Last time - Halo: Combat Evolved - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=142410

This time - “For a brick, he flew pretty good!”

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You’d think making a sequel to a hit game would be easy, but the development of the follow-up to Halo: Combat Evolved was notoriously troubled. Microsoft unrealistically pressured Bungie into having a sequel ready as a launch title for its Xbox Live online multiplayer platform in fall 2002, but even after securing another year the studio realized after a demo at the February 2003 E3 gaming conference that the campaign had to be redesigned a year and a half into production. The entire third act of the game, all-out warfare on Earth, was scrapped and pushed to a future entry in the franchise, or at least theoretically since per Marty O’Donnell “we had no plans to do another game after this.” Troubles aside, Halo 2 turned out to be a massive success both with sales of the game and use of the Xbox Live platform, to the point that the Bungie crew maxed out its profit cap on day one of sales and realized they had to negotiate better profit sharing terms with Microsoft on any future games.

For Marty and his pal Michael Salvatori, the game was an opportunity to both refine the sound they had unleashed in 2001 and add some new elements. Around half of the score feels like the concept being pushed farther - the guitars shredded harder, the synth-pop bloops got more varied, the suspense music became murkier, the digital chimes twinkled more, and so on. You also get a real sense of prog rock in the far reaches of the galaxy, particularly with the buffet of various guitar and bass grooves (“kicking ass in outer space,” to quote one of the game’s characters). But the new elements proved just as evocative. The storyline for the alien enemy from the first game evolved into a kind of fanatical army whose leaders thought the titular alien relics were a means to ascend to the great beyond, and a slow-moving, quasi-religious brass theme defined both the Covenant enemy and the Arbiter character you get to play as for around half the campaign. Regional colors for the early New Mombasa levels lent a sense of fun to the proceedings. A new melody for the Master Chief protagonist (The Last Spartan) was capably utilized throughout the game, including an early cutscene where you drift through space to throw a bomb at an enemy ship. And there’s a surprising amount of sadder, even rueful music that plays against the action at times.

O’Donnell and Nile Rodgers thought the popularity of the first game had created an opportunity to craft a hit record for their follow-up, and so the original volume of the Halo 2 soundtrack (now set to come out at the same time the game did in November 2004 as opposed to months later) was envisioned as a “music from and inspired by” record. Alt rock bands Breaking Benjamin, Hoobastank, and Incubus provided songs, with the latter’s contributions becoming a four-movement, 25-minute suite called The Odyssey. Album sales of over 100,000 copies (low for a hit pop record but a lot for a soundtrack) probably justified the decision at the time, but heard today they make the record sound horrendously dated and an awkward fit next to the 30 minutes of original score peppered in between the heavy metal tunes. Plus O’Donnell later realized the potential folly of this approach when he tried to put some of these songs in the game; Breaking Benjamin’s song absent its lyrics is looped into a late-stage battle sequence and part of the first movement of The Odyssey can be heard as you play Halo 2, and honestly neither is a seamless fit with the rest of the score in context.

O’Donnell and Salvatori would eventually get a second score-only volume of music released, though that would take until April 2006; O’Donnell cited “legal issues” holding up an album he’d had mixed and sequenced for more than a year, though it’s hard not to get the feeling that other stakeholders may have wanted to hold off on putting it out there to avoid clashing with sales of the first volume. In total there’s around an hour and forty minutes of score spread across the two releases. The same pros and cons that applied to the music of Halo: Combat Evolved hit here as well. The suspense music (now with shrill sounds and vocal manipulation) can be even more difficult to listen to than the 2001 score’s was, though that is admittedly understandable given how much of it accompanies passages of fighting and avoiding the game’s secondary enemy, the zombified forces of The Flood. Even with an actual orchestra recorded in places, the work can still feel a tad thin at times; these are works that are definitely sophisticated sonically, but not necessarily sophisticated compositionally in a symphonic sense, and it would arguably take until the subsequent entry in the franchise to produce a score that more traditionally-oriented score fans could enjoy.

The maturation of O’Donnell’s approach to later entries was commendable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many score fans rate them more highly as I do. At the same time, there’s a sense of wild abandon to the Halo 2 score that still makes it a unique entry in the franchise, and also an enduring and essential part of aughts scoring. If epic electric guitar solos are your thing, there was arguably no better example of that this decade. Kicking ass in outer space indeed.

Score in game context: ****½
Original score recording and songs on Volume 1: *** - https://open.spotify.com/album/29K85ghxBzcQHPNPX6QVld
Original score recording on Volume 2: ***½ - https://open.spotify.com/album/3rkOmkp3M2pc6jNALIKMvg
Overall rating: **** - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3vNBE0XBDseGOaWVNqnKJk (my V1/V2 combo playlist)

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As with the first game, Microsoft saw fit to do a remaster of Halo 2 and re-record the music. Guitarist Steve Vai, whose solos had powered the game’s iconic Mjolnir Mix of the main theme, was the only returning contributor from the aughts. The four composers from the Halo: Combat Evolved re-score were joined by a fifth, and the Breaking Bad and Incubus tunes that made it into the first edition of the game were replaced by songs by progressive metal guitarist Misha Mansoor. Despite all the added power of the San Francisco Symphony and over 60 singers, the work suffers from two nagging flaws that render its album inessential relative to the original recording (at least on album). First, the mix has an “everything loud” feel to it, and the blunt force trauma mitigates some of the original work’s style. Second, the album producers bungled an opportunity to put the music in proper sequence. Today you can get a mostly chronological playlist together by sequencing the pieces from the score’s original two albums, but it’s not perfect as the first album has shorter score tracks while the second album largely played as lengthier suites aligned to each level. The anniversary re-recording could have solved that, but instead it plays like it's on shuffle, making Brian Tyler’s notoriously front-loaded album programs seem properly structured by comparison.

2014 anniversary re-recording on album: **½ - https://open.spotify.com/album/5GNMER3Fg9saA7sFIwIqUz

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Next time: “Shipmaster! They outnumber us 3-to-1!' 'Then it is an even fight.'

Halo 1, 3, ODST, Wars and Reach were the ones I played as a teen, and for some reason, I never played 2 until last year. The music is outstanding, and the abrasive Flood material aside, it plays even better on album that the previous score (though the diminished role for the "mystical synths" as one might call them is a little bit of a shame, it's more than made up for by the awesomeness of everything else). A lot of Halo favorites come from this score, and many of its tunes would show up in altered form in Halo Legends.

The split album is definitely an odd beast, though it's fun if you have a fondness for this era of pop rock (me lol). For some reason, as a teen I didn't like the Incubus sections, but on a first-time-in-years relisten last year, they were my favorite of the rock bits. Lemme tell you though, when I played Halo 2 last year, those needle-drops slapped me in the face with how out of place they were! Contrast between music that's of another era vs. music that comes off dated, tbh. (One of them was replaced in the remaster by another metal piece whose name slips my mind, and it was no less incongruous lol)

Seconded on the remastered album. Same thing as the previous one where it's not distinct enough to stand on its own, and its sequencing manages to be neither game order nor a satisfying order on its own. It's inoffensive, but inessential.

Again, loving this series! Until I started reading this, I didn't realize how little-discussed these were. I'm excited to see your thoughts on these!!

> and many of its tunes would show up in altered form in Halo Legends.

A far better score than it had any right to be…for the most part. Easily my most interesting discovery of this project.

> Lemme tell you though, when I played Halo 2 last year, those needle-drops slapped me in the face with how out of place they were!

The Incubus one kind of works in context - rock wailing as you fly a spaceship amidst a swirling gas storm.

The other one though, during the battle royale fight on High Charity…oh dear. It’s like a parody of those “when the Doom music kicks in” videos.

> Again, loving this series! Until I started reading this, I didn't realize how little-discussed these were. I'm excited to see your thoughts on these!!

Yeah, would be fascinating to go into the archives and see what - if anything - was posted about Halo 2 back in 2004/05.

Something I forgot to say, this very Breaking Benjamin song written for Halo 2 would indirectly result in the original line's breakup. Two band members authorized the production of a remix of this song along with a 2011 best-of album it would appear on, allegedly without the knowledge of the band's frontman. The frontman would then fire them by email and demand damages, kicking off a lawsuit that resulted in everyone not named Ben Burnley departing the band (the two immediately, the drummer later) and no new material arriving until 2015. Since then the new lineup has toured constantly and released two new albums.

All from this fun post-grunge song written for a blockbuster FPS!

I lol’d. That’s outstanding. Breaking Breaking Benjamin!

Thanks for sharing.

Yep! I had this one on my to-listen since I read about it on your rundown, and just now got around to it! I'm just the kind of person who reads "this thing is bananas and maddening" and goes "well now I must know: lol (and similarly listened to Bad Boys 2 after reading about it on said rundown) I'll say it, you hit the nail on the head!

> Yep! I had this one on my to-listen since I read about it on your rundown, and just now got around to it! I'm just the kind of person who reads 'this thing is bananas and maddening' and goes 'well now I must know: lol (and similarly listened to Bad Boys 2 after reading about it on said rundown) I'll say it, you hit the nail on the head!

I don’t remember any part of that score in particular, but I do vividly remember the dog park I was at where I actually laughed out loud while hearing it.

Given your stated curiosity, you owe it to yourself to explore Bruno Coulais’ Brice from Nice / Brice de Nice which I heard for the first time - and almost assuredly last - time this week via Spotify. Absolutely insane in all the wrong ways, though it was amusing to learn that Jean Dujardin sang on a charting single in France (one that sampled a song produced by Quincy Jones, no less). With it being released in 2005, one could argue it was the Gallic equivalent of Domino.

> I don’t remember any part of that score in particular, but I do vividly
> remember the dog park I was at where I actually laughed out loud while
> hearing it.

> Given your stated curiosity, you owe it to yourself to explore Bruno
> Coulais’ Brice from Nice / Brice de Nice which I heard for the
> first time - and almost assuredly last - time this week via Spotify.
> Absolutely insane in all the wrong ways, though it was amusing to learn
> that Jean Dujardin sang on a charting single in France (one that sampled a
> song produced by Quincy Jones, no less). With it being released in 2005,
> one could argue it was the Gallic equivalent of Domino.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll be sure to seek it out! I have no clue what to expect from this, considering I associate Coulais mostly with his Cartoon Saloon/Kila collabs and Les Choristes!