Halo: Combat Evolved (2 CD)

Halo 10th Anniversary. How do you celebrate it? By re-releasing the game reimaged from the ground up. How do you make an already awesome set of music sound even more amazing? Put a full orchestra behind it, that's how!

I read a comment on a blog post about this soundtrack coming out. The person made the comment "why do they need to mess up the music we all know and love!?" I think I'd like to tackle that question and the answer is simple. They haven't messed it up, at ALL. In fact, they've done it a great deal of justice.

Every track is orchestrated from the original Martin O'Donnell and Mark Salvatore scores. Note for note, this is the original Halo soundtrack and done in full orchestra style coming via the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra (guess the Lucas company has an orchestra, which is something I never knew).

If you are a fan of the Halo music, I highly encourage you to pick this disc (or buy the MP3 edition). You almost can't be disappointed.

When I bought this album I wasn't quite sure of what I was getting. Was this just the first Halo: Combat Evolved soundtrack with just a live orchestra behind it now or was it something else? I have come to find out that it's the latter with a live orchestra.

If you've listened to Halo music for a long time then when you listen to this you'll notice a difference. Paul Lipson, Lennie Moore, Tom Salta, and Brian Trifon have taken the main themes that Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori wrote and have put there own twist to it. Some of Paul's, Lennie's, Tom's, and Brian's interpretations are good, others not so much, and some are interesting. One reviewer said that this album was note for note with the original Halo soundtrack. To me that's not true. I heard some tracks in this release that I don't ever remember hearing in the original. If you are a fan of the guitars, drums, and chanting of monks then you'll really enjoy this album. It seems like every other track has guitars, drums, or the monks. This new release has less than 10 minutes of extra music from the first which is a shame. When I saw that this was a 2 disc release I thought that we were going to get about 2 hours of music (like previous releases). There is only about 83 minutes of music. Most tracks are about 2 minutes long.

I did enjoy this newer version, it's just that after listening to the first Halo: Combat Evolved score for 10 years it's going to take a while to get use to this newer version. However, if you're new to listening to Halo scores I think you'll enjoy this more than those of us who have been listening the past 10 years.

The limited green vinyl edition of the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary soundtrack is a must have purchase if you love Halo and have a turntable. The vinyl is more of a "greatest hits" presentation than the full soundtrack, with 9 tracks on the A-side and 7 tracks on the B-side. I assume this was done so Sumthing only had to press one record instead of 3-4. I really liked the reorchestrated takes on the classic Halo:CE tracks and it sounds FANTASTIC on vinyl. The green/white swirl coloring is beautiful and the jacket is very well done: some great concept art on the front with a short intro and credits inside the gatefold. It's a beautiful package and will look great on a shelf next to your turntable/360.

The shortened track listing is remedied by the included download code for the full Halo:CEA MP3 soundtrack. My only gripe with this is that you have to sign up for an account on the download's website, but once you have the tracks you're home free. This is an ideal solution for people (like me) who want the whole soundtrack on their MP3 players while still having something to spin for friends/family.

I'd grab a copy quick as Sumthing Else has announced that only 2000 of these are being pressed, and other retailers are already sold out...go get it! It'll be a highlight of your gaming soundtrack collection.