The music of God Of War Ragnarok has been celebrated far and wide since the game launched in November, and the game’s Composer, Bear McCreary has been the recipient of a heap of acclaim, culminating in McCreary and God Of War Ragnarok receiving the award for “Best Score and Music” at The Game Awards earlier this month. Today, McCreary has pulled back the curtain a little on his art, sharing insights into the creation of an iconic theme for Ragnarok.
Writing on the PlayStation Blog, McCreary said,
Theme: Ragnarök
The last primary new theme I composed for this game was for another family, representing the antagonists from Asgard, Thor, his father Odin, and the impending prophesied event of Ragnarök itself. To create a musical force that could threaten Kratos was a mighty task (his theme begins with powerful low male vocals that radiate menace and strength). To try to write a villainous theme that dwarfed Kratos’ in terms of strength and raw power was a fool’s errand. So, I looked to the script for inspiration.
Odin, as portrayed by Richard Schiff in God of War Ragnarök defies audience expectations. Eric Williams described him as a snake in the grass. He has a slight frame, and his vast power is most often implied. He is unafraid to use force, but would rather use psychological means to achieve his ends. Furthermore, I thought about the ominous impending doom of Ragnarök itself, which looms over the story’s horizon like a storm cloud. These ideas inspired me to energize the Ragnarök Theme with a slithering, dangerous, yet subdued ostinato. I wanted this string pattern to imply power and menace with a relentless triplet rhythm, one that rolls across the soundtrack like distant thunder.
This ostinato gets louder and louder as the story progresses. Above it, the main melody of the Ragnarök Theme offers a dark nobility and ominous foreboding, often sung by male choirs with an Old Norse text.
I spent about half a year sketching themes for this game, often tweaking back and forth with my creative partners at Santa Monica Studio. A few of them came easily, but several went through five or six drafts before I landed on something promising. I struggled especially with the Atreus Theme, as I found I was initially crippled by the intense pressure to write a theme that could measure up to my two most iconic melodies from God of War (2018). By the end, however, I was confident that my new themes for Atreus, Angrboda, the Huldra Brothers, and Ragnarök, would measure up to the melodies I had written for the last game.
If you’re anything like me, then you’ve now got the iconic tune in your head following McCreary’s or are rushing for your Spotify/Apple Music subscription to check out the song yourself.
