"Halls" - Liner Notes - May 31, 2002
If one were to break down the structure of the levels of Diablo 2 into a flowchart, you would make the surprising discovery that some areas, often including some excellent unique background art, are able to be ignored without impeding completion of the act. Though it might seem strange to "waste" perfectly good content, I have always like the idea that the player can either choose to rampage through the level or can opt for the scenic route, letting no miniboss escape their wrath. On my end, this structure creates a different set of demands from pieces located in different places in the structure of the act. Tunes like this one, featured in a "sidequest", have much more freedom to explore different musical elements than music which the player will face inevitably and repeatedly, like the songs featured in the town or opening fight sequence. I attempted to take advantage of this freedom with this track, pushing the elements of the horror soundtrack - clusters, atonality, glissandi, sudden hits - as much as possible. I was quite happy with the way this worked in the game, and felt it did the job as a backdrop to the nefarious plans of Nihlathak.
- Matt Uelmen
If one were to break down the structure of the levels of Diablo 2 into a flowchart, you would make the surprising discovery that some areas, often including some excellent unique background art, are able to be ignored without impeding completion of the act. Though it might seem strange to "waste" perfectly good content, I have always like the idea that the player can either choose to rampage through the level or can opt for the scenic route, letting no miniboss escape their wrath. On my end, this structure creates a different set of demands from pieces located in different places in the structure of the act. Tunes like this one, featured in a "sidequest", have much more freedom to explore different musical elements than music which the player will face inevitably and repeatedly, like the songs featured in the town or opening fight sequence. I attempted to take advantage of this freedom with this track, pushing the elements of the horror soundtrack - clusters, atonality, glissandi, sudden hits - as much as possible. I was quite happy with the way this worked in the game, and felt it did the job as a backdrop to the nefarious plans of Nihlathak.
- Matt Uelmen