Earlier this year, a composer and crew from Blizzard North went to Bratislava, Slovakia to record the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction score with the Slovak Radio Philharmonic. Kirk Trevor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra conducted and "Ancients" is one of the tracks that resulted from these sessions.
"Ancients" - Liner Notes - October 1, 2001
This track, heard in the final showdown with Baal, is in many ways the omega to the alpha that was the original Diablo® theme. Most of this track is structured around the core motives heard throughout the Diablo series, fleshed out in as bombastic as way as possible. The transformation from the gentle but menacing guitar and flute of the original Tristram is now complete, though the melodic structure still remains. During a pleasant lunch at the cafe in the Slovak Radio building, Maestro Kirk Trevor related how he had spent his early teenage years immersed in the world of Wagner's Ring. Perhaps because of the familiarity of these Wagnerian textures to the Maestro and the players, this track was easily the most pleasant and quickest to record of all of the tunes that week. Though Tolkein is the more obvious and common reference for the fantasy genre, I find Der Ring der Nibelungen to be the final word in the genre which Diablo and other sword-and-sorcery t**les inhabit. Siegfrieds Tod is either used directly or strongly referenced in films like Excalibur and Gladiator for good reason - nothing captures the struggles of mortals amongst gods quite like the original recipe.
Liner Notes by Matt Uelmen,
Score Composer / Blizzard North
"Ancients" - Liner Notes - October 1, 2001
This track, heard in the final showdown with Baal, is in many ways the omega to the alpha that was the original Diablo® theme. Most of this track is structured around the core motives heard throughout the Diablo series, fleshed out in as bombastic as way as possible. The transformation from the gentle but menacing guitar and flute of the original Tristram is now complete, though the melodic structure still remains. During a pleasant lunch at the cafe in the Slovak Radio building, Maestro Kirk Trevor related how he had spent his early teenage years immersed in the world of Wagner's Ring. Perhaps because of the familiarity of these Wagnerian textures to the Maestro and the players, this track was easily the most pleasant and quickest to record of all of the tunes that week. Though Tolkein is the more obvious and common reference for the fantasy genre, I find Der Ring der Nibelungen to be the final word in the genre which Diablo and other sword-and-sorcery t**les inhabit. Siegfrieds Tod is either used directly or strongly referenced in films like Excalibur and Gladiator for good reason - nothing captures the struggles of mortals amongst gods quite like the original recipe.
Liner Notes by Matt Uelmen,
Score Composer / Blizzard North