Search - Jack Wall :: Jade Empire

Masterpiece

Ronald Drynan | USA | 07/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Right from the first few seconds I spent on the start screen just looking at the menu I knew this game would have a beautiful soundtrack on par with other Bioware efforts, namely composed by Jeremy Soule. So like any good aficionado I stayed on the start screen to listen to that first amazingly powerful song that Jack Wall graces you with in Jade Empire. Right after that I created my character saying to myself, "there had better be a way for me to get this soundtrack." For weeks people were basically begging Bioware for a soundtrack CD on the boards. Thankfully Bioware answered our prayers and gave us one of the greatest soundtracks that you will ever listen to. Be it from a film or from a videogame. This is a soundtrack that can stand apart from the property it was created for, which always signifies that it is so much more than the norm.



Opening with "The Way of the Open Palm" seemed a bit odd to me until I actually popped the CD into my computer and listened to it. It opens the CD perfectly due to the slow build of momentum that this song has in it, and then that momentum carries over and is further magnified by the "Jade Empire main theme." Then after such an assault on your senses we get "Hills and Fields", part one of a three part track that allows you to come down of the adrenaline high and drift into a serene state of mind. For the next two songs paired on this one track I have to emphasize the gradual mood change that occurs through the three songs. Part One or "Hills and Fields" allows us to come off the aural high that we had from the first two tracks pleasantly, and this continues into the beginning of "Dance of the Babbling Brook" with a small sense of the dread that will encompass the last song on the track; "Fallow Ground." "Fallow Ground" can be described as a piece that would accompany a tense but slow sequence in a film. You can feel the tension's final rise from the first two songs peak in this piece throughout the entire piece. The next track "Fist/Test Your Mettle" comes in hard with heavy percussion and becomes the release for the tension that had built up so perfectly in the previous track. It then takes it lower and mellows out for a moment and then kicks back into overdrive with strings and percussion now in the "Test Your Mettle" section that has a very memorable theme.



After this we are allowed a release with the beautiful "Dawn Star Theme". It is a very relaxing piece that eases you into a more uplifting state rather than keeping you in a heart pounding mood. "The Tea House", is just such a wonderful piece of music that really pulls you into the world of Jade Empire if the previous songs haven't already. Even if you haven't played the game, this track will give you the visual that the title states. Once again you are taken into a very broad and loud action song. "Fury, Hammer and Tongs", just sounds like the perfect fight song. The constant build of different themes and heart thumping base make this an amazing song to crank on a great home theatre system so you can really "feel" the base pounding through you. It then melts down into a very sparse percussion movement and ratchets up the tempo with the speed of a thousands cuts. The next track is a very foreboding and slow building theme that can only be associated with a villain. "Anthem of the Tyrant", then explodes into a fast and loud evil march type song. Moving into "Buried Secrets/Whispers", we get this haunting track that will send shivers down your spine. It is extremely moody, almost like the Shelob sequence in RotK. This song is a very slow and simple song that effectively plays around with your thoughts as it continues to evoke thoughts of the unknown, and the desire to leave them that way. The "Whispers" section of this song is downright freaky and definitely benefits from having the 2 minutes and thirty seconds of buildup behind it. "Mischief in the Marsh" carries the same otherworldly feel that the previous track had but is more of a song that a back round freak-out track. Also being a very big Jeremy Soule fan, you will find an instrument in this song that was the center piece for the "Kuldahar" tracks in Icewind Dale. That was a real treat. This track is a very immersive haunted house/grave yard type piece. It features some really neat instruments that never play this way in any other track. You'll know what I mean when you hear it as I don't know the names of the instruments to point them out to you.



"Empire at War" is the rousing melodic piece needed after two slow moving moody pieces. "Empire at War" will remind many people of a final charge type piece that you would find in a movie such as "The Last Samurai", as it employs new themes but also brings the original title theme back in and then builds continuously to a beautiful peak and then charges right back down into another thumping build that draws you in and then releases you at exactly the right moment so suddenly that you want more but it was the point where if there was more it would have diminished the power of this piece. The soundtrack then moves into "Deaths Hand Suite", which just has sinister written all over it from beginning to end. This song is the quintessential slow build into a great faster paced melodic evil piece that every great villain has. It builds into such a great horn theme that you can't but help but just bob your head a little bit when it really gets going. The entire way through the piece has a very evil vibe about it, with heavy horns, and even heavier drum beats, with the occasional and very well placed otherworldly vocal snippet. I view this song as one great build, as it never really relinquishes the tension that it is building throughout the entire piece. It only just keeps pushing it to the limit, faster, and more pounding than the last minute until it ends suddenly, and because it was evil you are glad it's done, but you feel dirty for liking it so much because it was evil.



"A Night Out" is the piece that fits so well after a song like this. It is employed in cinema so much. Right after the villain does something terrible or has a great moment where the theme is playing, it cuts to a more fun view of the world, and this piece is perfectly titled as "A Night Out", because that is exactly what it feels like. "Fires of Chaos" is very much a military inspired song with heavy horn themes and perfectly crisp drum beats. This is one of the more horn heavy and string heavy pieces on the soundtrack and comes at the right moment as if to say, "don't worry about that villain piece, the good guys are here to kick ass and take names." Another moody but more filling piece follows the "Fires of Chaos" track. "House of Spirits/The Dark Land", seems like the track that would be playing when you view the underworld for the first time but see no denizens wandering about. So you simply go for a cautious creep through places you shouldn't be. The sudden change near the middle of the song is a very demonic inspiring moment. This piece is probably one of the more unnerving pieces on the soundtrack, and it does what it is supposed to so well that you can't help but listen to it all the way through even if it is wigging you out.



"Metropolis I and II" is a great follow up track to the last because it seems to say that it stands higher over the evil you just listened to and will bring you back. This is an extremely powerful track and it really inspires strength when it is listened to. With sparse chants and a great melody that builds throughout the track until the middle where "Metropolis II" begins you really get brought back to a comfort zone. In "Metropolis II" the theme of tragedy seems to permeate every measure of it. It feels as if something great has just fallen, or some great evil is lurking in the shadows waiting to strike out at something great. "Ill Winds" is an odd track from the get go given that it has just an odd flow to it that I can't quite place my finger on, but it it's none the less entertaining. For some reason the only way I can explain it is that it feels like you are wandering through a place where you are not supposed to be, and everyone that should be after you is there just watching you pass through. It has a great sense of tension to it that starts high in the beginning and never really let's goes throughout the whole piece.



"Ballad of the Drunken Revelers" sounds like something that you would here in a Tea House live performance. It is a simple melody played on an amazing sounding Asian instrument. It really just is an uplifting song that just has this happy vibe to it, and because of that you feel the same way. It is so sparse compared to the rest of the songs, it seems like the calm before the storm, and once you hear the next track you will know exactly what I mean. "Call to Victory" is the music that I would have playing in my head when preparing for an assault. It is much like "Empire at War" in the sense that it is very militaristic sounding, though I do like "Empire at War" more, this has a more going out to war feel to it, which would explain the difference between the two. "Into the Fray" starts out with about three drums in a very stealthy sounding fast moving beat. This song lets you know that something important is so close to happening and we are just moving ever closer with each passing second. The sparseness of instruments seems to make for a better build of tension then anything else because it then leaps into more aurally full territory. It maintains the drum beats but now introduces a great string section that just gets your blood pumping, and everything builds to a single point, and then back to the drums and then when it comes back the horns take over and pound into you. It just builds until we near the end and then falls back to the drums and a solitary woodwind instrument. It is absolutely beautiful.



"The Water Dragon" is so full of sorrow that you can't help but feel empathy toward the water dragon. This is the most emotional song on the soundtrack and it just pulls at your soul, it begs you to just be solemn and take a moment to let the song bring peace to you. In my opinion it is the most beautiful song on the entire CD.



"Last Rites/Internment" is another piece in the same vein as "Buried Secrets/Whispers" and "House of Spirits/The Dark Land" in that it is simply haunting. It sounds like music from a good psychological thriller film. It oozes atmosphere like the previous two like it, but takes it further than the other two by introducing environmental sounds into the mix. "Silk Fox Theme" is such a great song because it is so different from everything else that we've heard thus far. It's mysterious, which means that Jack Wall hit the nail on the head when composing it because that is Silk Fox. It carries a feeling a wonder with it throughout the whole piece.



"Wine and Women" is another track like the "Ballad of the Drunken Revelers" where it feels like something you would hear in a Tea House. And seems again like a calm before we go back into the meat of the journey. A nice little break on the way I'd say. "Lost in the Wilds/The Hunt" is the latest creepy moody song, it seems as if it should be stale by now but somehow it isn't, it evokes different emotions than the previous because it seems to be building to a different place than the others. "Sky Theme" has another mysterious but more welcoming feel to it. It is as though it is asking you to come along with it into someplace you don't know, but you don't feel uneasy about doing it.



"Tribute" feels just like its name. "Tribute" reintroduces the main theme of the game back into the soundtrack in full force, which really makes it a tribute to the time before this immense journey started. "Rending of Flesh" takes us back into the fray making us remember that something terrible looms in the horizon and we have to fight it. It is a slowly building piece that at times tries to comfort but then unleashes the horns on you suddenly, then it goes into a more drum and string heavy movement that marches forward into a beautiful crescendo of accomplishment. "Soaring/Storm clouds" is the song you want playing during the final lead up to the fight between good and evil, as it takes its cue from the hopeful ending of the last track and then plunges you into uncertainty. "Torment/The Way of the Closed Fist" is the final fight song. It is pounding, loud, and inspiring. It takes you right at the beginning and makes you want to fight with all that you have to keep going. Right in the middle we have the calm and then the slow build where evil seems to have won. The strings come in meaning that the final blow is coming for our hero; the tension here is white hot until a hesitation. "Sanctuary", the final song, the serene beauty that you need after something so great has transpired. It relaxes you back into the state where everything is ok, and you can feel that you've accomplished something great, and it has been a one of a kind emotional experience.



Thank you for reading this long winded review, I wrote it while doing the second listen through, but I felt that I had to gush about this soundtrack because it deserves nothing less than the highest praise. It is without a doubt a timeless masterpiece.

"

Great game, and a soundtrack to go with it

J. Verkuilen | New York, NY United States | 08/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I enjoyed the game Jade Empire quite a bit and thought that the music did a great job helping to bring the world to life. It's amazing how important music (or its absence) is to visual media like movies or games, but it is essential. It cues you that something's happening, alters the way you see the image, and generally shifts your perceptions of what's going down. First and foremost, the job of the music is to be an aural backdrop to the game, to reinforce the mood of the place your character is in.



Obviously it does this in spades or Jade Empire wouldn't be half the game it is. In the tavern you hear the kind of music you might hear in a tavern... at least one in the movies, e.g, the music in the big festival scene in Lalo Schiffrin's score to Enter the Dragon. This is totally appropriate because we're not in realism land, we're in fantasy where things aren't quite right. Of course Lalo Schiffrin's score had a funky backbeat a la the soundtracks of the time (think Shaft) but this one is very much in the modern idiom of Crouching Tiger, Hero, and so on. Ditto for the spooky stuff, the happy stuff, the sad stuff, the majestic--you can almost see the scene.



I really think that soundtrack compositions are often some of the best music around, precisely because it's so psychological and also because composers are able to cross the many artificial boundaries that exist in music today. Hans Zimmer is, IMO, one of the greats in this area for making a mood using a mixture of symphonic and contemporary instruments (check out Gladiator's soundtrack), but Jack Wall has jumped up in my book. I saw on his web page that he's going to do some work with Peter Gabriel. That would be great IMO--Gabriel's music already has a soundtrack like quality to it (and he's done soundtracks himself) but Wall could kick it up a notch.



Anyway, enough rambling. If you liked the game or you like soundtracks, get the CD!"

Excellent...

Nadia | MA, US | 08/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really loved the music in the game...was not expecting a soundtrack of such high quality...very moving. I'm glad they released one though, it's worth it. Especially since I can't be playing the game all the time."