It is a good list. A fun fact about me is that I have listened to the entire OST before playing the game , and it was all a giant video on KZfaq so I wasn't reading the titles. Now I did play the game and here's some of my favorites: - The Grimm Troupe: I like this one a lot. The first time I heard it on that video I thought "alright, this has been classical music so far and whoever is bringing drums in here is going to be very cool, OH MY GOD IS THAT A GUITAR?!". I wasn't wrong. I like this one more than NKG because this feels like, it's supposed to feel like, more of a dance, a showcase, while the other track is just pure madness (and for good reasons; no bows, no ceremonies, here's the name of the boos, good luck). That's a bit too intense for me, I like the other one better because it has more of a progression. - Dream Battle: it is a bit of a bummer that the only warrior who makes me feel like I'm literally fighting for my life is Markoth, but this track gives me absolute chills. It is intense but not too intense. It makes me feel braver rather than intimidated, like NKG does. - Pure Vessel: you're fighting the cursed Prince of Hallownest when they still were a prince, what were you expecting? This track is majestic to say the least. And the fact that I even managed to beat them more than once makes me feel very good. - White Palace: it's peaceful, but if you ignore the buzzsaws you can also feel the sense of regret and sadness that the king feels. - Sealed Vessel: you know, there are a lot of instances where you have to fight a mindless, corrupted creature, and you do that with ease, because in your head there's nothing left of them. You have fun even, because you're aware that what they once were is long gone. But what if halfway you realize that not all of it was gone? And you see that they too want to end themselves, end the threat that they represent, even if that means dying? What do you do then? Do you ignore it and go on as if nothing ever happened? I don't think so. But you have to. You can't let them live, you can't save them either (not in that context at least), yet you don't want to kill them. Then even realization just turns into pity because that Vessel can't even stand anymore, so you end up killing them out of mercy. Sealed Vessel is it's soundtrack. - Soul Sanctum: this might be my favorite. It has nothing to do with the game, I just find it otherworldly and it's one of my favorite songs in general.

When the lowest ranked song is still A tier, you know it’s a good soundtrack

Team Cherry: The game is already pretty good, you don't need to go crazy with the soundtrack. Christopher Larkin:

Reflection is literally my number 1 lol, I just feel like it perfectly captures the whole feeling of the game.

This just makes me want to replay hollowknight

"Silksong looming around the corner" - A video posted over a year ago

Honestly, the one bad thing about a list like this is that any song is at the bottom of the list.

Pale Court is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good man Great video! Really like the analysis you give to each song, really adds depth to the video. Personally, my favorite is Sealed Vessel. Fucking cried with that. Other than that, I agree almost completely with your list. Can't wait for Silksong (copium)

Every single song I'm like: "How can you rank it that low? It's so good!" and then repeat.

I find Queen's Gardens to be one of my top songs, because it combines elements of my two other favorites (for areas), Greenpath and City of Tears. It has that mysterious, beautiful feel that CoT gives, while also having the liveliness that Greenpath brings, because it really is just the Queen's Greenpath

I hope I wasn't the only one that was singing along for the entire video to see how well I remembered each song. Turns out, really well, I managed to keep up with all 40 of them, which probably means I've played this game way too much

This is genuinely one of the best ranking videos I've ever seen. You're respectful, you reassure, you explain, but most importantly you don't make a video about opinions feel like a "factual list". A lot of ranking videos will have "if you don't like my opinion, than that's fine" which is fair, I don't think I've ever felt genuine anger over something like that. What happens instead is the considerably large amount of jokes targeted towards swaying your opinion, "If you don't like x then what are ya even doing man" is the only example I can remember clearly enough to put into words. Anyways, these comments are littered throughout so many videos, and eventually they leak into the sub-concious, and I'll find myself genuinely NOT enjoying things on the list, that or feeling bad about myself. It's really hard to speak up about this stuff because clearly sarcastic remarks are just jokes, which comes with the expectation that no actual negativity can come from anywhere but you yourself being too sensitive. So yeah this is a good video. I can't say with certainty that it didn't have any of the negative points I mentioned, but if it did then it was to an extent to where I didn't notice. I felt like I was sitting down discussing my favorite things with a friend, it was quite nice.

My favorite tracks: •Dirtmouth - it’s so calming and peaceful. It will always be my favorite. •The Grimm Troupe + Nightmare King - hey do you know that one song by Man on the Internet? Yeah, it makes these great. •Hollow Knight - It’s so iconic to me that it has to be one of the best •Dung Defender - Ogrim is a great character and his song is that too.

Thank you for giving Pale Court the credit that it deserves even though it's not in the actual game. It's just sooo beautiful and beautifully played... I'm really looking forward to listening to Siksong soundtrack when...oh... someday

the whole soutrack really adds another layer of depth to the emotional roller-coaster that is this game

The orchestration of City of Tears is absolutely beautiful. You could probably say that about every track in the game though.

Honestly Decisive Battle is in my top 5, I love how most of the notes sound like they'd be off-key, but it just sounds amazing and unique instead

pure vessel is my favorite boss all around. he has amazing, fun, well-telegraphed attacks that perfectly complement his infected form and just the aesthetic of the arena makes the fight feel so climactic. combine that with the fact that he just looks freaking awesome and there you go

The crescendo at the start of Sealed Vessel might be one of the greatest moments in video game music. Unbelievably monumental. That said, while it is probably in my top 5, I have like 10 songs in my top 5. Have to shout out Crystal Peak, Godhome, Pale Court, White Palace, Resting Grounds, The Grimm Troupe, and Enter Hallownest as some of my all-time faves. Excellent list!

Resting Grounds, for me, deserves to be at least into top 10, it's one of my favorites

Watching this video made me crave the HK soundtrack. I'm googling it right now. Thank you for reigniting my love for this masterpiece

Honestly, pale court just feels like it's telling the story of Hallownest to you and that's probably why it's my number 1 Love the video btw ❤️

I don't think I had chills this many times watching a video till now

finally someone apprecciates nosk's theme without putting it at a low tier for being creepy. deepnest regular ost is S tier for me. even if it is creepy, ambience is really hard to make and i love trance like bg noise as tracks, especially if the theme of creepiness is executed so well.

I love how you included Pale Court even though it's not in the game (It's also my favorite)

Hearing Reflection was the first time I really felt something about that game, and Dream is one of my favorites, sometimes I listen to it before going to sleep haha. But it’s hard Ranking those, it’s impossible to agree with everyone

To each one I was like how dare you put it so low! They are all sooo good!

my favorite songs are hornet, sisters of battle, hollow knight, kingdoms edge, and white defender

The song hollow knight that plays on the title screen is my favorite. It just has so much melancholy and expresses the tragedy of the game to me so well. Sometimes I go onto my PlayStation just to let it fill the house while I sit there basking in it and the memories it has

Sealed Vessel is like dream and nightmare together at the same time

Great list! Also (even though it might seem self explanatory) thanks for putting the songs in the background while talking about them Hearing the whole ost within twenty minutes really brings to mind how wonderful hollow knights music is :)

Bro forgot Soul Tyrant… That’s my favorite song in the soundtrack.

The fact that the songs are so good makes it more of personal preference than actually comparing how good the music is (technically art isn’t subjective but…)

I was mad before i remembered there are no bad musics in the game

Really great list, happy to see a lot of my favorites made the upper half, though a little disappointed that deepnest wasn’t included.

“with silk song looming around the corner”

"I know that setting my goal to be before silksong comes out is most likely giving myself infnite time" that is just sad but I have hope :)

Queens gardens is so low 😔

I love how this guy actually has music theory knowledge.

I love how varied your commentary was, I feel like it's so easy at the bottom of the list when you don't dislike the song to be like "not much to say it's good" but you had really interesting things to say and point out!

Sisters of Battle is so good. I've been playing video games since the early nineties, it's one of the best boss battle tracks I've ever heard.

Great ranking, don’t have much to disagree on at all! I might swap sealed vessel with NKG, because it’s so emotional, but that’s it really.

I love that the HK soundtrack is so good! This list is awesome dude, I honestly want to make a video reacting to it, and share my own thoughts. Also pretty ironic since I’m making a whole video essay about the full soundtrack that this video pops up on my recommended. Keep up the good work, and I really enjoyed your too 40 picks :)

This vid made me add like 10 hk songs to my playlist thank you lol

Most of my favorites have a common theme of becoming much better in the second half: normal grimm, soul sanctum, and crystal peak to name a few

For me the majority of the top 10 is non-boss themes, i dont think the boss themes are that special except for some (like pure vessel) but the ambience and the background themes are a part of what gets me hooked the most about hollow knight, which is the atmosphere.

Why is my number 1 Radiance. Bro I could listen to that till I die. A part of the reason I grind Radiance so much is beacuse of the magnificent soundtrack. I just wanna hear it again and again and again.

I disagree with you on almost everything, but I still enjoyed this video. Very well made!

I hear "I'm trying to hit 10k subscribers" I check the subscribe count: 9.99k I subscribe and refresh the page: 10k subscribers I might be your exact 10000th subscriber, congrats man

While I mostly agree, my favourite is sealed vessel, but I really enjoyed hearing your opinions about the ost

Grimm's theme is so hype, it reminds me of Castlevania

Yea I agree with you’re top picks nightmare king Grimm and pure vessel are some of my fav tracks in the game probably because of how fluid and well the bosses go with the ost

I was so happy to see NKG at #1. This is my fav song, it always has been, and I think I never would have beat NKG without this track going in the background

Sadly I'm late this time but I have an important thing to say: go listening the piano collections of Hollow Knight's ost, you won't regret. Also the amount of effort behind reflection is outstanding: obviously is the soundtrack of the stagstations, but you can hear a distorted more 32 bits kind of in the tramways. And in my personal opinion it is one of the closest to give the Hollow Knight vibe

Good list! I agree with a lot of your rankings and the ones I disagree with were inevitable. My only “issue” was a small pet peeve in that you kept calling them songs when they aren’t songs but music tracks, because songs have lyrics and these don’t. But I’m a pedant so ignore me lol

This is the best tier list ive ever seen for these tracks- Its clear you put so much thought into each piece!

that was a very good video, i enjoyed listening all the musics, and it gave me a nostalgie

my list is very different

God, pale court is so good. as a huge crossroads/reflection enjoyer I disagreed with some of your picks and I've never been too much of a hive knight guy but overall it was a good list and everyone's different. NKG truly is a masterpiece tho and I absolutely love the unholy demonic vibe with the swaying of the choir during the song. bravo christopher larkin.

my unpopular opinion is that nkg's theme, while still being a good song is one that seems less proffessional than others in the game. Don´t get me wrong, it goes hard, but you can tell Christopher has far more experience with more classical music

I really like Soul Sanctum because of the amount of symbolism in it, as well as just the all around epic sound. It takes City of Tears, a calming piece filled with wonder and rain, and twists it into a dark and stormy night of downright evil experiments by the elite bugs trying their hardest to prolong their death. I really like that you can just enter the area and immediately go 'ooh. OOH. This is different. I'm not supposed to be here.' The organ in the soundtrack is really amazing at giving classic haunted vibes, but my favorite part is when it morphs into Soul Master, adding a whole bunch of instruments in a climactic lighting storm fight on a roof. It also has the main theme in the end of the Soul Master section (Though skipping two notes), which really connects it nicely. It also completely changes meaning from a triumphant fight to a growing horror as you descend into the last phase, in the catacombs. Sorry, this was a bit of an essay, but I'm a Soul Sanctum lover :))

I love Larkin's work. There are a lot of games that I love the soundtracks from. The Anti birth+ ost from The Binding of Isaac has absolute bangers (see mausoleum, Machine in the Walls). Hollow Knight has a soundtrack that I can fall asleep to, with highlights like green path, fungal wastes, and dirt mouth. Starbound has an amazing score written by Curtis Schweitzer, who also wrote scores for Halo Infinite. Minecraft has a score which will live in my heart forever. Game soundtracks are beautiful. Love them.

8:52 bro's reading my shopping list

I actually really agreed with this list, just three songs I would place higher, False Knight, Truth Beauty and Hatred and Radiance, with the last one being in the top 5. Also finally someone who places Nightmare King #1 🟥 And I think Haunted Foes shouldn't replace Grimm Troupe and Nightmare King specially. Nice video.

great video. my favorite is probably the title theme. i listened to the soundtrack before playing, nothing sadly really clicking with me, and when i heard it for the first time i was like 'thats the one, that one is my favorite'. sealed vessel, nightmare king grimm, grimm troupe, kingdoms edge, soul scantrum, hive knight and crystal peaks gave it a run for its money, but the title theme is still my favorite, shame its low, but that fine

My personal favorite is "Broken Vessel", it's such a good boss theme, it gives me chills each time I listen to it. Others that I really like are "Reflection" (second last on this list, crazy stuff), "Truth, Beauty and Hatred", "Mantis Lords", "City of Tears"... Man, Christopher Larkin is a genius, every single song is a banger and can be argued for #1 spot

i would say: number 3 is dirtmouth number 2 is mantis lords number 1 is pure vessel

Really glad to see sealed vessel high on the list I mean everyone has their own opinions and i would re-rank every song on the list but whats beautiful is the fact that there are so many good songs in hollow knight for anyone to listen to and have their very own favorite songs🎵 People always wait to play silksong i just wanna hear the soundtrack man i cannot wait🥲 Like half of your top 40 was in my top 15 thats crazy

I’ve been hearing that silk song is looming around the corner for the past 4 years

alternative name- why I have a crush on Christopher larkin

I’m sorry but this list is invalid when dirtmouth and green path aren’t even in top ten.

Im surprised no ones mentioned that divisive battle is inspired by the track of the same name in Neon Genesis Evangelion, they sound so similar!

I think this ranking was great and I loved it.

I started Hollow Knight exploring a new game that I felt I would enjoy, I loved it by the time I got to greenpath, but reaching the city of tears and when the music hit it was stunning

These first few rankings are taking me through the iwa jima of tier lists

I did a bracket of all the songs a few months ago, and Pale Court ended up winning. I wish that song was the credits music for any ending where you kill the Radiance; it would be a nice reward for true ending.

I cannot believe dirtmouth and resting grounds were so low. I understand where you come from though. I personally love these stripped pieces where it's much simpler

the hive knight theme is my favorite, ans my second favorite is dung defenders theme. both songs are just so energetic and have a noble knight with deep regrets and sadness still serving what they believe is their purpose and its just. chefs kiss

For me my top 10 is 1. NKG 2. Sisters of battle 3. Sealed Vessel 4. Broken Vessel 5. Hornet 6. City of Tears 7. Mantis Lords 8. Nosk (please don’t blast me for this...) 9. Gods & Glory 10. Pure Vessel Honorable Mentions: Dung Defender, Dream Battle, & False Knight

"With Silksong just around the corner", I admire your enthusiasm.

i didnt even hear any theme when i fought mantis lords- ( i like how he said white palace was peaceful lmao, i couldnt even feel peace at all, all i heard were just buzzsaws istg- )

crystal peak has rythm that sounds like undertale ost- undertale sometimes

My top three favorite songs in this game are 1.broken vessel: this song is like this is the end of the game, the infection, the broken vessel and even you 2. The city of tears: this song with the atmosphere really hits me 3. Nightmare king grimm: IT SOUNDS SO BADASS I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

"it's titled haunted foes and it sounds like you are facing some foes that are haunted" "Yes , the floor here is made of floor"

I fucking love Forgotten Crossroads

It's just crazy that every song on these soundtracks is a good song!! Great video!! 👍

enter hallownest is literally the song that introduced me to hollow knight

Nightmare Lantern (Interlude) is my personal favorite song from HK

white lady is one of my most listened songs. the second part, not even present in the youtoube official version is just.......perfect. also queens gardens is under decisive battle - HOW?

I feel like every single song on this list just gives me chills listening to them. Hollow knight is my favorate game and the ost is partially why.

Resting grounds is in my top 3. It's the only song in game that gave me pause and I went back only to listen to it.

'with silksong just around the corner' and here we are.

i literally started crying when i heard reflection again after a while of not playing, it does not deserve to be nearly as low as it is. the nostalgia is killing me because it made me think of the first time i found the stag station in crossroads

Crystal Peak might genuinely be one of my favorite songs of all time, it starts extremely peaceful, but with a tinge of dread, and evolves into something full of awe and wonder, and then ramps up the intensity by adding the bass and action, while still keeping the really emotional feeling of the first half, gah its just so good

What about cornifers humming i don't think it's in the ost but i think it would be on my top 3 at least. I don't know i just really like it because you get a sense of relief when you hear this song because you know you're finally going to navigate the area correctly with that new map. And its just very catchy too you know every hollow knight player atleast whistled or hummed this tune out loud. But that's just my opinion where would you place it in your list ?

BRO SAMEEEEE, the nightmare king grimm song is my top favorite song

Along with silksong itself, I'm also eagerly waiting to hear the soundtrack. Gotta have more hollow knight music.

onion i approve of ur vid :)

it's an amazing soundtrack and i agree with a lot of what you said. for some reason i really like the collector's kinda distorted version of gods & glory idk it sounds funny but good to me

Hey good list! I do want to mention something, Pale Court is actually in-game! You have to sit on the Pale King's throne for about 30 seconds and it will start playing :)