Overlord
Just a little scare
About eight years ago, when I was just starting to articulate my opinion without being asked, one of my first game reviews was of Overlord. How proud I was of this text, this expressive opinion, this manifesto! U20-Mattis' review has probably matured about as well as the density of hair on my head. If you want to get an idea of it, you can read the game review . But that's not the point here, just this much: I really enjoyed playing the game back then and my rating was colored accordingly. And even today I would still like to play a remake or even a sequel, but the chances of that happening look as good as the likelihood of Donald Trump going to jail.
The score
But now on to the soundtrack by Danish composer Michiel van den Bos, which works just as well in 2021 as it did in 2007: mixed. What we hear fits in well with the actual game and could probably best be described as a fantasy hodgepodge. Strings that can be plucked from time to time, wind instruments that sound like fanfares and piano tinkling that evokes a creepy atmosphere and underlines the protagonist's dark ambitions. In typical gamerip fashion, this works best with the battle tracks, but little or not at all with the ambient tracks without visual accompaniment and should at most be of interest to people looking for background noise for the next Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Compared to its successor, Overlord actually only has three songs worth mentioning in my opinion: the OverlordMichiel van den Bos-theme, which is also frequently varied in other tracks and can also be found in the second track Final BattleMichiel van den Bos , and the Minion ThemeMichiel van den Bos. The latter in particular emphasizes the humorous basic idea of the game, in which it stretches a kind of polka march with a recurring motif over 2 ½ minutes without really getting boring. If you now have the henchmen from the game in your head, who vie for the favor of their dark overlord with their mischievous and stupid manner, the result is a coherent picture that always brings a smile to my face. I can't say whether the track works without the accompanying head cinema.
Conversely, for me, the main theme, which is also found in the sequel, is emblematic of the dualism of the game, of childish fantasy pranks and action brawls. The theme, which is constantly repeated by the wind instruments, is accompanied by percussion, extended by strings and heralds power, heroism and also a little menace. This comparatively sedate version is trumped by the aforementioned Final BattleMichiel van den Bos, which plays during the final boss fight in keeping with the title and sounds even louder, more powerful and more dramatic. However, when I listened to it again for this review, I had to realize that with dwindling enthusiasm for the game, probably only the nostalgia glasses can still hold up the late-pubescent joy of the music. That's not to say that I don't find the tracks recommendable, but I can understand anyone who finds them lacking that certain something.
