25 Greatest Musical Tracks From The Halo Series

16. Atonement - Halo 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SiyWOHqhUb4 When I first booted up Halo 4, I wasn't expecting to be wowed from the very moment I enter the main menu. I was greeted by the glimpse of a planet in the background, with a ping of sunlight revealing itself from the top, highlighting what appeared to be wreckage from a ship floating in space. Although very uncomplicated, it seemed almost tragic. Then the menu music starts playing....and the jaw begins slowly descending to the floor. I will go on record for saying Halo 4's menu music outdoes any of the prior games' menus. The title track, "Atonement", is truly spine-tingling. My first impression for "Atonement" was "wow, they really have stepped up their game." I stayed in the menu and listened to it repeat at least 3 times before I actually dived into the campaign. It was that fascinating. A strong choir in the opening that fits naturally with the floating wreckage and stationary planet in the background only gave me tiny hints as to what was going to go down in this game and how epic it would be. The track was reminiscent of Howard Shore's work on "Lord of the Rings" in my view; the score developed for the elves in particular is what reminded me heavily of what this new composer, Neil Davidge, collected upon. There's just something utterly mesmerizing about the short piece of audio. As mentioned about "Bad Day Here", it captures and space-faring feel right off the bat, giving the bold impression that it will go places that no Halo game has gone before: to broader, more adventurous environments and locales worthy of an epic soundtrack. Perhaps "Atonement" shouldn't go uncredited without explaining what it may be based on. Since Halo 4 is almost entirely based on a Forerunner planet, Davidge made the smart decision to completely redesign the sound of Halo with a more moody, digital, emotional, forceful soundtrack to fit in with the events of the game. Each track does so, but "Atonement" is special in how it works as an attention-grabber without opening the game as its own musical theme. Much like the other Halo games played back their exclusive themes (except Halo 3), Halo 4 does something different by assuring the players that some big, big things are about to come forth, and they aren't good....not at all.