Overview

With Guild Wars: Eye of the North, ArenaNet brought the MMORPG back round circle with a return to the Prophecies campaign. After producing disappointing ambient scores for Factions and Nightfall, Soule aimed to restore the series' music back to its original majesty on this expansion. The final score was released exclusively through DirectSong for a high pricetag of 16 USD.

Body

Right from the opener "Beyond the Northern Wall", Soule testifies that he is back at his finest. Combining a grandiose brass-heavy introduction, mystical string-decorated interlude, and a dramatic choral conclusion, the track seems to reunite many of the threads running through the Guild Wars series into a single defining conclusion. "Overture from Eye of the North" is an equally impressive composition that highlights an epic new theme for the expansion above marching accompaniment. It sounds so typical of Guild Wars, but somehow refreshing at the same time. The soft interlude from the 1:00 mark is bound to inspire plenty of nostalgia from seasoned players with its references back to the Guild Wars theme, while the conclusion convincingly amalgamates the two themes into one.

The setting themes in Guild Wars: Eye of the North are some of the most beautiful in the series. "Ballad of Ice and Snow" testifies once more to Soule's classical sensibilities. The fantasy storytelling through elegant phrasing and rich orchestration seems deeply inspired by Tchaikovsky. The pensive piano solo and melancholic cello passages on "Through the Asura Gates" are also incredibly emotional. While the instrumental soloists are the draw here, its clear here that Soule has revamped his sample library from the original game and learned to turn down the reverb. Even "Darkness Beneath" is relatively accomplished. Soule's ambiguous phrases and textures here are much more interesting than the mundane suspended strings of Nightfall, and are almost as enigmatic as those of Shostakovich.

In contrast to the original campaign, Guild Wars: Eye of the North gets the right balance between action and ambient material. Between the aforementioned tracks, there are highly entertaining renditions of the main theme in "Under the Dark Span", "Tome of Rubicon", and "Song of the Shiverpeaks". "The Shattering of the World" is the most heavy and discordant cue of the soundtrack, focusing on piercing horns, edgy strings, and formidable chorus. These elements will be highly familiar to anyone who has heard Soule's Sorrow's Furnace, but their treatment is quite different here. "A Storm is Coming" is more reminiscent of Nightfall with its percussive focus, but this time these elements interact with the sampled orchestra to create a track with direction and drama even on a stand-alone basis.

There are inevitably short cinematic tracks that are dispersed through the soundtrack. Yet these are nowhere near as interruptive or disappointing as those in Nightfall, given the more substantial tracks more than compensate. Many of the shorter tracks, whether the pensive "Memories of Ascalon", frivolous "Kathrandax", or formidable "Vanguard's Stand", provide some of the most emotional moments of the entire release. Yet it's the likes of the aforementioned openers or the five minutes of orchestral beauty in "Horns of Gunnar's Hold" that ensure the soundtrack is superlative. The closing track, "Legacy of the Gods", finishes the soundtrack with a victorious brass fanfare and hints that there is still more to come from the epic saga of Guild Wars.

Summary

After worrying listeners with his homogenous approach to Factions and Nightfall, Soule manages to surpass expectations on Eye of the North and create the series' best score to date. With its mixture of novel and familiar elements, both thematically and stylistically, the soundtrack both closes the franchise fittingly and stands up in its own right. The digital release is quite pricey, but this is Soule at his best and so could be worth it. And so ends Guild Wars. Bring on Guild Wars 2!