Halo (series)/Awesome Music

""Oh my God. It's the Prototype suit."
 * Many songs from the various Halo soundtracks, but this troper's favorite is "One Final Effort" from Halo 3.
 * To Kill a Demon, played during one of the more ridiculously fun vehicle sections in Halo 3 is This Troper's favorite.
 * The main theme? Even with face-melting guitar solos? Or a full orchestra and chorus?
 * And then Unyielding came along to prove this theme did not require any of the above to ROCK.
 * Earth City from Halo 2.
 * Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin, used in Halo 2 at the climactic battle scene. After a gameful of sweeping orchestras and choirs, it decided to ROCK OUT.
 * That's the equally-impressive vocals version, but this is the version you hear as you're running the gauntlet of, oh, dozens of aliens doing their best to splatter each other into little chunks of goo.
 * The best part of that song is how it crops up as you enter the room to a bunch of elites and brutes fighting, and then launches into the insane rock as two hunters join the party. At that point, all ideas of hanging around until the groups destroy each other goes pretty much out the window. (And with that, we have the answer to how to stop the player sitting out of your huge battle scene - invoke Autobots Rock Out.)
 * The version including the vocals was also used as the theme tune for Major League Gaming's coverage of their 2006 Halo 2 season.
 * This troper's favorite is Follow Our Brothers, from Halo 3.
 * This Is Our Land. Made all the more awesome because that's playing as you are rolling into an invaded human city with every intention of driving those Covenant bastards back out.
 * This Is The Hour. Really, there is no better music to end the world on.
 * "On A Pale Horse", because Banshee fights on the bridges of Assault on the Control Room are always fun.
 * While that was my favorite song on the original soundtrack, I think Halo 3s version topped it, as the first part of the piece 'Behold a Pale Horse'. A lot of Halo 3s work were new versions of themes from the first and second.
 * "Reborn", the overture of the final level of Halo 3.
 * Greatest Journey, the most epic complete rendition of the Halo Theme (Halo being the original and Mjolnir Mix being the second) serves as the background music for the final run of Halo 3.
 * The most complete rendition, you say? I beg to differ.
 * The entire Covenant suite is one big Crowning Moment of Awesome for Crowning Musics of Awesome.
 * Rock Anthem For Saving the World. Awesome track, even more awesome name.
 * This Troper will sometimes sit in the main menu of Halo 3 and wait for Unforgotten/Never Forget to finish. It's really a beautiful piece.
 * Probably a Tear Jerker / Award Bait Song if there ever was one. "Unforgotten," indeed.
 * Now, with Halo 3: ODST, we can add Menagerie and Skyline.
 * Menagerie gets special mention for reappearing in Halo: Reach, playing as Noble Six helps escort a certain Gunnery Sergeant while the Covenant glass New Alexandria in the background.
 * I'm surprised no one even bothered to look at Halo Wars music, most of them are CMoA in their own right, but the ones that stood out were Spirit of Fire and Insignificantia
 * We can also add Heavy Price Paid, it's a good song.
 * Disturbing lack of Halo 1 music on this page. Allow me to remedy this situation.
 * Under Cover of Night was the greatest song on the original soundtrack. Its reprise going into the final level of Halo 3 was the part where this troper lost it outright. To know that the two biggest badasses of the humans and Elites were about to go to their potential deaths...breathtaking. "We'll head for the Portal...and then we'll all go home."
 * No mention of the Epilogue Suite for Halo 2? Those guitar riffs during the first minute get this troper every time.
 * Mind I add Wage from the Delta Halo Suite? Mainly because every time this troper hears it, what ever he is doing becomes epic by association. Seriously, try it - stick it on your phone, go for a walk. If you don't feel the epic increase the instant drum line kicks in at 2:03, there is something wrong. Putting it with the entire suite just takes it Up to Eleven for bonus points.
 * What can I say? There's a saddening lack of Halo Legends music here, so I'll start us out with Machines and Might, a short but very sweet tune, heard in the equally sweet short, "Prototype" among other episodes.

"But who the hell's piloting it?""


 * I am astonished that no one has yet mentioned Sacred Icon Suite 2 - basically the Arbiter's theme meets Unforgotten meets Sacred Icon Suite 1, except on steroids, on fire, and dual-wielding Rocket Launchers. That's how awesome it is.
 * With Halo: Reach, we can now add ashes (a real Tear Jerker to rival Unforgotten or the Halo 3 remix Never Forget) and the indescribably awesome Walking Away.
 * Hey, hey, don't forget We Remember, which is an awesome combination of Combat Evolved's rock and Halo 3's choral tunes.
 * Why don't we just come out and say it: the entire Halo Reach OST is a Crowning Soundtrack of Awesome.
 * But especially.
 * I don't think there is one piece of music in the entire series that isn't this.
 * Agreed.
 * Finish the Fight, the music for the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer (which was remixed into This Is The Hour, above), almost tells its own story. The Master Chief's approach is heralded by a chorus, Cortana's appearances by piano, until they meet in the same plane, emphasized by the piano chords of the Halo 3 leitmotif - which is then echoed via Orchestral Bombing as the Chief looks up to see a Covenant armada closing in on the New Mombassa portal, as an orchestral rendition of Rock Anthem for Saving the World pounds at the viewer ... and then, as the portal opens, it shifts into a variation of The Last Spartan, the Halo 2 theme, building to a crescendo as the portal lights up. Then, when Cortana whispers "This is the way the world ends," the orchestra answers, emphatically, with the Halo 3 leitmotif, which doesn't evoke annihilation so much as heroism - as if the answer to Cortana is: "No. This is the way the world will be saved." The last reprise of the leitmotif is powerful enough to bring tears to the eyes.
 * Holy crap, your post is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for you
 * Let me just add that no matter what you think about Halo 3--whether you love it or loathe it, think it's the funnest thing ever or have no interest in it whatsoever, are obsessed with it or can't stand the sound of the word "Halo", you absolutely cannot deny that the music is amazing. And yes, this comes from someone who dislikes Halo. But that music is so beautiful, I can't help but love it!
 * Technically, it's not originally from Halo, but it appears in each game: Siege of Madrigal, one of the most forlorn, haunting, and awesome Lonely Piano Pieces ever. It's pretty much Bungie's official theme. So much so that it continuously loops in the hidden tribute room easter egg on the mission "The Package" in Halo Reach, which contains farewell messages to the community. *SNIFF*
 * A motion comic of the story The Return, from Halo Evolutions, was recently made. The first bit of music from it, a One-Woman Wail piece, is absolutely amazing.
 * From ODST, during the final level, you have Mercy Plea. So somber yet heroic; evoking the feeling of soldiers going off to face their final battle with honor.
 * From Reach, we have a track that plays during the beginning of Tip of the Spear, and caps off the game credits: Unreconciled. So chillingly epic.
 * Also from Reach is.
 * And Epilogue, one of the biggest tear jerkers of the series, on par with "Heavy Price Paid", "Unforgotten", "Heroes Also Fall", and "Ashes".

Marty O'Donnell is god.