25 Greatest Musical Tracks From The Halo Series

1. Under Cover Of Night - Halo: Combat Evolved

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ubIBKg9xAso "Under Cover Of Night". To any diehard Halo fan who is reading this, you may understand why I chose this track as #1. Up until "Unforgotten", I had no other choice but to do so. This is the track that personified Halo: Combat Evolved as greatness in the form of a disc. This is the track that had nearly every person who played Halo talking, and I'm speaking for most of the people that were in agreement that "Under Cover Of Night" made Halo: Combat Evolved even more epic that it already was. This titular Halo track is famous for a few classic reasons, but first I want to explain in full detail why it's named the way it is and why it sounds so perfect. Firstly, "Under Cover Of Night" implies using the night as a form of blending in, in other words stealth. There is a level, Truth And Reconciliation, that requires the player to stealthfully take out enemies while trying to sneak aboard a Covenant vessel to rescue Captain Keyes. "Under Cover Of Night" was first played during this level in the midst of attempting to sneak on board the vessel, and the aptly named track delivered on its title. Now on to why it sounds as perfect as it does. The melodic choruses blending in with the bass guitar strings and what sounds like an instrument used to amplify vocals shows a near-perfect image of wandering through the night, making way towards a location which is unknown. Imagine walking during the dead of night with not a single cloud in the sky and the stars shining so bright, and looking up while you walk down an empty country road, with "Under Cover Of Night" playing. There is a resonance, and a physically powerful one, that is so majestic in its sound and simple in its design that it becomes harmonic in not only the metaphysical world, but in the virtual world of Halo as well. Now, on to what really makes "Under Cover Of Night" the greatest musical Halo track of all time. It's used only twice in Halo: Combat Evolved, once during a stealth mission and the other time during a frantic fight between the Master Chief, an army of Covenant forces, and the ever-consuming Flood in a level known as Two Betrayals. "Under Cover Of Night" starts when the player exits a massive underground tunnel only to be greeted by both Covenant and Flood engaging in several small skirmishes with one another, both with their advantages. The Covenant have the guns and aircraft while the Flood have the numbers, and overrun quite easily. Most of the time it's usually the Flood who wins, due to their ability to get back up, which rings true because they are virtually unstoppable. They're basically zombies that can't be beat, only slowed down. In this level (even before 'Under Cover Of Night" begins) there are several moments when the Covenant and Flood will fight one another and it's never clear who will win. But you can never truly stop the Flood, so they normally claim their prize in the end. What "Under Cover Of Night" succeeds in doing is highlighting that struggle between the Covenant. the Flood, and the humans caught up in between. After the Covenant unknowingly released the Flood, they spelled their own doom out in the process, coming face to face with an enemy that could bring their mighty empire down, doing what the humans couldn't do for several decades. So we are shown a weakness of the Covenant's: they are being slaughtered by the Flood while the Master Chief is on the sidelines, witnessing the violence and destruction of the Covenant at the hands of a simple yet deadly infection. Listening to "Under Cover Of Night" tells me how overwhelmed the Covenant were, and that in Two Betrayals and the last two levels of Halo: Combat Evolved they pull out every trick out of their sleeves to quell the Flood. It sets up a sad yet deserving end to the Covenant, watching them be torn asunder by an enemy of unknown origin whose only objective in life is to eat, eat, and eat some more. So every time when I go back to that level and that certain part plays, that is always the first thing that comes to mind. Not a stealth mission or walking through the night, but the last stand of the Covenant. This comparison earned "Under Cover Of Night" its stripes for producing a musical track that hits on multiple levels, even outside of video games. It's the magic of Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori that revealed to the world that musically composed soundtracks still meant something to a lot of people, and I'll always be one of those people that looks forward to what these two men do in the near future. Developing the music behind Halo was definitely a huge hurdle for them to jump, but in the end the final product is unanimous: Halo's music will forever be remembered as the go-to soundtrack for video games. Today I own all the available soundtracks and listen to them on a regular basis as a form of inspiration (I even used them as an inspiration while writing this article). It's always been that source of energy and uplifting positivity that guided me ever since I first became a hardcore fan of the series. And the same will be said of Halo 5 in 2014. Halo lives forever in its music. It's immortal and will always stand on two solid, steel legs, proud and strong. Do you agree with any of these selections? Were there some you might consider adding to the list? Feel free to discuss it in the comments.