Year: 1999
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Frank Klepacki; Jarrid Mendelson
Number of tracks: 21

★★★★★

Sunrise

If anyone was silently hoping that Tiberian Sun, the third installment in the Command & Conquer-franchise (or the second game in the Tiberium series), would change anything, they were probably disappointed when it was released in 1999. The question is: Was there such a person? Because what the predecessors had given us were exciting real-time battles with pretty graphics, legendary unit quotes, a wacky single-player campaign with trash videos and countless hours of gaming fun.

This time I can actually speak of 'us', because even though I was with my barely two-digit age much too young for this 16 rated title, I was able to experience the game first at my cousin's, our neighbor's and later even on my home computer - of course without the knowledge of my parents. My conspiratorial brother nevertheless fulfilled his duty of supervision by covering my eyes in the intro sequence of the Nod campaign when the camera panned over the smoking remains of a dead soldier with his helmet half blown off. The game was cut in Germany and all units were actually cyborgs ... Logic error!

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn (1995)

Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations (1996)

Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996)

Command & Conquer: Red Alert - Counterstrike (1997)

Command & Conquer: Red Alert - The Aftermath (1997)

Command & Conquer: Red Alert - Retaliation (1998)

Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun (1999)

Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun - Firestorm (2000)

As with most titles from those days, you won't hear me say a bad word about my first C&C. Sure, some of the battles were too difficult for me, minor control flaws were annoying even back then and the beautified screenshots on the back of the packaging were a negative even for me. But compared to objectively worse games like Star Trek: New Worlds, Tiberian Sun was a revelation. So this game will forever be in my mental hall of fame, not least because of its iconic soundtrack.

As with the two predecessors, Frank Klepacki was once again at work here, but this time with the support of Jarrid Mendelson. In collaboration with Klepacki, he was to give the 16 tracks of the OST a darker, more oppressive end-time atmosphere. This stylistic decision is in direct contrast to the upbeat industrial style of the two previous C&Cs, which didn't bother me as a newcomer at all. Nevertheless, the score was also a turning point for me, as now I was listening to music that stood in stark contrast to my previous experiences.

At the risk of seeming old, here's a much-used boomer saying: "Today's kids can't even imagine that anymore!" But back then, music wasn't really something you actively sought out. It either came from friends, was controlled by parents and their choice of music and radio stations or appeared on TV or in games. Of course you could buy CDs, but who had money for that as a child? My taste in music was therefore more of a by-product. And between Led Zeppelin and Tina Turner, electro wasn't really on the menu.

But suddenly this game comes around, which was not only forbidden due to its age and therefore appealing anyway, but also fired this ominously dark score that shot adrenaline through my body when I was secretly playing it. Take Valves, for example. It's not the best piece on the album, but it conveys the composers' intentions perfectly. Dark humming that - as the name suggests - evokes the movement of a huge machine. This is followed by synths, complemented by a driving electric bass, drums and dominated by a simple theme that repeatedly breaks out of the uniformity.

According to the CnC wiki , Klepacki said in an interview that he wanted to design the score in the spirit of the two previous installments, but that the developers at Westwood pushed him in the direction described above:

I didn't want to stray too far from the original C&C-soundtrack, but it had to be more futuristic and ambient. From there I tried to capture the mood the designers wanted for each mission[: very dark, moody and not upbeat at all]. I even brought in another composer for some of the in game scores, Jarrid Mendelson, who I knew would compliment my style for this genre of music. Also, you'll notice I put more development into GDI & NOD's signature themes for the movie sequences.

Composer Frank Klepacki

This ambition was successfully met. The score for Tiberian Sun builds up a similar end-time atmosphere to Earth 2150 or Fallout , for example, and in pieces such as Gloom one could almost speak of horror. But Klepacki and Mendelson break the tension again and again and drive us and our units across the map in tracks like Infrared or What Lurks . Other tracks break with the acoustics and sprinkle in violin- and brass-like sequences (Approach) or slappy, funky electric guitar (Map Rap).

However, the experiment doesn't always work: Mutants has a strong opening, but loses its way later due to its repetition. With Lone Trooper it's the other way around - weak start, good finish. The five additional tracks, which are not part of the OST and have been made available on Klepacki's own homepage , are also rather good than excellent. Above all, the themes from the main and options menus, which immediately make my fingers twitch with nostalgia, are more likely to be something for fans. Cool detail here: The church bells in Red Sky [Rare] for a real graveyard feeling. Following this short review, I would like to talk about the Tiberian Sun banger songs. A few of them have already been mentioned above, now to the missing ones.

First and foremost is my absolute favorite Pharotek. It begins not unlike a boot-up sequence with the routine start-up of the computer systems. A whistling or a kind of moaning, abruptly interspersed with a striking synth echo - electro experts could certainly use the appropriate vocabulary here - and then the sound of a beeping melody. The zeeeeng sound gives the song an oriental flair to match its name and, complemented by the beat, it becomes fast and remains rhythmic. Suddenly, marching noises are heard - an influence of the “Hell March” from Hell March from Red Alert? The beeping breaks out of the uniformity, sometimes flying here, sometimes there. The march disappears, the cacophony builds up again and while all this is happening, we bob along helplessly. Simply awesome.

The other 5-star tracks trigger similar reactions in me: There's the chillingly relaxed Scouting, which fuses beats and synths in the best old school hip-hop manner. Flurry , on the other hand, is no-nonsense, here panic dominates the end times, a ferocious struggle for survival. More of a classic C&C-feeling enters with Heroism and Dusk Hour , one looking down on the action from above, the other from very close up. And The Defense is another bit of electro action for good measure.

For me, everything is just right here: the atmosphere, this mixture of sombre apocalypse and determined action; the electro influences that simultaneously accelerate and decelerate the score; the clash of the familiar and the new. And Tiberian Sun was also a very good game. The last part in particular can honestly only be understood by people who played it back then; fortunately, the soundtrack is different. Anyone can listen to it!

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Timebomb	Frank Klepacki	4
02	Pharotek	Jarrid Mendelson	5
03	Lone Trooper	Jarrid Mendelson	4
04	Scouting	Jarrid Mendelson	5
05	Infrared	Frank Klepacki	5
06	Flurry	Frank Klepacki; Jarrid Mendelson	5
07	Mutants	Frank Klepacki; Jarrid Mendelson	4
08	Gloom	Jarrid Mendelson	4
09	Heroism	Jarrid Mendelson	5
10	Approach	Frank Klepacki	4
11	Dusk Hour	Frank Klepacki; Jarrid Mendelson	5
12	The Defense	Jarrid Mendelson	5
13	Mad Rap	Frank Klepacki	5
14	Valves	Frank Klepacki	5
15	What Lurks	Frank Klepacki	4
16	Score	Frank Klepacki	4
17	Nod Crush [Rare]	Frank Klepacki	4
18	Red Sky [Rare]	Frank Klepacki	4
19	Options Menu [Rare]	Frank Klepacki	3
20	Storm Coming [Rare]	Frank Klepacki	3
21	Map Theme [Rare]	Frank Klepacki	3

Year: 2000
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Frank Klepacki
Number of tracks: 11

★★★★★

Firestorm

When the time came to score the music for the Firestorm expansion pack, Klepacki and the producer decided that the music should be more upbeat and a return to the original style of the music of Command & Conquer.

That's what the corresponding entry in the CnC-wiki. However, anyone expecting a complete departure from what they heard in the main game will hardly be satisfied. In fact, most of the eleven tracks in the add-on are not lacking in gloomy tones - despite the absence of Jarrid Mendelson. Rain in the Night 2, Infiltration, Hacker or Elusive continue the tradition of the main game and present a mixture of anxiety and excitement.

Anomalies, on the other hand, are tracks such as Slave to the System, Killing Machine or Initiate, whose style we would rather expect to find in a Red Alert . Here, Klepacki shows off his usual hard rock repertoire by hammering away at the guitar and combining it with driving beats. As a fan of the Tiberian Sun-OST, I can understand these attempts at diversification, but for me the music in the expansion unfortunately doesn't reach the quality of the main game. Conversely, it is perhaps more for fans of the 'historical' spin-off.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Options Menu	Frank Klepacki	3
02	Map Screen	Frank Klepacki	2
03	Slave to the System	Frank Klepacki	4
04	Rain in the Night 2	Frank Klepacki	3
05	Link Up	Frank Klepacki	4
06	Killing Machine	Frank Klepacki	4
07	Infiltration	Frank Klepacki	3
08	Hacker	Frank Klepacki	4
09	Elusive	Frank Klepacki	3
10	Deploy Machines	Frank Klepacki	3
11	Initiate	Frank Klepacki	4