The Halo Theme, if you ever heard it as a message, it almost screams "Gondor calls for aid, and Rohan will answer" kinda thing. If you, as a gamer, heard that, you`d know exactly what you gotta do. As you belong, you will go there and sort things out.

The Halo theme is a masterpiece. Even though I've never played the game I'm pretty aware of this song.

10:50 For never having played any of the Halo games, you are absolutely hitting the nail on the head! "Ancient, powerful, and bigger than oneself" describes the games to a 't'. When one looks at it from an outside perspective, it is amazing what music can bring to a game; how it can serve as the foundation for everything to follow.

Well, guess I’m firing up the Masterchief collection again tonight…

You should also have included the Halo 2 version, which has Steve Vai on guitar as an extra. Besides, many video game pieces are usually short, so more than one track in a video is fine xd

The Halo theme has to be the most nostalgic sound in the world, every time I hear it I feel both happy and sad

20 years later, still get goosebumps

Proper classic this one. Video game music especially 1-2 decades ago really was something else. Combined with all the fun and good memories one had with the game itself, its a bundle of nostalgia. My personal favurites, the Soundtracks of Ace Combat Zero and Terraria

20 years later it still rocks, a stunning achievement.

Game was released back in 2001. The game was ahead of its time and not with just gameplay but effects and soundtrack. It’s what us gamers call the gamers national anthem.

Halo was the first game I played (I’ve been a video game player since the Atari 2600) that the music was so profound that I could instantly recall where I was and what I was doing on the game when I hear each song from the game.

An amazing composer. When I played halo the music made me feel like the one to save the entire universe. It was just the best music throughout the first 3 halos.

The audio work for the whole game is just amazing. It holds up to this day.

What a nostalgic punch this track has. Halo was one of the staples of my childhood, alongside Final Fantasy 7 and Ocarina of Time. All of which have phenomenal scores. One of my fondest childhood memories was playing Halo and Halo 2 with (and against) my brother on the original Xbox. It's a bittersweet feeling reliving those memories. They're very fond memories, but it's also an era of my life I can never truly revisit.

2:30 I had never heard about this before. It makes sense that the game Warframe also uses a similar style of Gregorian chants-for one specific faction, very similar to the Forerunners from Halo-and Taiko drumming battle music to fit with the "space ninja" theme. The game is sci-fi and set in the far future, and you yourself with the Warframes are an ancient warrior. I assume the composers at the start were billed with a similar the same task as the Halo composers.

Maybe someone already wrote this in the comments here, but even to this day whenever I hear that original Halo music, this specific one, I always get chills because of how awesome the music is, and what feelings it awakens in me almost instantly.

I have played every Halo, from day one. I cannot explain enough how the opening theme on the first game just sold it to me instantly. It is an utter masterpiece that sadly has likely been dismissed by many classical music lovers purely for it being made for a computer game. Not sure whether you'd have the time, but the entire score for the first game is well worth a listen.

Halo 2 takes this theme and adds on top of it a legendary improv from Steve Vai

OK, so Nobuo Uematsu's work is all but guaranteed at this point. I like the direction the channel's been taking lately a lot!

There is something so friking wholesome in seen a true profesional discovering a piece of media that we love, and to see them love it too. Great video. Goosebumps!

This theme will never die, because it conveys so much emotions that are important in the game. Hope, courage, devotion... And mystery. Classic.

doug instinctively holding his hands together for the iconic halo chant has made my week.

All the music in this game is absolutely incredible.

hearing this theme again after years since the last time I played a halo game actually smacked me across the face with the nostalgia, reminded me of all the years i spent playing halo 3 and reach as a teenager. some of my fondest memories and that music is no small part of it.

If you dig this theme, you should check out the mjolnir remix from Halo 2... and basically every track from every album Marty produced for this franchise.

If you do more video game music, I'd like to invite you to visit Jeremy Soule's work for the Elder Scrolls series. Something that's really neat to me (as a non-music person) is how the theme songs for the third through fifth games of the series (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim) are the same melody with different instrumentation and...stuff, representing the fictional cultures native to the land each game is set in. They all have the same driving bass drums for an intro, but each version sets a different mood. (I'd love to hear someone with better musically words talk about the differences, I don't speak the language.)

I remember playing this with my best friend, who had an XBOX (an original one, this was the early 2000s), being used to the established 13 -in-a-dozen game-music, this hit *SO* hard! Goosebumps all over.. (still every time I hear it!) it was flabbergasting. You *could* say this was a real "game-changer"!! 🤭 Playing this game co-op, on Legendary, hearing this music and then finally finishing the game at 4 o'clock in the morning! scaring the willies out of everyone (we were roaring in victory! 😂) in the small apartment-block I lived in back then.. was magical!

Man, your breakdown and explanation of what's going on with the scale after the initial listen are one of the reasons why you're my favorite music guy on here. I know I keep asking for Dancing Mad, but at this point, anything from Nobuo Uematsu would be welcome, if you're looking to focus in on another just completely prolific game music composer.

With Martin being of Irish origin I'm pretty sure that some of of the sections in the Halo theme were heavily influenced by 'Riverdance' almost sounds identical to me. Check it out. I'm amazed how well your ears are trained to identify not only exact notes but keys signatures and chords too. Wow what a gift that would be to have, there are not many musicians are blessed with that gift. Outstanding Doug. I'll have to check out some of your works! Thanks for another great video Doug. 😀👍

I would love if we got Doug to start streaming games. I think the context of playing the game while hearing the accompanying soundtrack is important in appreciating it fully, much like a movie.

Hey Doug, thanks for taking a look at the Halo theme! I am very well versed in Halo's music having played the games since I was young. They have some of my favorite soundtracks around. I figured I'd give some recommendations, the goal here being to give a representative sampler of the Halo series. I kept it to no more than 2 per game, tried to offer a variety of themes, and tried to represent the overall sound of each game the best I could. Halo: Combat Evolved (More simplistic than later entries, but lays a rock--solid foundation with its wonderful melodies and percussion) 1. A Walk in the Woods 2. On a Pale Horse Halo 2 (Main theme has Steve Vai, lots of interesting electronic work throughout the suites, I think Impend is a good short encapsulation of that) 1. Halo Theme (Mjolnir Mix)* 2. Impend Halo 3 (This is where the orchestra and piano really start to shine) 1. Never Forget* 2. One Final Effort Halo: ODST (A very different entry, ambient and jazz like, still with great orchestral elements as you can hear in the Overture and other pieces) 1. Overture 2. Neon Night Halo: Reach (Honestly, I think this would be the most exciting soundtrack to you given your background, it has the most ambitious and complex suites that Martin O'Donnell made for the series) 1. Overture 2. Epilogue Halo 4 (Neil Davidge & Kazuma Jinnouchi) (Represents a significantly different approach, much more electronically based in many tracks, and entirely new themes, some might look at me funny for recommending the non-O'Donnell scores, but I think Halo 4 has an incredible soundtrack) 1. 117* 2. Green and Blue Halo 5 (Kazuma Jinnouchi) (Continues to depart significantly from the Bungie-era Halo games, but Light is Green is undeniable) 1. Light is Green *If I had to pick just three! P.S. I know you'll likely never be able to get to one, let alone all of these, on camera but I thought maybe you'd maybe be able to appreciate some of them off the clock. :P

The song Dancing Mad by Nobuo Uematsu from Final Fantasy VI is one of the best songs in history, not just video games but in general. I will repost this in every game song react made by you Doug, until you react to this amazing song.

What a video. Thank you for this gem! Really.

One of the greatest themes to a game ever imho. Absolutely amazing and still holds up to this day.

Goosebumps every time. I was absolutely lost within this world as a kid, such a masterpiece! Wonderful breakdown!

Really enjoyed your Epica reaction the other day, here to add to the chorus asking for more Epica, and perhaps a revisit of Therion, which you have heard one piece from before called Via Nocturna.

I love the breakdown you did and your sharing of the understanding of the music, i have no personal understanding of how music is "built" but i love hearing passionate people speak of their craft!

youre really good at this and i appreciate these videos. take me back to college listening to my professors

Consider checking out "One final effort" from Halo 3's soundtrack. I have a hunch you would love that one.

Haven’t even watched yet and know this is going to be killer. Been waiting for this one. My favorite soundtrack of all time, and brings back so many fond memories. Cheers, Doug! 🙏🏼

I am amazed nobody has suggested it yet, but i also know im late to the party. Doug, if you liked this a lot, you should check out the "Halo Legends: Epsilon Suite." It's a composition of several songs from all the games, made specifically for the movie/anime/series "Halo Legends." It's one of my favourite pieces of music.

I would stay on the main menu for so long and listen to this on repeat as a kid

Bittersweet nostalgia

I enjoy so many of your reactions. I played so much halo when it came out. I love music and am a huge nerd of multiple things, but this hit a different nerd level for me, I didn't know about. I thank you, good sir.

Grew up playing a bunch of Halo. Love the series and music, and I would have never imagined seeing you interviewing Martin O'Donnell.

I just realised how the Halo OST makes fairly special stylistic choices. I mean it's so iconic, fits the game like a glove, the whole soundtrack massively elevated what could've been a pretty typical FPS of the era, but like: why the jaunty celtic strings in a sci-fi alien space shooter? Works so well I never even questioned it until now. Could've easily sounded like Unreal Tournament, Half Life 2 or something else of that era.

This song is the embodiment of 1 man's journey through fighting across a stage with impossible enemies, with a 1% chance of success. It starts(4:05) with shock and awe of the scale of things, humanity's first real look at the scale of the Forunners. Then mechanical purpose sets in(4:35), the mission is to regroup, disable the machine, destroy the enemy. The enemy is tough, but he is only just prepared for the fight. They have numbers where he has near mechanical purpose and super human reflexes to match. At some point he must turn to from conventional, to the unconventional(5:55), the only option left is to cause the ship's reactor to blow and destroy the ring. The way forward is guarded on all sides(6:03). Allies have become enemies, and he still prevails. No extra time(6:23), just the right distance needed to clear the blast. Reality of the scale of destruction, the only option that would ensure the destruction of the enemy and the device.

What a classic. I love Gregorian style chants. Especially when they open up with a perfect fourth/fifth. It doesn't do that here, but it's still a really engaging and iconic melody. I'm gonna keep recommending the Hollow Knight soundtrack. I'm sure it would be right up your alley, especially tracks like Hornet, Mantis Lords, City of Tears, White palace, Grimm Troupe/Nightmare King. Full of leitmotif, which you hear after listening to some of the main tracks first, like Dirtmouth and the titular track Hollow Knight (which is the main menu music). Most tracks sound pure and consist solely of piano and strings. The interesting thing is that no actual instruments were used. It's all electronic off the back of a great set of instrument samples. Try to listen with that in mind, and I swear it's really hard to tell. Christopher Larkin did an amazing job. Would be an interesting talk too.

Voiceplay did an A Cappella cover of this song. It was brilliant.

I am glad I found this channel.

Great reaction and insight Doug. Thanx for helping lessen one of my musical blind spots.! I, like you didn't get heavily into gaming and have missed all the music.

This man is such a national treasure.

Halo theme is a timeless classic

I have no idea how to analyze this musically. But I learned as a five-year-old kid that music can invoke emotion independently of other stimuli.

Parallel 5ths always mesmerize me. Very gothic/baroque.

Great piece review! Thanks

I remember going home with my original Xbox, Wreckless: The yakuza Missions, and Halo Combat Evolved. Needless to say, I didn't play Wreckless for several months.

This is amazing Doug! I've never thought that The Beatles were such an influence on the Halo's theme. This makes me think about a Canadian band called Klaatu that after realising their first album in 1976, a journalist made a newspaper report about this band being literally the Beatles. If you want to made a video about this band and this case analysis if they are that close to the Beatles's music, that would be awesome. Cheers!

Nobuo Uematsu is a genius. His work with final fantasy over the years was brilliant. But gerudo valley theme from ocarina of time is amazing and has very few reactions on KZfaq

When matched with visuals its even more elevated

Oh man, them memories this brings...

What a fantastic breakdown. I first heard this song when I was a wee lad. I'm 31 now but wow did it hit just as hard. Thank you Bungie but most of all.... thank you Martin for creating the music that I hum to this day.

My childhood right there. Thanks for this reaction dough.

I think you need to check out the soundtracls from Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach. The music is such a change and brings up so many emotions in game play, as well asin the music. Such awe.

looking through your archive, and you most definitely need to react to Marty's work on the Original Destiny 1 theme. Another piece that, like this Halo theme, lifts the hairs off your arms👍👍🙌🙌

the yesterday connection i didnt know about. i just know when Bungie the Halo developer moved on to the game Destiny, they asked Paul McCartney to make an ending song, which was called 'Hope for the Future' or something, and the Destiny players seemed to hate it for some reason! it appeared in the forsaken dlc for Destiny 2 on the Tangled Shore in a fallen 'nightclub' as one of the songs the DJ had playing sometimes!

Philadelphia Eagles Lineman Nails Halo Theme, that is a great one among so many other takes on this fantastic intro!

Would love to hear Doug talk more Beatles!!

One of the most iconic gaming themes of all time! My personal favourite soundtrack is Shadow of the Colossus, and I'd love for you to one day cover the first track of that that pays during the intro. It's called To the Ancient Land

Boss man, As a kid growing up with this kind of video game music AND being an aspiring musician while growing up (though life had other plans sadly; but I WAS studying at the University of Houston’s Moore’s School of Music for a time before I had to sadly drop out due to health issues) I cannot even begin to explain to you the levels of insanity that some of the genius video game composers have come up with. It’s like trying to compose music for an interactive movie. How do you do that? Well, they found ways. The Halo theme is great as it’s not contextual in the game itself necessarily, but there are songs that play at just the right time. A lot of video game music lately will have two tracks playing at all times- a battle theme and a main theme for the area you’re in and they will fade one out and the other in as you transition to and from combat. Some bosses will have themes that change depending on the stage of the boss you’re in. But all that to say: I would kill if you could get a musician of some kind who is also a video game expert to play these games with you and just have you reacting to the scenarios and the way that they music ends up being used. There’s a gold mine of content right there.

to go back and listen to this for the first time would be so cool

The Halo 2 main theme is my personal favorite

Thank You Sir

There were so many things that made the Halo series (1-3 and I guess infinite lol) so iconic for millions of gamers. Apart from incredible story writing, world-building, level design, and pacing. The music. Good lord, the music. Throughout those games, the music always evolved but also called back to the central themes from the first game. It was a truly nostalgic moment to play Infinite and hear all the callbacks to the game that came 20 years before it. Halo's OST set the standard along with Final Fantasy and a few others that videogames were art in every capacity. Really the best theme that could matchup in terms of FPS games was Doom (2016).

Awesome breakdown 👍

Hey Doug, love the channel. Halo has always had a special place in my heart from my childhood. However, of all of the game soundtracks, the Elder Scrolls games have always had the most beautiful soundtracks I've ever heard. I definitely recommend checking out the Skyrim soundtrack! They even produced a live 10 year anniversary soundtrack with the London Symphony Orchestra.

that was a great break down

I never ever picked up the lady-ish chanting until tonight! Must be my brand new high-end headphones with noise-cancel converting every single note! 💪

This is an excellent breakdown and analysis Doug. I learned a lot. Thank you for this)) I seem to recall that you once said you don't have perfect pitch. Are you sure you don't have perfect pitch? It sure sounds to me that you do))

Damn man you did just from your hearings. Awesome :D

Every word of this video is pure proof that everyone should be gaming and not just gamers

No revision of videogame music would be complete without a look at the work of Jeremy Soule. Here are a few very known examples (and it's hard to pick just a few): Skyrim - Dragonborn (main theme) - 3'58" Skyrim - "Ancient stones" - 4'47" Oblivion - "Glory of Cyrodiil" - 2'29" Morrowind - "Silt sunrise" - 3'09" Skyrim - "Far horizons" - 5'34" and, for something a bit different, Skyrim - "Beneath the ice" (Blackreach) - 4'17"

La melodia se le ocurrio a una persona mientras volvia del trabajo en su auto por la autopista

I’ve been hoping you would review some halo music! My favourite game soundtrack of all time.

SUGGESTION-Metal Gear Solid 2 was scored by Harry Gregson-Williams. He did several big Hollywood movies like The Rock You can make the case he was the pioneer of Hollywood/composer’s crossover and this epic score for gaming

The essence of our existence...thank you Doug!

we need to have doug do a gaming day every week lol

This was great, thanks Doug! Would love to hear you breakdown some Zelda and Final Fantasy music.

Speak of the Donnell, he shall appear.

Really been enjoying your videos, especially the video game tracks. Would love for you to hear One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy 7 by Nobuo Uematsu aka the Beethoven of video game music.

another game with a massive orchestra is "ori and the will of the wisp" a masterpiece

You gotta take in the other Halo soundtracks too, which build on the work started here. You must take into account the impact of this game. Gamers saw it coming years earlier, and graphically it was lightyears beyond anything else, with huge 3d vistas extending right to the horizon (in those days sstems didn't have the ability to draw stuff way out beyond your immediate vicinity). Not only that, but Bungie was bought up by Microsoft, and their Halo game released as the big, must-have game with the release of their new Xbox console, which was Microsoft's first console. The impact was gigantic, I don't know that there's a perfect analogue with which to compare it. Music had begun to change already by then, from scrolling levels with accompanying tunes to these movie-like, "you don't even notice it's really there" muzak used to heighten certain moments. Halo was one of the first to try to kinda toe the line somewhere down the middle, with movie-style soundtracks that you would happily listen to out of playing the game. Halo was somewhat rushed and limited. A classic, but flawed. The next 2 Halo games were the real deal, and the soundtrack, I think, is lifted in quality also.

I have played these games and heard this theme more times than I can count. And right here and now I just noticed the last phrase of the Gregorian chant is the dies irae.

Never heard it before. The first things that came to mind were "Still I'm sad" by the Yardbirds and "Scarborough Fair"

the first few minutes reminds me of ELP's Pirates !

Skyrim next plz

Romantic Warrior in the background!

The music of Halo really makes it the game it is, it'll make it timeless.

Please give Shadow of the Colossus and Yu-Gi-Oh Duelists of the Roses some shot. Also, very short pieces, but some really great stuff.

If you want a halo fan’s maybe obscure halo song, try winter contingency. Absolute favorite halo song since I was a kid