Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori went and fused orchestral combat music with mid-2000s rock bands and somehow it became iconic. This 2007 Windows release of the Halo 2 soundtrack collects the full spread, from Steve Vai shredding over the Mjolnir Mix to Breaking Benjamin's "Blow Me Away" hitting right when the Covenant walls close in.
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"Peril" is pure tension, strings coiling tighter with every measure. The four Incubus Odyssey movements thread through the album like a spine, giving it a prog-rock arc that most game soundtracks wouldn't dare attempt. "In Amber Clad" and "The Last Spartan" carry that unmistakable Halo weight.
Just nobility and loss in every brass line. If you somehow missed this era of Halo, the collision of orchestral grandeur and 2000s rock is still unmatched.