Hans Zimmer dropped the hottest single of the fall (in certain very small circles) by revealing the main theme of Dragon Age: The Veilguard on his official YouTube channel yesterday. And today, the track is available to stream on “all major music services,” according to a BioWare news release that confirms Zimmer c0-composed the entirety of Veilguard’s soundtrack with frequent collaborator Lorne Balfe.
Zimmer (Batman Begins, Dune) and Balfe (Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) have shared credits on a number of video game soundtracks, starting with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This will be the first time Zimmer has joined a video game project since 2018’s FIFA 19.
The main theme itself is driving, ominous, and repetitive (one imagines that it’s menu music). But, as the featured track shows, its melody is flexible enough to remain clear through changes in instrumentation and major and minor keys, a must for tugging on player heartstrings during pivotal moments. It’s not the first piece of Zimmer and Balfe’s Veilguard work to reach the public, however.
That honor would go to a spooky track hidden in Dragon Age Selections From the Video Game Soundtrack, a box set of four vinyl records featuring music from the Dragon Age games that BioWare released this past May. Hidden at the end of a disc of music composed for DLC for Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition is “D’read Koda,” a quick, atmospheric soundscape credited to Zimmer and Balfe. D’read Koda possibly means something in one of Dragon Age’s different fantasy languages, but just as well might be a pun on “Dreadwolf” (the name Veilguard was going by at the time) and “coda” (the musical term for, essentially, the bit at the end).
According to BioWare’s news release, fans will be able to pre-order the official Veilguard soundtrack beginning Oct. 18 on iTunes and Amazon Music. The album will be released on Nov. 1, one day after the Oct. 31 release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard itself.
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