Overview

While Blizzard Entertainment is one of the gaming world's most important players these days, the company started out small as the business project of three UCLA students with a bachelor's degree. In 1994, three years after its foundation, Blizzard released its breakthrough hit WarCraft: Orcs & Humans – one of the games that kicked off the real-time strategy boom of the late 90s, and of course the first title in what would become one of the biggest game franchises in history.

It makes sense then that the first soundtrack release for a Blizzard game was spawned by WarCraft. However, its album release is not what you would necessarily expect. WarCraft – The German Mixes is pretty much what the titles promises: remixes of WarCraft music by a German act called Mr. Tom & Got Show (who hasn't done much apart from this album, if the internet's memory is to be believed). WarCraft – The German Mixes was an enhanced CD that came with a demo version of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. While the Germany-exclusive physical release of the album has become a rarity, it's still possible to listen to WarCraft – The German Mixes through various online services such as Grooveshark.

Overview

If you had the privilege of being around in Germany in the mid-90s and were aware of the music this era produced, you'll know what's coming your way on WarCraft – The German Mixes. Yep, expect lots of Euro disco and trance tracks that have next to nothing to do with WarCraft's original, march-heavy compositions. There's no question that the motivation behind WarCraft – The German Mixes wasn't some artistic vision, but simply the desire to jump on the bandwagon. Before half of you dear readers start running for the hills though, consider this: WarCraft – The German Mixes' music actually isn't that bad, if pretty generic. Admittedly, the album tracks that run for six minutes and longer wear out their welcome way before they finish. To make matters worse, the longest track on the album is also the one that has aged the least gracefully - “Warcraft (Keine Gnade Mix)”'s bouncy, frenetic Euro disco beats feel rather cringeworthy 15 years later.

However, there's also a number of things that WarCraft – The German Mixes does right. The album features a good variety of styles and avoids turning into the constant 4/4 rhythm rave one might expect. After “Warcraft (Keine Gnade Mix)”'s obnoxious happy-go-lucky beats, things mellow down to varying degrees on the trance-influenced “Warcraft (Orc & Human Mix)” and the slower-paced “Warcraft (Ambiente Mix)”, whose rhythm is a not-too-distant cousin of Ace of Base's “I Saw the Sign”. Don't expect similarly memorable hooks though, here or elsewhere on the album. That's not to say that WarCraft – The German Mixes features no catchy bits at all though. Worth mentioning is closing track “Warcraft (Attacke Mix)” and its cleverly crafted stop-start melody. It's just that there's not much on this album that is particularly memorable – it's mostly serviceable fare, but you can find more than enough albums that do this particular sound better than WarCraft – The German Mixes. If one had to pick an album highlight, it would have to be opening track “Warcraft (Radio Piano Mix)”, which is the only cue on WarCraft – The German Mixes that manages to combine its contemporary elements with hints of traditional fantasy sounds, courtesy of some soft synth pads and a wistful piano melody floating over the thumbing beats.

So far, so average – but unfortunately, the music is probably not what you'll take away from this album. Instead, it's the incessant German voice samples taken from the game that litter almost every single track, to the point that they completely overshadow the music. A few of these voice samples are full bits of game narration, but most of them are snippets from cutscenes or – most commonly – the speech samples gamers hear when they click on an Orc unit. While these spoken responses were pretty innovative for their time and since then have become a trademark of Blizzard's RTS titles, they are anything but an attraction on WarCraft – The German Mixes. If used judiciously, the inclusion of these voice samples could have been a fun gimmick, but the album's creators went completely overboard with the concept, to the effect that you'll hear the same short phrases or just single words dozens of times throughout the album. Hearing an Orc shouting “Attacke!” gets old after five times – after twenty times, it's become simply insufferable.

Summary

“Was soll das?” (freely translates to “Why would you do that?”) is one of the things you'll hear most often on WarCraft – The German Mixes, and it's a question most listeners will ask after having sat through this album. WarCraft – The German Mixes is a sterling example of an album that is brought down by the atrocious overuse of a gimmick, in this case the inclusion of voice samples from the game, which are slathered indiscriminately on most cues. While the music is a generic, if competent mix of popular mid-90s dance music styles with some catchy rhythms and melodies, these positive aspects are eclipsed by the sheer annoyance brought about by the never-ending stream of monotonous, disruptive voice samples. WarCraft – The German Mixes was probably never going to be more than a curiosity item, but it could have been a lot better than this.