the idle theme…its enough to make a grown man cry…Olaf approves
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I dunno why its being a pain to me, but why do they call it “The Combo”? It sounds so weird.
The choir is amazing! Amazing take on the old theme too.
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Theme is weaker than the original.
… until the men choirs. Amazing.
Began to really like the new composers.
That moment when the choir drops.
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One part Viking
Yes!
One part barbarian
YES!
And one big part rock!
No… 
NOOOOO! Rock has no place with viking and barbarian!!!
They had it! They were there! It was perfect!
The barbaric drums!
The Viking horns!
The beautiful melancholy choir!
… And then they shat all over it with that godawful heavy metal. It overshadows and drowns out all the best aspects of Tusk’s theme. I can’t hear the drums anymore. I can’t hear the horns. The choir is just faint white noise in the background.
Some of the most beautiful theme music I’ve ever heard in KI thus far… annihilated. SMH
These guys have done this to every S3 theme thus far. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a wild guess that Mira’s theme will ALSO be heavy metal. How remarkably original. 
I can guess what that video will sound like:
“Well we hired a famous professional piano player to give us that sophisticated aristocratic mood music of the Victorian era, and we combined it with authentic harp music to enhance the feeling of isolation that this character experiences. Then we threw in some harsh violin staccato to heighten the fear and unease… AND THEN WE BLASTED HEAVY METAL ALL OVER IT TO MAKE IT COMPLETELY INAUDIBLE!!! YEAH! WOOOO!”
This seems to be their philosophy with the themes thus far. Sorry if I sound harsh. I just don’t feel that heavy metal captures the essence of EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER. Up until season 3, the theme’s were more thoughtfully orchestrated than that.
I know I’ve beaten this horse already. I know many of you disagree with me. I’m fine with that. I’m truly glad the majority of the feedback will be positive. This will not ruin my S3 experience. I just think it’s a shame.
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To be PERFECTLY Honest: This theme is legit the best.
I hated tusk’s original theme… Too much horns or something… This new one hit a home run!
I sould also add onthat I expected Tusk’s theme to have a bit of rock in it.
mick did a good job for seasons 1 and 2 , but now atlas plug and celldweller OMG dude you guys rock!!!
While I also was looking forward to a modern update on Basil Poledouris, symphonic metal is probably more appropriate for how the character was redesigned (and in keeping with the rest of the game), like Celldweller said. It is bittersweet - I wanted to hear a full orchestra try something that wasn’t a complete ripoff of the Conan the Destroyer theme. Like it or not, though, he’s Chris Hemsworth now, and not Arnold; we’re thirty-five years removed from Conan and the Marvel movies and “Vikings” are the standard for “white guy badassery”.
Rock is perfect and fits everywhere. This is my fav S3 theme by now.
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Wow! Just Wow! When it all comes together at the end it legit gave me the feels! These guys are musical geniuses and they get KI just as good if not better tha Mic. Every theme they did this season is perfect Imo.
So far the only theme I didn’t have to warm up to. Sounds good.
GOD DAMN!!! This is by far the best.
I wonder whether these guest musicians or choir members are interested in the game after they’ve worked on it; do you think any of the bass-voiced choir guys would get pumped up playing Tusk and hearing their own vocals, or would it destroy the immersion and take them out of the game?
Well, I can’t speak for any of these guys, but I can say I was in advanced choir in college, & if I were ever given an opportunity to do something like that, I don’t think it would destroy immersion for me…it would possibly cause me to focus on the part I had a hand in helping make more, but it wouldn’t suck you out of it. One of the things I remember doing in college was performing Beethoven’s 9th symphony, & ever since, while I can hear my part plain as day still, I probably have a better appreciation for it than I did before.
I wonder if it’s any different when there’s something active involved, though, like playing a game; I recognize portions of songs I had play a part of in my high school guitar class when I hear it, but that’s a recreation of somebody else’s work, versus hearing my own voice speaking a character’s lines, or in the background music.
Just an odd thought I had while re-watching the Tusk Music video this morning. No hints of KI obsession here, move along.
This beat is hands down amazing, when the choir dropped I had chills.
I made my wife listen to it this morning and told her guess which part have me chills.
As soon as the choir drops she said “this part just gave me chills”.
It’s crazy how much emotion this beat brings. It gets you so PUMPED.
I may dislike the metal, but I did think that “Boring State” was really beautiful. It reminded me of music from The Witcher.
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Has anyone been able to find the combo music lyrics from this “making of” video in the game? All I can find is the trailer music - they’re definitely different if you listen closely.
I’ll get a LOT of flak artillery fire for this, couple with a bunch of grenades too… but even though I absolutely ADORE this new Killer Instinct (in general) as a fighting game per se, I still have to say that - at least so far - the music as a whole is rather bad. I haven’t found a single one of the new themes in this new KI to be anywhere near as memorable as the originals from KI1 or even KI2 (although KI2’s music was definitely inferior to the original OST, except for Tusk’s, it was and still is epic). I mean… ok, I do enjoy SOME themes in this new KI, I won’t lie. For example I think that Maya’s and Cinder’s themes are actually alright, that’s fine. In fact, Maya’s new theme is probably better than KI2’s (it was very cheesy, but still memorable, c’mon those monkeys know how to sing!). But I cannot for the life of me understand why they didn’t just (re)orchestrated or slightly re-arranged (VERY slightly so) the original themes to put them back where they belong with modernized sound quality, instead of just shoving the originals aside and composing everything anew! Why the “need” to compose NEW themes for characters that already HAD one from either KI1 or KI2? Ugh!
Ok let’s put it this way: start up the original KI1 theme from Sabrewulf, and then listen to the new one. The new one sounds SO different now that it leads me to believe that the music represents a completely different character. Heck, it sounds like we’re about to see Frankenstein pop-up any second with the new track. But, OF COURSE, the composer HAD to include a short piece from the original theme in the new one (starts at around 2:20 or so in the track). My problem with that is that the inclusion of that piece from the original track DOES NOT FIT with the new one AT ALL. Also, it’s a re-imagining of the original, now it sounds calm, and that piece stops very abruptly to let the new track get back in (at around 3:07). The composer decided to just throw that piece in there for the sake of nostalgia. I HATE it when composers do that. You want to compose something new? You want to distinguish yourself? Well then, why don’t you DO just that? Leave the original where it is. However, if you want to use the original, then give us the original in its integrity! If you want to re-arrange the original then ok do it but DON’T veer off track too much otherwise you might as well just compose something entirely new (I mean, make up your mind already! either keep the original, or make something new, don’t mix them up together!).
I think that the gist is clear, I love the original OST, and I think that the only thing that should have been done would have been to simply give those original tracks better audio quality, maybe (re)orchestrate them (when applicable), maybe add a couple of new sounds and effects here and there. And then compose fitting-to-each-themes tracks for the Ultra Combos (now that they have music associated with them), etc. But it was NOT necessary to just ■■■■■-slap the original OST for something entirely new “just because” it’s a reboot of the franchise. It’s the same with Tusk’s soundtrack. The original from KI2 STILL - to this day - sound epic, and it is MUCH better than the new one. I completely agree with Archon879 too, that as long as a NEW theme for Tusk goes, they actually got VERY close to do something very good (and new) with those drums and horns (I got chills for a moment when I realized how awesome it COULD have been, it brought me back to the same drums and horns from Lord of the Rings)… but they HAD to ■■■■■ it up with that rock / metal insanity! The ONLY tolerated part of the new Tusk’s theme is of course the choir, but that’s it. Remove the choir from it and it has absolutely zero value to me.
Anyways, to each their own, right? If you guys enjoy the new music then good for you! As I said, Maya’s new theme is ok, Cinder’s is alright too, but generally speaking… it’s a train wreck to my ears, sorry.