One of Elden Ring's best choral songs wasn't sung by a proper choir

Elden Ring's official soundtrack has been released on streaming services like Spotify today. The game's composer, Tsukasa Saitoh, shared some thoughts and development details to commemorate the occasion on the official PlayStation Blog.

The most fascinating tidbit to me had to do with the track “Song of Honor” that plays in Redmane Castle for the Radahn Festival. It's the haunting choral chant that plays during the event, when you're meeting your fellow warriors and listening to Slave Knight Gael lookalike, Jerren, give his rousing speech. I found it really helped set the mood, and it's a standout of the soundtrack for me.

The music for Elden Ring was recorded by the Budapest Film Orchestra, and Saitoh initially planned on having their dedicated choir sing for the track, but the composer had a better idea: “We realized that a gathering place for many mercenaries and soldiers wouldn't necessarily be filled with skillful singers.” Saitoh continues, “We wanted to try a direction that wasn't specialized in vocal music, so as a hasty request, we asked the members of the brass section if they could perform the part for us.”

That sort of lateral, out of the box thinking is something I appreciate from FromSoft's games more broadly, and I think it really paid off with “Song of Honor.” It turns out the brass section of the Budapest Film Orchestra have got some pipes on them!

It's now easier than ever to pump some iron to the Godskin Apostles theme like the normal person you are, but this new addition to streaming services also comes with some bad news. It looks like Dark Souls' OST was removed from Spotify in North America as Elden Ring was added. No more openly weeping to “Gwyn, Lord of Cinder” at the weight room then. It's unclear if the removal of Dark Souls was intentional or permanent, and we've reached out to Bandai Namco for comment.

Just another reason to stock up on physical media. Besides, do you really want to see Spotify's Year Wrapped thing tell you your top genre is “Video Game Music” again?