Derek Duke scores Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
Derek Duke has announced that he has written the soundtrack for the expansion pack Diablo III: Reaper of Souls that will be released next week. The decision to have one lead composer for the title was inspired by a need to bring musical cohesion to the game; after all, the original Diablo and Diablo II were scored by one person (Matt Uelmen) and had very unified sounds. In an official interview, Duke notes:
While the other Blizzard franchises have benefited so much from having all of Blizzard’s unique musical personalities contribute to a project, it really felt like Diablo—and Reaper of Souls in particular—wanted a single voice. While writing a majority of the music myself, I was also able to leverage themes written by Russell Brower, Jason Hayes, Joseph Lawrence, and Glenn Stafford. Those themes were then built upon, arranged, stretched, and orchestrated to sound as though originating from a singular musical voice. In addition, all our music was recorded with the same orchestra in the same decommissioned church with the same team over two years. – Derek Duke
A soundtrack will be available with the Collector’s Edition of the game and a commercial digital release is likely to follow. As with the World of Warcraft expansion albums, this full-length album will present many of the major tracks from the title in a format intended for stand-alone listening. A preview track from the Blood Marsh is available on SoundCloud above.
Posted on March 18, 2014 by Chris Greening. Last modified on March 18, 2014.
About the Author
Chris Greening I've contributed to websites related to game audio since 2002. In this time, I've reviewed over a thousand albums and interviewed hundreds of musicians across the world. As the founder and webmaster of VGMO -Video Game Music Online-, I hope to create a cutting-edge, journalistic resource for all those soundtrack enthusiasts out there. In the process, I would love to further cultivate my passion for music, writing, and generally building things. Please enjoy the site and don't hesitate to say hello!
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