Sadira Hisako Glacius Thunder Spinal and Orchid themes are legacy standouts for me.
I feel no one else can or will match the epic level of those defining and immersive tracks.
Anyone can make an 8-bit theme sound good.
Let’s hear an epic throwdown like Mick’s Glacius that sculpts the alien in your mind, or a Hisako that generates the eerie rage and melancholy with vengeance.
Only THEN shall one be named successor to Mick’s godlike compositions.
As much as I love Mick, I feel like it was the right time for him to move on…
At first I was really gutted and felt almost let down.
But then I remembered that I’ve actually gotten a little tired of all the electric guitar in pretty much all the tracks… Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE electric guitar, but KI has always had VERY diverse music and felt like that was getting less and less true…
Then there was the whole asking for ideas and Riptor track thing… I still don’t really like Riptors track and it’s the only track from all of them that rings true for. I love all of the others for different reasons and styles.
Felt a little like he was running out of ideas in the end, and I think he’s knows that now is enough before people start getting enough, instead of actually remembering him for the INSANELY amazing tracks that he’s delivered already.
And judging from the Rash trailer (and Soundcloud) the new guys will do just fine.
The Rash track is great and they still have a good amount of time to fine tune and adjust it, even though I don’t think it’s needed.
A great thanks to Mick for being a music god, and godspeed to the new guys for a chance to step up as equally godly people of sound 
Mick will live on in the other games he’s working, I’m even more excited for DooM…Come on remix the D3 theme
I remember that like five people on the old board were vocal about not being stoked by Mick’s work. I’m the opposite - I loved the music in the old games, but see the new ones as the natural evolution into the modern era. I have my own seamless custom remixes that I play in my car all the time, and my co-workers listen to it. I mean, for God’s sake, the man worked the unused Maya theme into her idle. It was incredible.
I disagree on the much-maligned Riptor mix - I think he took a risk that largely worked out, although I left the high combo part where he just mashes the heavy chord out of my mixes, but for me the most jarring part was the idle. Not because it wasn’t jamming, because it was, but because the instrument quality was so much poorer than what Mick did. The finale sounded like something out of Warcraft 2 with the synthesized bells. The background drums also weren’t aligned properly.
Going forward I hope that Atlas and Celdweller collaborate and really go out of their way to find unique ways to use nontraditional video game instruments, not just techno/rock over and over. Kim Wu is crying out for classic zither, and if they don’t rent a chamber orchestra for Tusk I’ll be crushed. I also hope they scale back working the title theme into every little thing - that was fun at first, but now that it’s in ARIA’S main and practically everyone’s idle we may need to move on. Either way, we are where we are - let’s get a great final season and bring it home!
What exactly do you think cell dweller is going to bring, a pan flute and a cello? It’s going to be more of the same
I’m hoping they come with some new ideas instead of just imitating Mick, that’s the whole point.
Don’t mind guitar, I just want something else also… don’t you think Sabrewulf, Orchid, Glacius, TJ’s and so on have amazing tracks without the guitar…
Not to mention Spinals track which by many in here (including myself) is the favorite.
You can go a long way without it, but it’s true, it’s the easiest instrument to go to for some aggressive sounds… I’m just not looking for an artist for KI that takes the easy route, and Mick DID NOT do anything similar to that in S1… S2 has amazing tracks too, but there’s not nearly as much variety
as S1 do
I’m not expecting the new guys to do anything, but I’m hoping for a S1-Mick amount of greatness
Ok agreed…
But from what I’ve seen of the new ones their range is limited as far as what they’d provide for the diverse characteristics of each remaining character.
You’re right, are we going to have a repeat of shadow jago theme for Gargos and eyedol or will there be epic compositions that stand out and define each character. Tempos chords and instruments will prevail.
As for Kim, I’d say a more elegant legato would suit her character with an increasing intricate and layered with interchanging tempo as the fight increases…
I guess it’s a wait and see thing.
yeah… hope we’ll get another DH to IG miracle.
As unlikely as it can seem the development of this game has been filled with miracles.
Knew from the beginning that I didn’t want Rare to make it since their golden days was far from the present.
Then they showed Double Helix and everyone was like “Whaaaat…?” They had no good games on their portfolio and was a tiny developer.
But they pulled it off and then some, game was amazing to say the least.
Then Iron Galaxy got mixed into everything and was supposed to take over for the newly hatched “superstars” which lightly put, seemed like an impossible task.
But they blew KI even more out of the water, and took the game from being amazing to godlike status.
Same is already true for the music, Mick just didn’t get the flaming Double Helix did because he already at the announcement had the chance to show what he had, and it was his epic reimagining of the main theme that got everybody in and out of the conference room screaming in hype.
Not to mention that he also had Jago’s theme on the showfloor that everyone also loved immediately, before they knew who the composer was.
But he did already pull of the miracle at E3 13 going from 2 superstar Rare composers to just little unknown Mick… he’s the music’s version of Double Helix… let’s just hope they found another Iron Galaxy with Atlas and Cell Dweller
This game is soaked in miracles so I dare to hope, it just seems to good to be true at this point :-\
… It’s not miracles that’s helped this game to succeed, it’s passion and love 
If you will, miracles don’t just happen. It’s random luck when things work out without the effort needed to get there.
If you think it’s been a miracle to get what we’ve got, it’s more a reflection of the effort willing to be put into the game by such relatively small groups of programmers and artists as we’ve been lucky enough to have.
Agreed… but it both demands passion, skills and a huge amount of fighting game knowledge… and all those things is hard to find as a package in an entire developer.
Often the knowledge would come with the passion, but it’s not certain.
And for the music it’s again one thing to know how to compose, but composers also often have like a special style or sound they stick to and if that doesn’t match up with what’s needed, passion will do nothing.
Mick was a miracle, as he was a jack of all trades, even though he was definitely strongest on heavy (or maybe just leaning more towards it).
What I’m hoping to see from Cell is that passion and determination that Mick had, the willingness to try new things and experiment all in the name of art. Mick learned to throat sing and even created his own contraptions to create sounds.
I think this is what set him apart from other artists who would simply create the sounds mechanically with a computer program. One thing that made me love Mick and his work was after listening to only a small snipet of a character theme you instantly knew who it belonged to.
I actually kind of tested that out. I had my mother, who hates video games but loves music in general, listen to a few of the themes from KI, namely Polemos, Sandstorm, Tiger Warrior, and Herald of Gargos (Aganos, Kan-Ra, Jago, and Omen in case anyone didn’t know the track names), and asked her if she could describe the character that the theme was related to. She got them all right, except for the fact that she thought Aganos was a cave troll-like creature (which is pretty close). She even got Kan-Ra’s affinity for sand through the sound of the song, I didn’t tell her the name of the track.
That’s what I hope we get from CellDweller and Atlas Plug, but I doubt we will 
That’s exactly what I feel about the tracks.
Hoping they’ll show people that they’re the right ones for the job…
We we’re all doubting both Double Helix and Iron Galaxy when they got on board too, and that turned out better that great both times
Completely agree with this, but as far as I know, we also didn’t really get any of that in S2…
In S1 we had throatsinging, a flute from a human thigh bone, real Indian (sorry, know it’s not politically correct) language/chanting… for ■■■■■ sake… he smashed a piano for the drums for Sabrewulfs track, just because it felt like the way it should be when a werewolf tears down an orchestra
What did we get like that in season 2? Sure the tracks are great, but where did he go to such lengths as in season 1?
There weren’t any characters that needed that kind of attention in S2 though. Who in Season 2 really wanted something like that? Aganos? No, he just needed to sound really heavy, which Mick did with the bass. Kan-Ra? No, he just needed to get the feeling of the desert, which Mick achieved. Cinder? No, Inferno is perfect. You can’t really hold up the lengths that Mick went to for Season 1 as something he needs to do for every season, he did those because they fit the character.
HI . I think Mick Gordon s Job on KI was just as Good as it could be , There is only one his themes that i dont like like te others , riptors Theme is not as good as all the others , IMO.
The new composers will do their best because they know the size of the shoes they are trying to fill. And also they are very good , the rash theme is really good , and the music at Kim Wu teaser is really promising.
So , before season 1 start there were a lot of people not happy at all because the original composer from KI was not the one doing the music for the new KI, some of us give a chance to mick without saying nothing until we hear a full theme from him , so now lets do the same. Lets wait to see were this guys can take us with their music.
I wish the best to them , because if They do it fine , KI wins , and i really like , love enjoy KI.
I think we’ll know from Kim Wu theme if Mick is sorely missed!
I in no way want to be disrespectful but I’m scurred about season 3’s music. I hope they prove there’s nothing to worry about.
Because the last thing we need is more sub-par fighting game music, SFV and MKX already have that covered.
The character themes sound alright. The stages though… 
One very strong point in Mick’s favor is that, he was actually a true fan of the old games, and a KI player himself.
He knew about the game’s lore, and it shows in his tracks. When he is composing he is imagining Jago fighting Gargos, TJ beating Riptor, Glacius crashing on Earth…
How do the new composers feel about KI? Are they fans of the game? Do they know their lore? All the indications, sketches and design documents will help to a point, talent and passion will help, but… will the edge be here?
Mick Gordon, like you and me, was in there when Orchid fell Eyedol into the lava pit in 1994. He saw it. He has cooked these themes for 20 years in his head.
Decided to post something special here. Anyone remembered this KI panel headed by Mick himself at PAX AUS 2013?