Music of Total Annihilation

Some of the best and most memorable music from a video game. Please, give Jeremy Soule a call and get him involved!

Truly amazing.

Well, they did say they were going for 20th century classical (read: Gustav Holst) which was pretty much the same basis point as TA and SupCom, particularly Gustav Holst's Mars, The Bringer of War

They got the original announcer, right? It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to get the original composer, too.

I love Jeremy Soule's music, but he's a pretty big-time composer, so I doubt it would be a budget friendly option to do that. Still, I'd like to here someone from Uber chime in...

Jeremy is a personal friend and would do it if I asked him. However, we have a great guy here (Howard Mostrom) who can do a great job, and as you point out we don't have an unlimited budget.

Understandable... Jeremy is a personal friend!? That is pretty awesome.

Just spent some time going through the Demi-God and Supreme Commander 2 soundtracks (Howard Mostrom's work right?). Pretty stoked now! Good luck guys, you have my support!

Is Demigod's soundtrack Howard Mostrom's work? I love the music in that game...

We met working at Cavedog and bonded over his work on Amen: the Awakening which never got released. You can hear some tracks of it on youtube. Unbelievable guy.

Howard is fantastic. Super top notch.

Indeed he is!

Jeremy's a cool guy, did the Oblivion music IIRC, but I love what I've seen of Mostrom so far.

Oh man, Amen. I was crushed when they cancelled that game. The backstory they were cooking up behind that just looked amazing.

Anyway, your post led me to Googling Greg MacMartin to see what he's been working on lately. Which led me to http://projectb6.com/, which looks like an AR site for a game he's working on. If this is what I think it is, this year could be like Cavedog-resurrection-Christmas for me.

I like what I hear about the real brassy music that the composer wants to use. I'd like to hear some inspiration from some real angry classical sounding music, like Nelhybel's Trittico mvt. 2 and Mussorgsky's "Hut of Baba-Yaga" from Pictures at an Exhibition. Real meaty epic battle music. I remember some of the battle tracks from Total Annihilation having booming percussion and brass sections, and I just hope the music for this game works out similarly. I like what I hear in the Kickstarter presentation, but I'm also hoping for some even more powerful music, too. Just my two cents.

Any chance Jeremy and Howard might work together?

Also, any chance for a potential Amen-like game in the future? (bit off topic, but I had to ask... it looked like what Deus Ex ended up being)

Call me a heretic but I would love to see some techno and electronica rather than just classical. It always seemed to me that Total Annihilation's music would have been a better fit for Command and Conquer/Red Alert and vice versa. The game about insane robot armies has a sweeping war-movie orchestral score while the modern day wargame has a pounding robotic electronic beat. I honestly can't really connect with that old-timey Gustav Holst type stuff. It's a nice listen but it doesn't stir any deep emotion in me. It sure doesn't get me into war-mode the way Hell March does. And with this game where you blow up planets... It's not classical. It's not. It's ******* metal, man.

The ideal soundtrack for this game would have a perfect blend of TA and C&C/RA styles. A fusion of classical, metal, techno and electronica. Sort of a callback to the golden age of RTS as a whole. Strings and kettledrums sure, but mix it up with some aggressive beats, grinding noise and fuzzy guitars please!

Heretics, unite!

The soundtrack does need some freshness to it, a little... bounce! Electronica doesn't hurt.

Forged Alliance and SupCom did it about right. A little more techno even and we're all set.

I just have to say, that the music score you guys put together for this short little concept video is pretty epic already. I'm quite happy with hearing more of that.

Not to mention that you already have the perfect narrator. I recognized it instantly as the exact same voice used in TA even though I had no idea who that actually was without going out to Google to look things up. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I honestly can't imagine anyone else as the narrator. He is perfect in every way for this game.

And how could I forget to mention this. If there's one influence I'd like to see it's the best RTS music of all time.

So well made I'm still amazed. Take the opening of Terran 1 - it's electronic country. Terrans in a nutshell right there. Terran 2 is some crazy electronica/funk rock/disco fusion, and its richness expertly conveys the multifaceted personality of the Terrans (which was sadly left out of the sequel in favor of Gears of War one-note machoism) The most appropriate influence for PA is probably the Toss songs - Protoss One would make the campaign utterly epic all by itself.

This is music you can listen to for thousands and thousands of hours and never get sick of. It has its high notes and intense beats, but for the most part it's just there, deliberately nonintrusive. It shows how RTS music can build atmosphere and immersion and not just repeat OH YES GENTLEMEN WE ARE GOING TO WAR. Look how calmly the Terran songs start, when you set up your base, and then the hook kicks in as you start to build an army. This music is not just brilliantly composed, more importantly it's inspired by the needs of an RTS game, not by some inflated sense of bombast. I think in music as in other things, TA's spiritual successor can benefit from absorbing the best elements of Blizzard and Westwood games. /2cents

I loved all the tracks SC had, it had such a drammatic mood.

Best RTS of all time? You mean TA right?

No guitars for PA please :mrgreen: