Watertower Music, out now digitally, CD 19 July

 

Ramin Djawadi’s scores for the final series of Game of Thrones get a healthy two-hour release, showcasing some exciting new compositions for the show’s blockbuster final half-dozen episodes.

Right from the first season, Djawadi’s scores have been very special, adopting the leitmotif approach popularly adopted by John Williams in the Star Wars saga and Howard Shore in the Lord of the Rings cycles to help provide a sense of place through familiar themes. As such, all key locations or families were given their own anthems, from bombastic to ethereal. By Season 8 there’s no new characters or locales (we’re at the point where we’re thinning the herd and condensing the travel) so the new material hangs off the big battles, interpolating the many character themes.

This season has suffered from criticism in many quarters, everything from its pacing to character motivation, and yet the scores continue to be universally praised. After the main title we’re treated to a powerful vocal of Lannister theme The Rains of Castamere, sung by Serj Tankian from band System of a Down – guaranteed to give you goosebumps. Arrival at Winterfell is a glorious revision of Season 1’s The King’s Road, leading the main players into the Stark stronghold.

Jenny of Oldstones is represented here as a regular instrumental rather than the vocal performed by Podrick or the end credit Florence and the Machine version. The Battle of Winterfell kicks off a series of ominous cues preparing us for the arrival of the White Walkers, and part of the fun is recognising the motifs as they are woven in to the tapestry (Melisandre, the Dothaki, title theme) as well as the kinetic underscore sweeping it along. The two parts of The Long Night are a terrifying soundtrack to the terror of the situation and then The Night King’s piano riff reveals itself to be this season’s Light of the Seven, a beautiful composition crying out to be heard live. It has a haunting reprise in Not Today, with choral backing, and forms the ending to Farewell.

The Bells underscores the attack on King’s Landing, frequently atonal, with a beating heart that draws us into the conflict of The Last War, a frenetic piece right in the heart of the devastation as dragon fire engulfs the city to the beat of Daenerys’ theme. For Cersei laments the death of the tyrant queen at the familial level, a change of pace after all the sturm and drang that has preceded it, inevitably stitching in the Castermere anthem and Light of the Seven. Stay a Thousand Years boasts a beautiful choir – it’s Jon and Dany’s love theme – and it’s heart-breaking when the ultimate sacrifice comes in Be With Me and The Iron Throne. Nothing Else Matters is the final refrain of the Lannister theme, Tyrion finding his dead siblings among the rubble, Master of War transforming into a sung, wordless version of the main title. The Last of the Starks wraps up the show’s final moments as we bow out on A Song of Ice and Fire.

Verdict: 32 tracks of soundtrack bliss – the seasons may have gotten shorter but the scores have got longer, and this is the culmination of an epic eight-part symphony. Just sublime. 10/10

Nick Joy