The “miracle” of ‘God Of War’s music – 20 years since the first game

The original God Of War was released on March 22, 2005 and kickstarted an epic franchise of sequels, spin-offs and celebrated reboots. 20 years later, more than 66 million God Of War games have been sold worldwide and a TV adaptation is in the works at Amazon.

Driven by brutal action and an emotionally devastating plot, the first God Of War trilogy followed hulking Spartan warrior Kratos on a mission of revenge against the Greek gods after one deity cruelly tricked the loyal soldier into murdering his own wife and child. The 2018 reboot leaped forward in time and took heavy inspiration from Norse mythology, but the game was still just as brutal. It started with Kratos mourning the death of his second wife Faye before heading out with their young son to spread her ashes from the highest peak in the nine realms – with plenty of mythical beasts and Nordic gods standing in their way.

It’s not just the fluid gameplay and the series’ dramatic take on mythology that’s helped it become one of greatest gaming franchises ever made. Every swing of Kratos’ hefty Leviathan Axe or quiet moment of loss is underpinned by a gorgeous score. The orchestral music of God Of War is as grand as you’d expect for a series about taking on actual gods but there’s also a real sense of scrappy humanity weaved between those epic highs, thanks to the skill of composers like Bear McCreary (God Of War 2018 and Ragnarök) and Gerard Marino (God Of War 1, 2 and 3). It’s little wonder it’s been performed at concerts across the globe.

‘God Of War’ 20th anniversary vinyl boxset. CREDIT: Laced

To celebrate the 20th anniversary, Sony has teamed up with Laced Records for a bumper vinyl boxset, featuring 150-remastered tracks from across the entire franchise. Individual scores have also been made available on vinyl for the first time. It’s a well-deserved victory lap but, according to both McCreary and Marino, the success of God Of War is something of a miracle.

In the beginning, there was chaos

God Of War (2005)

When Gerard Marino signed on to score the first God Of War game, he was told by everyone involved at Sony’s Santa Monica Studios it was going to be a really big deal. “I knew they were attempting something ambitious…but I really didn’t know if it was going to work out,” he tells NME over Zoom. For most of development, he was scoring blocky figures moving about a blank environment, the ferocious protagonist Kratos was still called Dominus and Marino didn’t get to play a polished version of the game until after it launched for the PS2.

Creator David Jaffe had already had hits with 1995’s vehicular smash-em-up Twisted Metal and its 1996 sequel so Sony bosses let him “run pretty wild” with God Of War.  “There were a lot of ideas about combining different things together so for a long time, we were all just casting around. It really wasn’t obvious [what God Of War] was going to be,” says Marino. For a while, the music was going to be a cross between “this nasty, primordial soup that avoided all melody” and Queen’s glam rock score for Flash Gordon. Remnants of that mash-up (created by Ron Fish) can still be heard in the mystical nightmare of Pandora’s Temple but for the rest of the game, the team realised they needed something “a little more on the nose” so players wouldn’t be baffled by the brand new IP.

So, Marino set about creating music inspired by Hungarian-born composer Miklos Rosza’s Oscar-winning score for 1959 classic Ben Hur, a brassy, sweeping collection of tracks influenced by Greek and Roman music. “It was going to be this grand Hollywood swords-and-sandals epic,” he says, with Jaffe also wanting the character’s motivation to be reinforced with the music. “They wanted a theme like Indiana Jones’, so every time you heard it, you knew [Kratos] was about to do something cool.”

Using the Greek words for “revenge” and “redemption” (“ekdikisi” and “lýtro̱si̱”) he created ‘The Vengeful Spartan’ theme for Kratos. But months later, he was asked to craft something with more sorrow and anguish to better reflect the gruff but loveable hero’s journey through the game. After a few failed attempts and nearly getting fired “because they didn’t really know what they wanted”, Marino turned in the main God Of War theme. Shortly after the game was released, the now-iconic track was performed at the Hollywood Bowl during the first Video Games Live concert. The celebratory show is still on the road and the music of God Of War has never left the setlist.

‘God Of War’ composer Gerard Marino

The sequel had to sound even bigger

God Of War 2 (2007), God Of War 3 (2010)

“Making [the first] God Of War was a crucible of fire for everyone involved,” says Marino, with the whole development team figuring things out as they went along and somehow coming out with a game that was a critical and commercial success. Work quickly began on a sequel. Marino’s beefier, grander score for 2007’s God Of War 2 benefitted from the greater level of trust that was placed in him this time around by studio bosses, who interfered very little.

“We were all given a lot more freedom. I felt like a big boy composer – I was trusted with making all this amazing stuff and given the resources to pull it off.” He teamed up with his buddy Kostas Christides to create Greek scripts that were sung by massive choirs and Sony bosses only gave him two notes during the entire process – one of which was to change a lyric to avoid spoilers. This more ambitious, more daring soundtrack meshed perfectly with God Of War 2, which saw Kratos violently barrelling through legends with a newfound confidence.

By contrast, the soundtrack to 2010’s God Of War 3 was smaller. “It wasn’t as fast and flowery as what we’d done before,” he explains. “We dialled it back because it felt like we’d taken that non-stop tension as far as it could go.”

Three months after it was released, Sony reported that God Of War 2 had sold more than a million copies and in 2009, IGN named it the second best game ever released for the PS2, just behind Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Some critics claimed God Of War 3 was more of the same but that didn’t stop it selling more than 5.6million units – and it’s still regarded as one of greatest video games ever made.

“We all struggle with the search for meaning and those games really dive into universal topics like family, regret, failure and ambition. It helps you feel connected to something bigger,” says Marino of their cultural impact before grinning. “And it’s also a lot of fun to rip through stuff in a big, violent way.”

God of War: Ragnarok. Credit: Sony Santa Monica

A new saga needs a new soundtrack

God Of War (2018)

A handful of celebrated prequels and handheld spin-offs kept the legacy of God Of War alive but Santa Monica Studios still wanted to reboot the series with a new mainline title.  Rather than a straightforward follow-up with shiner graphics, they were after something that felt as original as the first game.

Bear McCreary was already a fan and was brought on before the reboot was even green-lit by Sony to create the music. “God Of War was the perfect gaming experience,” he tells NME over Zoom. “The combat system is rewarding, the music is epic, the aesthetic is exciting and the gameplay is fun… and that should have been the end of it. But somehow God Of War 2 was even better. Arguably God Of War 3 was better still. The worst thing you can say about any of those games is that it’s more of the same great stuff.”

Still, God Of War 2018 moved away from Greek mythology to explore Norse legends with an older Kratos heading off to carry out the final wish of his dead wife Faye, alongside their young son Atreus, all while trying to escape the bloody, brutal actions of his past.

After a three hour meeting with director Cory Barlog where the entire story was laid out for him, McCreary knew OG fans were going to love the reboot – but it was more than just nostalgia bait. “There was just something special in the air at Santa Monica Studios,” he explains. “But I really could not have predicted the cultural response that 2018 received.”

McCreary’s plan for this new take on a classic? “Keep nothing the same.” He leaned into the new Scandinavian setting and researched Nordic folk music extensively. Using vintage instruments such as bodhrán frame drums, hardanger fiddles and nyckelharpa, a string quartet and the celebrated Icelandic choir Schola Cantorum Reykjavík, he created something that was as authentic as possible while still taking creative liberties. “Well, I think that’s in-keeping with the spirit of mythology really,” he grins. “When I hear that music now, it transports me to the snow-covered world of God Of War. Honestly, I have to put a sweater on.“

‘God Of War’ composer Bear McCreary. CREDIT: Ted Sun

While the Greek music was grand and imposing, the first thing McCreary wrote was a “small, scratchy, intimate” theme, which matched up with the original vibe of the planned revival. But after the game was approved and development progressed, it felt like something was missing. “There was a need to acknowledge the rage, power and obsession that is burning within Kratos, that was on display fully in the Greek games,” says McCreary, who scrapped his original theme (though it was later repurposed for Kratos’ wife Faye) and created something more powerful and masculine. Together these two very different tracks represented the “layered” story that was told across the reboot.

“God Of War 2018 was a radical reinvention,” says McCreary. “It took that formula of epic single-player experiences [that celebrated studio Naughty Dog has honed with Uncharted and The Last Of Us] and turned it on its head. The combat is addictive, the aesthetics are beautiful, the drama is deeper… honestly, it’s a miracle it all came together.”

McCreary was already building a reputation for his emotional, epic scores but after God Of War, he become one of the most in-demand composers around, working on Black Mirror, Call Of Duty, Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power and The Walking Dead. Nothing was going to stop him coming back for the sequel though.

Things got even more emotional with Ragnarök

God Of War: Ragnarök (2022)

Released in 2022, God Of War: Ragnarök still focused on the trials and tribulations of Kratos, but a lot more characters shared the spotlight alongside him. It meant McCreary had to write new themes for new antagonist Freya and doomed dwarven brothers Brok and Sindri, who might have the most tragic story in the entire franchise. The biggest addition was Kratos’ son Atreus finally getting his own theme though.

“God Of War 2018 is the story of a father and son, but the boy didn’t have his own theme because his whole identity was about understanding his parents. In Ragnarök though, he goes on his own journey.” To signify this change, McCreary wrote a “scrappy punk rock” track that takes the first few notes of Kratos’ theme and flips them upside down. “It was this real ‘screw you dad, I’m going my own way’ thing.”

God Of War Ragnarok. Credit: Sony Santa Monica.

The end of the Norse saga finally allowed God Of War to go full circle

God Of War: Ragnarök – Valhalla (2023)

The release of the free Valhalla expansion in 2023 brought the chapter to an end and let McCreary finally use Marino’s classic theme. “I love the Greek scores and everything they brought to the game. We’d experimented with using them in 2018 but that music deserved better than fan service,” he explains. To get to the point in Valhalla where Kratos faces his younger self and the two sagas finally come together, gamers will have to have put in between 50 and 100 hours. “The fact we withheld those great themes until they could really be meaningful is how we honoured them,” says McCreary. “It makes me so happy that we finished the Norse saga by looking back on the Greek games.”

Valhalla wrapped up Kratos’ story neatly but that hasn’t stopped rumours about a new God Of War series, perhaps inspired by Egyptian mythology. “I’m really proud of my contributions to Kratos’ arc,” says McCreary when asked if he’d come back. “Being able to score the music for the last scene in Valhalla gave me this feeling of completion. That said, Santa Monica Studios have my number…”

Marino still hasn’t played those recent God Of War games. “It’d be like going out for dinner with your ex and her new partner,” he tells NME with a smirk. He’s a big Bear McCreary fan though. “He’s so good at melody, and that’s the thing that people fall in love with.” In fact, Marino started remixing some of McCreary’s God Of War themes for a tour that would feature EDM and industrial metal reworking of classic video game anthems. “The pandemic shut that down, but I still have a vision of every God Of War composer onstage together…maybe that’s how we should launch the vinyl this October.”

‘God Of War’ 20th anniversary vinyl boxset. CREDIT: Laced

Perhaps proving the God Of War series can span generations, McCreary has just finished a playthrough of the entire thing with his daughter. “I love all of those games. I had to cover her eyes a few times but now many 10-year-olds can say they’ve completed the entire God Of War saga?”

And last month, Marino conducted the UCLA’s Game Music Ensemble as they performed a reworked selection of music from God Of War 3. “My daughter Olivia was in utero at that first Hollywood Bowl concert and for this, she performed soprano lead,” he beams. “God Of War really is the gift that keeps on giving.”

The ‘God Of War’ anniversary vinyl collection will be released this October and is available to pre-order here

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