Deeply conflicting news. I love Clint Mansell, but I also love Jack Wall and I think it is always best to stick with a composer throughout a trilogy. A taste of things to come: [yt]v=3cpCqW0ndPE[/yt] Gods, I am so sick of that track.
Lux Aeterna is awesome, that's why it's so overused. I'd recommend listening to his scores for The Fountain and Moon.
Okay, that track wasn't too bad. It could work, if he's willing to reuse existing themes. As long as he doesn't go the Doom rock route...
The original version from Requiem For a Dream is awesome, the remixed version used to promote The Two Towers stopped being awesome 5 minutes after Youtube launched and it was immediately flooded with tributes using that track.
Lux Aeterna is unbelievably over used. That's hardly the fault of the piece itself. It's an excellent piece of music, and that's the very reason that it got latched on to by anyone trying to make an "epic" music video on Youtube.
Exactly, Jack Wall did a great job with both. I even bought the ME2 OST before the game's release, that's how much I loved ME1's soundtrack. That's almost like hearing O'Donnell/Salvatori won't be doing the Halo 3 OST. Or John Williams won't be doing Return of the Jedi. Yuck.
IMHO, the switch to Mansell is a great thing. The previous ME soundtracks weren't all that great and I can't remember a single track from them aside from the ME1 death music and the galaxy map music (and I had to think really hard before coming up with that one). Mansell's score for Moon was utterly fantastic despite being so simplistic and really managed to stick in one's mind, whereas the ME score was so forgettable that I often play ME2 with the music off and find nothing of value has been lost.
Yeah, I bought the soundtracks for ME1 and ME2 and really enjoy them. The music for the finales of both games is exceptional.
It is an excellent piece of music, I used to watch the trailer for The Two Towers just to hear it. When I found out about the original version of Lux Aeterna I fell in love with that more than the bombastic, epic version, so much so that I sought out and watched the film (and greatly enjoyed it/was greatly disturbed by it). But these days, whenever I see a music video using the bombastic version of the track I stop watching after a couple of seconds because I'm sick of hearing it. That's not the track's fault, it's still a great piece of music, but it no longer inspires awe, therefore it is not awesome. Anyway, here's another Mass Effect/Clint Masell mashup I found: [yt]v=HLZKG54_g0M[/yt] I would find it difficult to disagree more, the music in ME is fantastic and I often catch myself thinking about it. From the Wreckage, The Illusive Man, The Normandy Reborn and others are great tracks, but The Suicide Mission takes the cake. I think it is one of the finest tracks in a modern video game and it had me absolutely pumped throughout the final mission. [yt]v=VTsD2FjmLsw[/yt]
^ You nailed it precisely, I couldn't agree more. That was one of the best tracks of music I've ever heard. Video game or otherwise. Lots of the themes of the game have been spectacular, I really don't want those to change because they bring in a new composer, talented though he is. I say, leave the dance with the one that brought you. They'd be wise to reconsider this or in the alternative, have them collaborate on the game. Can you imagine how off the charts awesome it could be if they collaborated on it?
^ Seconded. I keep listening to The Suicide Mission in the car with the volume cranked up to max I'd also like to add The End (Reprise) - for me personally, this track IS Mass Effect. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcNZx-N5X4[/yt] Still gives me goosebumps and gets me pumped for the franchise.
You want goosebumps? This one gives me goosebumps every time I play the end of ME1 <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n_4Rl8YfcWo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> EDIT: I didn't do the embedding right, so here's a linkey insteady From the Wreckage I think I got it this time [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4Rl8YfcWo[/yt]
As much as I love Mansell's work, I tend to agree that all things being equal, it feels a bit off to drop the guy who's done such a spectacular job to date...though if he also did the music for the ME1 elevators, I may have to shoot him. Still, let's take a step back for a second; do we know for a fact that the original composers(s) have been out-and-out replaced by Mansell or has he just been hired on to do only a certain portion of the game? Do we know anything other than the fact he's doing it?
Jack Wall posted on the BioWare message boards that he and BioWare parted on amicable terms, but he wouldn't go into the reasons behind the decision. Maybe Wall wanted to work on something new after spending the past few years on Mass Effect.
Has there been any sort of confirmation that Jack Wall won't be involved? I'd be pretty surprised if Clint Mansell did the whole thing. Everything I've read thus far just states he'll be doing music for the game, not the entire soundtrack.
Yeah, after posting that I started scouring their boards and realized that. Oi, what a drag. Oh well.
I'm just thinking more along the lines of securing continuity for the trilogy; having the same composer for something so tightly-knit goes a long way in making things feel incredibly connected. Ah well, I'm sure there will be remixes of Wall's stuff.