God of War's Full Soundtrack Now Available

Though the latest God of War title isn't out yet for the public, there is still plenty of hyper [...]

By Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert

god_of_war_kratos_close_up (1)

Though the latest God of War title isn't out yet for the public, there is still plenty of hyper surrounding the newly revamped Kratos. With reviews pouring in, there are a lot of perfect scores floating around, including our own! But it's not just the gameplay itself that has been hailed for its magnificence. The soundtrack itself also has a lot to offer for the sake of immersion and now, prior to the game's release, you can listen to it yourself. Even better? For free!

The composer himself, Bear McCreary, recently took to the PlayStation blog to share not only the full track list on Spotify, but to also speak of what the title meant to him and how the entire process evolved during his collaboration with the game's director.

"When Santa Monica Studio asked me to compose the score to the new God of War," stated McCreary, "I was awestruck, because I'm such a fan of the original games in the franchise. As I collaborated with game director Cory Barlog, it became clear that this new game would require wholly new music that did not revisit the memorable scores of the original games, but instead ventured forth into new musical territory. I took my memories of that classic God of War soundtrack – the deep choirs, pounding drums, and shrieking brass – and reinvented them for a Norse age. I wrote new themes, and introduced to the music exotic instrumentation and languages from various Northern European folk traditions."

He even dove into which song meant to most to him and why, and how a song about 'Mother' was about Kratos himself:

"Of all the new pieces that I wrote for God of War, the song that means the most to me personally is probably "Memories of Mother." This was the first theme I wrote for God of War, and it was not for the Mother — it was for Kratos himself! Inspired by the new game's shockingly emotional story, I set out to completely reinvent the musical language of this character, to compose an unexpectedly beautiful theme for Kratos.

"My initial musical sketches were built entirely out of variations of this melancholy theme, and produced nearly four years ago for an early prototype of the game. As the game moved into full production, the Sony creative team and I realized that the theme was actually too sad and lyrical to represent Kratos. So, I shelved it and set out to write a new theme, a piece that would ultimately debut at E3 2016 with a live orchestra before the announcement of the game. That melody is more reflective of the qualities one associates with Kratos: masculine, relentless, and badass.

About a year after I started writing, I shifted focus to scoring cinematics, and it became clear I would need a theme to represent Atreus' mother. That's when I remembered the beautiful melody I had abandoned! It was exactly the theme I needed. The Mother Theme was then woven into dozens of scenes, and is now featured in the score as much as, if not more than, Kratos' main theme."

You read his full thoughts on the creation of this wonderful soundtrack right here while you wait for the amazing experience to drop on PS4 April 20th!

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