo 2 Volume 1 or the Halo CE soundtrack. The moderate issue is that there isn't a central theme, but 5 or 6 smaller themes. Something that I feel helped the original series was that each game had a central theme and was referenced through different instruments or melodies in each song. In a small way, it makes it feel less "Halo" than the original trilogy did. In Halo: CE the chanting monks were constant throughout until the Flood music, where it changed to represent more scary, fleeing music. In Halo 2, Steve Vai paved the way with the electric guitar, and it is represented through Breaking Benjamin and Incubus. Halo 3 returns with the hauntingly good E Dorian and the piano. ODST and Reach also had central themes, but they were less pronounced as the story transitioned between day and night and the planet falling respectively. Halo 4 has a myriad of themes that don't necessarily connect with each other through any melody or instrument. Some songs have heavy use of electronic elements and some seem to shy away from it completely. Aside from those two issues, it does stand out in a good way. If I'm coming across as negative, I'm trying not to. There's something about it where I can point out the things I don't like about it, but yet I still have 13 album plays of it and I love it. If I were to change things, I would attempt to integrate more of the themes that Marty established. We hear it once in the game after the Didact arrives at Installation-03, and Master Chief looks at the ring. In the Halo 4 announce trailer, the part that sends chills down my spine isn't the pounding drums, but the ominous chorus at the end. Also, the soundtrack is devoid of synth songs like Perilous Journey or Pursuit of Truth from High Charity Suite on the Halo 2 OST2. Honestly, I'm a huge fan of these two pieces and was slightly bummed out to not see Davidge take a shot at it(mostly because I'm sure he could easily blow it out of the water). I also wish we could have more of what the concept art trailer had in it. It sounded very Jack Wall-y and I think it could work very well with the Halo sense of exploration. As for the implementation in the game, this is where things start to go a bit downhill. I have a couple of theories as to why it was this way, and one is directly related to something Davidge said in the "Making of DVD". The first theory is that the game was coming in hot and so was the music. There wasn't enough time to combine the two in a way that felt natural during gameplay and cutscenes. The second is based off of something that Neil said in the DVD(spoiler tagged in case you haven't seen it and want to see it): He said something along the lines that because he was in Bristol and 343i was in Seattle, there wasn't a whole lot of visual for him to work off of. He didn't know if the music was going to be played for 3 minutes or 15 minutes. In that scenario, you need to be like Marty, toting the coffee cup around the studio seeing what everyone is doing. I have the mantra that the music should complement the medium, not overpower it. In some cutscenes it really feels overpowering. In gameplay, I never felt motivated(partly because of the gameplay, but that's a wayyy different tangent) like I did during the dual Scarab battle in Halo 3. Also, audio levels seemed all kinds of jacked up with the Warthog being a loud machine of eardrum killing proportions. [quote]Individually, I like many of the songs. I'll start with the first track and work my way down. Awakening has a very fast paced feel to it. Almost like you are taking power strides to achieve something. Belly of the Beast is one of my least favorites. To me it seems to suffer from an identity crisis, trying to mimic the fleeing feel of Halo CE's Flood songs while trying to add the imposing feel of the main villain. Requiem is a nice piece, very calm at the beginning to match the discovery of Requiem, the planet. It has a neat little synth treble drop that I really enjoy. Legacy is honestly my favorite piece of them all. In the DVD they cover the Bulgarian women who did the choral for it. There's something about it that just seemed to strike me in the crisp autumn mornings. Beautiful piece. Faithless is a good piece. I mean this in the best possible way, but it feels like generic battle music. Haven tries to be what the concept art trailer did. It also reminds me of the First Look trailer we got from 343 back in March. Good stuff. Nemesis is a great piece for something being slightly dark and menacing without being blatant villain music. There's a great bass line around 2:18 that I keep humming. Ascendancy is what Faithless wanted to be for battle music. It's fast paced and nice some nice treble and bass counter-melodies sprinkled all around. The end of Solace sounds like great credits music. Otherwise I don't have much to comment on it. To Galaxy has to be the standout piece of Halo 4. The intro is featured in the Infinity menu, and transitions to the closest thing to a central theme. Definitely my number two on the soundtrack. Immaterial has some good electronic undertones. I'm not a big fan of it, but that's mostly because it's not my type of Halo music. 117 is the only piece not done by Neil Davidge; it's done by Kazuma Jinnouchi. It's a brilliant piece that ties in well with To Galaxy. Arrival is a very upbeat song that moves along very well. My only dislike of the song is the sudden crescendos starting at 3:47. Revival is a great piece that goes really well with the main villain. The part starting at 5:33 is brilliant. Lastly, Green and Blue is a nice piece to symbolize the journey and relationship of Master Chief and Cortana throughout the game.[/quote] Also, I'm going to make another note. The remix album is goddamn brilliant. I think if I were to rate Halo albums in terms of their standalone replay-ability, the remix album takes the cake. Arrival remix by Norin & Rad combines tons of elements into one amazing remix. The whole album is filled with great songs. Dubstep haters would probably disagree, but y'all just bein' mad. If I ever make a Halo montage, chances are it will be set to the Arrival remix. Objectively, it's tough to give the album a rating. Standalone, it is probably a 9-9.5 out of 10. But when implemented into the game, it drops significantly to a 7 or 8.

The general hate towards the music comes from the same people who think/parrot >343 -blam!-ING SUCKS A BAG OF DICKS I WANT HALO 3.5 -blam!-ERS!!! >IT'S NOT MARTY IT'S NOT THE SAME -blam!- DAVIDGE Then they resume their day by listening to wubstep. The only legitimate complain I can agree with is the fact that it's terribly mixed into the game and it's too quiet. Also, Nemesis, To Galaxy, Revival > Arrival.

It's generic and unfitting.

The only thing remotely generic is the overuse of the word generic to describe Halo 4's OST - in fact, I don't think many people even understand the meaning of that word... People often say that "it doesn't sound Halo'y", but I'm yet to hear an arbitrary definition of what actually makes a piece of music "Halo'y". You say that Halo 2 is your favourite OST, the variety of music in that game ranges from the chanting monks to ridiculous things like Breaking Benjamin - and that shit is definitely a break-away from the sound of the game regardless. And what about ODST? There's not even a hint of the "Halo sound" in it, it's a completely new soundtrack to fit a different atmosphere and establish a vastly different tone to the space opera of Halo CE-3. Is that not "Halo'y" then? Halo is a series that doesn't constrict itself to a single theme in music, it covers a wide range of things like the typical kind of human military drum-roll to alien ambiences. Davidge approached Halo 4 with the same mindset that Marty had with ODST - make something new, something different, something that is going to reinforce the themes and atmosphere of the game. This is accomplished spot-on in both of those games, and by no means does this make them "un-Halo", it is simply expanding Halo's musical and thematic range. The [i]real[/i] issue with Halo 4's OST is that it barely shows up in the game, or when it is there it's extremely quiet. The Scorpion segment of Infinity, for example, would be so much better with some variant of 117, Ascendancy, or Immaterial playing because they'd fit the mood. It's poor audio design for the game that's the problem.

1- A lot of people are fanboys and refuse to like it because it's in Halo 4/not by Marty 2- Simple, musical preference. It's different than the old ones and some people don't like that. 3- It plays [i][b]way[/b][/i] too quietly in game, so it's not very memorable.