The companion piece to the main Dragon Age II soundtrack, and this is where Inon Zur went full shadow. "The Darker Side" collects ten tracks that didn't fit the primary release but absolutely needed to exist. "Dark Dawn" opens with oppressive orchestral weight, "Blightlands" sounds like walking through a landscape that's already lost, and "Innocent Blood" carries the kind of mournful strings that make you stare at the screen during a cutscene.
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"Enter Deep Roads" and "Deep Roads Battle" are the centerpieces -- the Deep Roads sections in Dragon Age have always been about claustrophobic dread, and these tracks nail that feeling of being miles underground with darkspawn closing in.
"Cavern Combat" keeps the tension relentless, and "Bone Pit Battle" has this scrappy, desperate quality that matches fighting in a literal bone pit. "Forever War" lives up to its name with an exhausting, grinding intensity.
"Journey To Deep Fear" builds toward something you know you don't want to face, and then "Kirkwall Arrival" closes the set by bringing you back to the surface, to the city where everything in Hawke's life goes wrong. Ten tracks of the parts of Thedas you'd rather not visit, scored with the orchestral care they deserve.