Ochre

Despite the release of two DLCs for Darkest Dungeon, The Crimson Court (June 2017) and The Shieldbreaker (October 2017), it wasn't until the third of a total of five expansions, The Color of Madness – which, incidentally, is ochre, but that's just a side note – that there was any new material on the soundtrack front. Even though the five tracks from the expansion are officially part of the Deluxe Edition, I've excluded them for the sake of clarity and am giving them this short review here.

What is the expansion about? I quote the product page on Steam:

Some hateful shard of alien origin has streaked through the night sky, crashing into the old Miller’s farm on the outskirts of the Hamlet! Those unfortunate enough to witness the Comet’s arrival have been blinded by what they can only describe as a shifting, ephemeral hue of damnably abrasive intensity. There has been no word from the farm in a fortnight, save for the unearthly groaning that echoes from the ruin of the mill…

That sounds like fun! In addition, the feature list includes “ Our biggest soundtrack addition yet from Stuart Chatwood” which I'm particularly excited about. It's nice to see music mentioned as a selling point—and quite rightly so.

Basically, the creator remains true to himself in terms of content, but instead of horror, all the pieces focus on relentless drama. This is no coincidence, as the farm described above is a new game mode in which we have to fend off increasingly powerful hordes of enemies. Consequently, the score features powerful percussion and accentuating strings, leaving us searching in vain for moments to catch our breath.

My highlight is the opening track, The Blasted Heath . Its opulent eight-minute running time is filled with string action, drum rhythms, and synth sounds that remind me (with the exception of the synths) of the fantastic The Witcher 3 in places. The electric guitar in All Things Must Come on the other hand, leans toward Prototype, before the choir and violins force the piece back into the fantasy corset. The same applies to the remaining three tracks (Dark Mitochondria, The Senescence, The Chloroplast of Cosmarium), which primarily proclaim dark fantasy. All in all, a good sequel that even manages to impress with a top track.