Overview

Another real-time strategy portrayal of the War of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II received considerable acclaim at the time of its release. Jamie Christopherson returned to supplement Howard Shore's film scores with new music, including portrayals of the various races featured in the game. Did he surpass expectations?

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The most interesting aspect of the soundtrack is how the various races of Middle-Earth are portrayed. Christopherson convincingly channeled influences from Shore's Lothlórien themes when portraying the Elven race. Aubrey Ashburn's soprano solos on "Elven Nightfall" and "Elven Morning Light" are on par with the film franchise's most beautiful performances. Christopherson offer some novel approaches to portray the Dwarven race, which were less well-characterised by Shore. Whereas the grandiosely orchestrated "The Dwarves Explore" capture the race's curiosity and ambition, the more percussive "Craftsmen Dwarves" (complete with some obligatory pickaxe noises) reflects their inventiveness. But flatteringly, Christopherson reserves the richest orchestration of all to "Men of the West" — an extended march highlighting a noble melody.

While the soundtrack focuses on the Forces of Light, there are plenty of darker entries to the soundtrack. Christopherson writes a very different march to portray the "Forces of Evil", focusing on propulsive percussion rhythms and brutal orchestral discords. The Goblin race meanwhile are portrayed as dangerous and mischievious with "Goblin Swarm" and "Goblin Tunnels". Both tracks are a perfect fit for these returnees from The Hobbit. But while these tracks are unpredictable, they are not as affecting "Spider Riders". Here, Christopherson seems more inspired by horror scores and, while the resultant score will come across derivative to seasoned score listeners, it brings plenty of novelty and mood to the in-game experience.

Like its predecessor, The Battle for Middle-Earth II's soundtrack was composed as a supplement and it shows on the digital soundtrack release. There is no central thematic material here, only a few tracks are substantially developed, and the final playtime barely exceeds a half hour. There aren't as many short cinematic cues as the predecessor, but there also isn't anything as incredible in scope as "The Fellowship Continues". A few tracks do help to unify the experience — "Joining Forces" is a brief but pleasant introductory march, while "Elven Morning Light" ends the score with an inspired vocal theme — but most tracks inbetween serve their purpose in the game, but don't come together to create a fully-fledged stand-alone experience.

Summary

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II features a competently written and generally enjoyable soundtrack. But while it works wonderfully as an in-game supplement to portray different races and specific sequences, it falls down somewhat on a stand-alone level due to its lack of content and supplementary feel. Nevertheless, a few tracks here, especially "Elven Morning Night", "Forces of Evil", and "Men of the West", are well worth listening to.