Soundtrack? Where is Justin Bell?

[Spirtikus]

Need to say that the soundtrack is underwhelming. Music does not have a clear theme, clear melody that drive the game, but instead give us these generic chord progressions which I cannot latch on to. I would rate it 4/10 barely. 

Not sure why didn't Obsidian go for Justin Bell these time also? Because Pillars 1 and 2 both had amazing soundtracks which I listen to this day on Deezer. 

Edited February 24 by Spirtikus

[Boeroer]

I'll take a wild guess and say: because he left Obsidian years ago and went to Sony.

Edited February 24 by Boeroer

[Spirtikus]

Yea man, but couldn't they get him one more time? His theme is just missing from Avowed, like a chunk of good story. 

[Boeroer]

Obsidian is a Microsoft Company, Justin Bell works at Sony Entertainment. I'm pretty sure they couldn't.

[Wormerine]

He left Obsidian for the competition, unfortunately. His work on PoEs and Outer Worlds was fantastic.

6 hours ago, Spirtikus said:

His theme is just missing from Avowed, like a chunk of good story. 

I doubt Justin has any rights to music he has written for Obsidian, so his themes should be reusable if a game calls for it. It is not Pillars of Eternity game, so I am not sure Avowed should borrow from those series to begin with.

[JBarronComposer]

I agree that the soundtrack by Venus Theory is generic. I don't even hear any good combat music yet and I am about to travel to Scatterscarp. Justin Bell's music is sorely missed and despite him working with Sony, they should have found a more capable replacement than whoever Venus Theory is. I honestly have not heard of them before this game and I wished that had remained so. I'd give the soundtrack a 2/10.

[Sven_]

On 2/24/2025 at 5:09 PM, Wormerine said:

I doubt Justin has any rights to music he has written for Obsidian, so his themes should be reusable if a game calls for it. It is not Pillars of Eternity game, so I am not sure Avowed should borrow from those series to begin with.

 

The music was reused in the (lore) trailers.

I found the unusual percussion combat music in Deadfire pretty refreshing. His PoE soundtracks were good overall, but that was pretty out there. Wonder how that was received. Usually the music in this type o' game is more your standard orchestral epic LOTR music fare (maybe mixed with a bit of Conan The Barbarian if the composer is REALLY going wild.  ). 

Edited Monday at 08:56 PM by Sven_

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, Sven_ said:

I found the unusual percussion combat music in Deadfire pretty refreshing. His PoE soundtracks were good overall, but that was pretty out there. Wonder how that was received. Usually the music in this type o' game is more your standard orchestral epic LOTR music fare (maybe mixed with a bit of Conan The Barbarian if the composer is REALLY going wild.  ).

Especially PoE1 OST seemed to me to evoke Infinity Engine OST, especially Jeremy Soule's work for Icewind Dale games. PoE OST is one of the few computer game OST I like to out on every once in a while. I also liked his OSTs for Tyranny and Outer Worlds very much. Different vibe every time, well fitting respective games.

Just nice writing overall - varied instrumentation, nice long phrases with natural arcs, counter point, harmonic progressions with development and direction. I think Obsidian lost a really great team member.

[Silvaren]