Soundtrack Feature: Titan Souls

Titan Souls is an adventure game in which the player must traverse a vast overworld, defeating bosses with a bow and a single arrow. As there are many bosses and no ordinary enemies, the soundtrack is composed almost entirely of boss music, but also a handful of beautiful overworld themes for the various areas of the game world.

David Fenn is the composer for this incredible album of music. It can be purchased or listened to for free at Bandcamp, or also listened to for free on YouTube. If you're interested in the game itself, which feels like a hybrid between Dark Souls, Shadow of the Colossus and 2D Zelda, you can check it out on Steam, PS4, PS Vita, or Android.

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My full Soundtrack of the Month series has gone on hiatus and for the time being has been replaced by much smaller soundtrack features, which I am simply calling Soundtrack Features. Yes, it's quite original.

Orc Stain by James Stokoe

The world has been overrun by orckind for a million millennia. Kingdoms rise and fall in a matter of months—or days. The world is chaos, but chaos is all the world's ever known.

However, one day an orc rises to power—and doesn't fall back down. He manages to unite kingdoms never thought uniteable, and conquer lands never thought conquerable. Timeless borders are abolished; ancient lands are littered with the corpses of any who stand in the way of the southern world's new tyrant. Nothing can escape the wrath of the Orctzar.

Far up north lives our protagonist, a one-eyed orc nicknamed "One-Eye". (None of them have actual names, but the greatest are given numbers post-mortem.) One-Eye likes to stick to his own business—busting locks, and surviving. He lives in a part of the world that's mostly at peace—or as much at peace as a province filled with orcs ever could be—doing what he can to stay out of trouble.

Unbeknownst to One-Eye, the Orctzar has learned from an ancient prophetess that in order to find an object of great power that he seeks, he must find an unspecified one-eyed orc in the north. Eager to obtain this object, and be supreme ruler of the entire world, the Orctzar sends multitudes of troops to round up every one-eyed orc in the northern hemisphere of the planet. One-Eye obviously wants nothing to do with these goings-on, and hightails the hell out of there.

This is the premise to the first volume of Orc Stain by James Stokoe, a beautiful, crazy and vulgar graphic novel about a brilliant and insane world. Stokoe is the creator, writer, artist, colorist, and letterer. Seeing as this is a top-quality graphic novel with incredible art, hilarious writing, and an tremendous amount of worldbuilding, that is mightily impressive.

Stokoe takes us on a highly fantastical tale though incredibly intricate lands, full of strange creatures and odd whatnots. It's a very unique concept, and the amount of content packed into this book (168 full-color pages) is impressive. The fact that it was all created one man is awe-inspiring. If this seems like something you'd be interested in, definitely check it out.

Caution: Orc Stain contains adult content and is intended for mature readers.

Soundtrack of the Month: October 2015

Trine is the epitome of fantasy soundtracks. The story of the game is nothing particularly special—three unlikely heroes are magically bound together through a mysterious artifact and must save the kingdom from an undead army—but the combination of great characters, pleasurable gameplay, exotic environments, and gorgeously fitting music are what make this game the gem that it is.

Ari Pulkkinen scores this mystical masterpiece. From the first note the listener is captivated by this wonderful world of fantasy. Trine is one of the few soundtracks that I was actually interested in purchasing before I was even into soundtracks. It made that much of an impact on me. Few soundtracks can rival it in my eyes, with the prominent exception of its sequel.

This feature comes a little over a month after the release of the third game in the Trine series. Trine 3 has received a lot of flack for various different reasons, but the music is not one of them. Sound design remains exceptionally strong throughout the series. I have yet to play the new game myself, but whether I'm disappointed or pleasantly surprised by the experience, I'm certain I'll be purchasing the soundtrack very soon thereafter.

Featured Tracks

Track 2: Academy Hallways – The song that greets the player as they set out on their journey, after completing the tutorial level. It sounds like what it is—the start of an adventure.

Track 4: Dragon Graveyard – The piece that stood out to me the most when first playing the game, and to put it simply, my favorite track. A gorgeous piece.

Track 16: Tower of Sarek – I don't know who Sarek is (aside from an apparent Star Trek character), but his tower is the final level of the game.



Purchase Trine (Original Soundtrack), on AriTunes, iTunes, or Amazon MP3.
Or listen to it for free on Spotify or YouTube.

Soundtrack of the Month: July 2015

As the first year of the Soundtrack of the Month series comes to a close, I decided I would return to where it all started. Believe it or not, I wasn't always a soundtrack nerd. I liked instrumental music and a handful of soundtracks, but I really didn't think much of them at all. There was, however, one television series that came along and changed my mind entirely.

Doctor Who is an entirely unique concept and series. Most people either love it or hate it, with no middle ground. However, regardless of how you think of the series, there is one thing that has to be agreed upon unanimously: The music is awesome.

I remember my first time watching the Series 3 episode "Gridlock". It was an interesting premise that I won't describe due to potential spoilers, but I will say that there was a segment where the Doctor (the protagonist) was jumping between futuristic cars, and the most ridiculously cool music was playing. That was the very first time that Murray Gold's score made an impression on me, and it was far from the last.

While every Doctor Who soundtrack Gold scored since the revival of the series in 2005 has been filled with spectacular music and is equally worthy of being featured, I decided after much debate on Doctor Who Series 3, as it was this music that made me fall in love with soundtrack music, and I am forever in its debt.

Featured Tracks
Narrowing this list down to four tracks was ridiculously difficult. Series 3 introduced many new themes with many different styles, ranging from adventurous, to emotional, to terrifying. Enjoy some of the greatest melodies of the music industry.

Track 1: All the Strange, Strange Creatures – Originally intended as a minor sequence for a single episode, this track was chosen to score a trailer for the series, and thus became a classic and recurring theme.

Track 6: Boe – The Face of Boe is one of the more intriguing recurring characters of the show. Who is he really? What is he really? The answer may just have you on the floor laughing. This particularly emotional theme is a reprisal of a track from Series 2.

Track 15: The Doctor Forever – This is the song that made me fall in love with soundtracks, and it still holds a very special place in my heart. It eventually became known as the Tenth Doctor's theme.

Track 23: This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home – This song is, to this day, my favorite track from any soundtrack, of any genre, for any kind of media. The soaring themes; the strong emotions; the majestic nostalgia; this is art.



Purchase the Doctor Who Series 3 soundtrack on Amazon or iTunes.
Or listen to it for free on Spotify or YouTube.

Bonus: In celebration of this series' anniversary, I put together a small YouTube playlist of various great soundtrack pieces. It contains tracks for soundtracks I've featured, soundtracks I may feature in the future, and soundtracks I will not feature for one of multiple reasons (none of which are bad music). You can check it out here.

Soundtrack of the Month: May 2015

There are very few movie scores that are just as iconic as the films they accompany. Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean come to mind, and of course there's the magnificent Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the first installment of one of the greatest stories our world has ever known. Howard Shore took it upon himself to score the entire trilogy, and while this was no easy feat, he succeeded in composing some of the most iconic, memorable and emotional themes in the entire music industry.

When listening to this soundtrack, you can't help but find yourself traveling to the Shire, and Rivendell, and all the amazing locations visited during the first stretch of the Quest of the Ring. Few soundtracks can immerse the listener so well into its world, so as to take them back to the adventure even when not watching the films.

Shore would score the entire trilogy, and then return to score the entire prequel saga of The Hobbit. While The Hobbit is filled with amazing music and memorable themes, it doesn't quite stand up to the original trilogy, in either score or story. The Hobbit is still a fantastic trilogy with fantastic music, but it is no small feat to top The Lord of the Rings.

One stand-out feature of the Lord of the Rings soundtracks is the inclusion of grand, incredible choral segments that feature singing or chanting in some of the many languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien, the writer of the series from which the movies were adapted. Some English is heard as well. The credits songs for each movie in the Middle-earth saga (always in English, performed by guest artists) are particularly known for their sentimental value.

Featured Tracks

Track 2: Concerning Hobbits – One of the most iconic themes in cinematic history, Concerning Hobbits is the theme for the land of the Shire, and more specifically the town of Hobbiton.

Track 11: The Ring Goes South – Haunting and epic music to accompany a party on an adventure.

Track 17: The Breaking of the Fellowship – The first chapter has come to an end, but the adventure has only begun. This song leads directly into "May It Be", the credits song, performed by Enya.



Note: A largely expanded edition of the soundtrack was released, which covered every single moment of score in the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring. This very long, 4-disc release is out of print, and as of the release this article can be purchased on Amazon new for $799.99 and used for $120.00. Good luck getting your hands on it.

Purchase The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on Amazon or iTunes.
Or listen to it for free on Spotify or YouTube.

Album Review: The Earthen Scar

I spend a lot of time on the internet, and as of late one of my favorite websites is Bandcamp. It's a user-friendly website for both hosting and purchasing music, and one of my favorite features is the ability to write up a little blurb for each purchase you make, about why you bought it and why you enjoy listening to it. That is to say, I've made a point to type up something for every purchase I make on the site. If you know me, you know I love giving feedback.

Bandcamp is where I purchase a lot of my soundtracks that aren't available in physical form. In addition, this website has exposed me to a multitude of fantastic original music. One such instance is the transmedia concept album The Earthen Scar, by composer Thomas Ferkol.

The Earthen Scar is a 12-track instrumental album that tells a story. I don't mean the story is told through the music—at least, not entirely. When you visit the individual pages on Bandcamp for each track of the album, you're given story snippets to read for that particular track. The album tells a story through both these snippets and the music itself.

Far away in a fantasy universe, a plague is spreading through the world that seems to be able to twist and scar the Earth itself. It was intended as spell that was to make humankind immortal, but instead it turned men and women into twisted, undead creatures. It did allow people to live forever, but in a way that was not truly living. A young mage and her guardian set out on a journey through a dying world, but there is little hope for mankind.

The Earthen Scar is a fantastic album. Not only is it beautiful and imaginative instrumental music, but it also has a fairly cool story to go along with it. In fact, some details made me think about how well this story would work as a video game or an anime. It's also interesting to note that, more or less, this story is its own soundtrack. It's a peculiar thought.

One of the features of Bandcamp is the option to select a favorite song from each album you've purchased. For The Earthen Scar, I spent two weeks trying to decide what I wanted to select, because they're all so very good. Every time I thought I knew for sure, I'd listen to a different track and change my mind. They're all equally amazing and unique in their own way. In the end, I chose the track titled "Dear Wasteland"; not because it was greater than the rest, but because it has an exceptionally cool name.

The album also includes a ten-minute bonus track titled "The Bitter Suite". It is not related to the story of The Earthen Scar, but it's of the same style of music, and it is a very good song.

If you like instrumental music, I definitely recommend checking out this album. You can listen to it for free on Bandcamp, or just use the player below. You can also view the story snippets for free as well. Thomas Ferkol has since released two further albums in the saga, The Liminal Descent and The Divine Deception, and is currently working on the final entry in the series.



I'd just like to note that I've finally broken my curse and actually finished an album review that's not a Soundtrack of the Month. Thanks, and have a great day.

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

Disclaimer: This review will include the basic premise of the story, told in my own way; so if you object to spoilers as much as I do, you should probably skip this review. However, if you're not that kind of person, feel free to read on. The review actually contains no spoilers beyond the basic premise.

The Rithmatist is a young adult fantasy novel written by the master of fiction himself, Brandon Sanderson. It takes place in an alternate, steampunk version of our world. It's not an alternate future; it's an alternate world entirely.

As is traditional for a novel penned by Sanderson, The Rithmatist has a unique magic system that is so utterly unlike anything else, that once you actually understand it, you're shocked by its brilliance. I could try to explain Rithmatics to you, but it's not so easy to explain. Sanderson explains how it works throughout the entirety of the novel, for you can't just learn it all at once. It takes time to understand, but it's brilliant.

In the United Isles of America, those who can use Rithmatics—they're called Rithmatists—are of much higher social class than others. That's because they are the isles' main hope of staying safe. Rithmatics involve creating things using chalk, including defenses and possible weapons. In the isle of Nebrask, there's a tower from which swarm thousands of wild chalkings—savage creatures made purely from chalk but easily capable of killing people in terrible ways. The Rithmatists are the main force keeping the chalkings inside Nebrask and not letting them get into the other fifty-nine isles, fully populated with people.

In the isle of New Britannia, Joel Saxon is a student at Armedius Academy, where they train both Rithmatists and upperclass people who don't have the power of Rithmatics. He himself is not a Rithmatist, nor an upperclassman, but rather the son of a now-dead employee of the academy. All his life he's been fascinated by Rithmatics and has always wished that he could use them, but he lost that chance long ago.

Not everyone becomes Rithmatists. In fact, only a very few amount of people do, always chosen at age 8. Every child must go through the inception ceremony when they're young, which will completely determine their future. If they go through the ceremony and nothing changes, they go on with their lives. If they suddenly discover they can use Rithmatics, they get ridiculous privileges, get education at a special school (such as Armedius), serve in Nebrask for ten years, and then get a pension for the rest of their lives.

As a summer elective before his final year at Armedius, Joel finds himself working with the Rithmatist Professor Finch (a non-Rithmatist working with a Rithmatist is almost unheard of) on a secret project involving the disappearances of a couple Rithmatist students off-campus. Thus begins the fascinating and brilliant story of The Rithmatist.

Now, by this time I know Brandon Sanderson. I know he's going to have amazing, likable characters; I know he's going to have a brilliant magic system that will blow my mind once I properly understand it; I know that he's going to have plot twists that will make Ted Dekker look like the writer of children's books. That last fact is a trademark of Sanderson. If you think you know where the story is going, something's going to change that you will never see coming. That will happen numerous times with every book you read that he has penned.

If there's somebody who knows how to craft a story better than anyone else, it's Brandon Sanderson. He'll always leave hints to things along the way that you'll never pick up on when you first read a story. Things that will later blow your mind. As always, Sanderson has created a brilliant world with a fascinating and unique magic system that nobody could ever think of. When you spend seven years developing a book, it's going to be amazing.

I highly recommend that you pick up this book in print format, rather than digital. Each chapter begins with a diagram, often depicting something to help the reader to continue to understand Rithmatics, or something of the sort. With a print version of the book, it's easy to flip back to the beginning of any chapter at any time you want to refresh your memory, and I found myself doing that all the time. In addition, it's always easier to check the map anytime you like (which, by the way, is a really cool map).

So what, you ask, is the verdict? Well, The Rithmatist is a brilliant and well-crafted story by one of the greatest storytellers in history. The characters aren't just lovable, they're awesome. In addition, the novel takes place in a fascinating world with a unique magic system that nobody but Sanderson could even think up. I fell in love with the world, and I'm devastated by the fact that the sequel isn't estimated to hit shelves until 2015.

I can safely say I recommend this book. I can safely say you should go buy this book the very first chance you get. Thank you very much.

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

The Emperor's Soul is a novella that takes place in the same world as Brandon Sanderson's debut novel, Elantris. It focuses on a master criminal named Wan ShaiLu who's found herself on death row unless she can fulfill a forbidden task appointed to her.

Book Description:

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos. 

Shai is given an impossible task: to create—to Forge—a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. She is confined to a tiny, dirty chamber, guarded by a man who hates her, spied upon by politicians, and trapped behind a door sealed in her own blood. Shai's only possible ally is the emperor's most loyal councillor, Gaotona, who struggles to understand her true talent. 

Time is running out for Shai. Forging, while deducing the motivations of her captors, she needs a perfect plan to escape…

Sanderson introduces a new magic system in this story, called Forging. It has to do with the carving of "soulstamps," which can rewrite an object's history. The entire process is very hard to explain, and in the novella itself Sanderson explains it over a decent amount of time. While Forging is very hard to do successfully, if someone with the right skill works for enough time—usually over years—they can Forge something as ridiculous as a human soul.

Shai is forced to Forge the soul of the most well-known man in the entire Rose Empire in only one hundred days, which is virtually impossible. Thankfully, her captors don't know the slightest thing about Forging, so over this amount of time she can plan her escape without the others knowing what she's up to. The Emperor's Soul is about what transpires during those one hundred days.

The narrative of the book is almost entirely from the point of view of Shai, allowing the reader to get to know her and sympathize with who she is. Though the world may not approve, there's a reason she does what she does. As always, Sanderson delivers with his amazingly well-crafted world and characters. During Shai's captivity, she begins to develop a fondness of the arbiter Gaotona, some of her guards, and even the emperor himself. An emotional aspect of the story is that even if Shai truly can Forge the emperor's soul in such a short time, he won't actually be the emperor that once was. He'd just be a copy, no matter how real that copy was.

In the end, The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson is a fantastic read. For a short tale, it's very well-developed and makes the reader feel at home in the fictional world. If you can spare a few dollars, I very highly recommend it.

The Circle Series: Visual Edition by Ted Dekker

If you know me, you probably know I've been a Ted Dekker fan for a long time. Some of his stories I can't stand, while others are simply amazing. One of Dekker's most well-known works is his Books of History Chronicles, which ties several of his series and standalone novels together. That all started with the Circle Trilogy, released back in 2004. It was the Circle that introduced readers to the wondrous fantasy world of Other Earth, and it set the foundations for many spectacular stories to come.

The Circle Series: Visual Edition contains the complete graphic novels Black: The Birth of Evil, Red: The Heroic Rescue, and White: The Great Pursuit, based on their counterpart novels of the same names. The fourth and final novel in the literary series, Green: The Beginning and the End (or Green: The Last Stand) has not yet been adapted into graphic novel format. This is fine, and actually a good thing, because it works better as the standalone sequel to three of Dekker's series, and should only be read after reading all of its predecessors.

The Visual Edition is surprisingly pretty good. I actually liked the art style once I got used to it. It still follows the same story as the novels, of course, but it feels largely abridged. This is needed, so that it will even fit in comic format, but it doesn't feel like it tells the full story. It would be confusing and probably cheesy to people who have not already experienced the story.

My biggest complaint with the Visual Edition of the Circle Series is that it's not a good place to start the story for those who have not read the novels. Because the creators had to skip a lot of content, the plot feels slightly rushed and confusing. In addition, my favorite scene from the novel White was removed altogether.

In conclusion, it's a fun and cool way to revisit the world of the Circle, but only to those who have already experienced the trilogy. I would not recommend it those who haven't yet taken the plunge.