Two words accurately describe this album - sublime and melodramatic. With an emphasis on the sublime, this memorable soundtrack appeals to fans of the epic Xbox first-person shooter and mood-music aficionados alike.
Besides featuring swoon-worthy compositions lifted directly from gameplay and cinematics from the Xbox game, Halo 2: Volume 1 features hard-rock additions to please the alt-metal fan in us all. Breaking Benjamin provides the first metal track on the album with �Blow Me Away,� which doubles as an anti-Iraq song with it�s �war is wrong� lyrics. Nu-metal prodigies Incubus steal the show with four tracks on the album, �1st�, �2nd,� �3rd,� and �4th� Movement of the Odyssey.� These tracks feel as much like instrumental jams by one of today�s most inspired artists as a beautiful serenade to Microsoft�s million-dollar baby.
Things get silly, but in a good way with �Never Surrender,� a Halo dance track featuring sound clips from Cortana, the female computer guidance system of the game.
Like the game, not every moment is memorable; the depressing �Impend� doesn�t fit nicely with the rest of the in-game tracks, and when do you ever really need Hoobastank? But when this album works, it shines brightly; the soothing Gregorian hymn of tracks such as �Ghosts of Reach� (the game�s main theme) and �Orbit of Glass� make this soundtrack a winner, fan of the game or not. |
