Your Own Theme Music

This is a short blog post on a type of music I have really gotten into over the past few years - epic music. You may have noticed in trailers for video games and movies that the background music is different from what might be on the actual official soundtrack. A perfect example of this is the music to the trailer for Inception. The incredible work is *not* done by Hans Zimmer, even though he did the soundtrack. It was written by Zack Hemsey and you can find the song, Mind Heist, on You Tube.

The song that started this all for me was Immediate's Darkness on the Edge of Power. Follow the link and listen to it now. This will give you an idea of what I am talking about! What I love about this is that you can listen to it while working, driving, household chores, or any mundane task and it adds an element of significance and drama to what you are doing. It helps me to focus and work more efficiently - especially those mind-numbing repetitive tasks you just have to do.

I imagine most of these musicians and fans, such as me, can trace their interest in this style of music to the seminal works of John Williams. So there is your Star Wars tie-in to this blog!

You Tube has a huge selection of epic music to listen to with a simple search. The musicians for this whole sub-genre of music have started releasing "public" albums of their works. They are amazing and you should buy them on Amazon and iTunes! Here are my top choices, ranked in order:

Invincible by Two Steps From Hell
This "group", which I think has a lousy name, is probably the best of any of the epic music musicians. This particular album has wall-to-wall greatness. My favorite is Velocitron.

Illusions by Thomas Bergersen
This album is by one of the members of Two Steps From Hell. There is not a single bad track on this album either. It is hard to pick my favorite, but I'd say Immortal and Rada are my top two.

Trailerhead: Saga by Immediate
This album has my first favorite, Darkness on the Edge of Power, which I mentioned earlier. It is hard ranking this album only third, but I'd say these top three are all "must buys".

I would also recommend any of the soundtracks by Hans Zimmer. He is an amazing talent. Two Steps From Hell has several other albums out as well (check out Aesir from Archangel), which I would recommend. But I hesitate a bit with SkyWorld. There are a few vocal tracks on that album that just don't fit and one of them is just plain bad.

Immediate also has several albums out that are all great. Take a listen to How to Control the Dream from Trailerhead: Triumph and The Reluctant Warrior from the original Trailerhead.

Lastly, I will mention Globus, which has some great choral type of music. My personal favorite of their's is Preliator. It sounds like a martialing of an army heading to a decisive battle.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the albums have 20+ tracks and if you get the MP3 version it is only nine or ten bucks - a fantastic bargain!