How ‘Diablo’ continues to provide the definitive dark-fantasy game soundtrack
From Matt Uelmen's instantly recognisable original theme to the dungeon crawler's spine-chilling modern hellscapes
by Ali Shutler · NMEFor the past 30 years, gamers have been going up against the forces of darkness in Diablo. Set in the fictional Kingdom Of Khanduras, the original game had late ‘90s computer addicts battling through 16 randomly-generated dungeons to save the market town of Tristram from the titular Lord Of Terror. It didn’t matter whether you were a hulking warrior, an agile, bow-wielding rogue or a sorcerer who could tap into the mystic arts to vanquish hell beasts, each descent had you flirting with death as Matt Uelmen’s haunting ‘Tristram Theme’ was ringing in your ears.
Three sequels and several expansions later, Diablo has evolved into one of gaming’s biggest fantasy franchises with a complex lore and intricate history. Released in 2000, Diablo 2 took players beyond the nightmarish underbelly of Tristram to lands inspired by the Middle East, Mesoamerican jungles, lost Mayan civilisations and ancient deserts before 2012’s Diablo 3 featured hugely-improved graphics, a wider range of plucky heroes to choose from and a twisting story that blurred the lines between good and evil. “Every time we make a new iteration of Diablo, we’re always looking to take things to the next level,” says Derek Duke, music director for longtime Diablo producers Blizzard Entertainment.
And that includes the music – which has come a long way in three decades. While the original Diablo soundtrack had just six guitar-driven bangers, Diablo 4 boasts a three-hour collection of delicate folk, furious metal and eerie orchestral noises. Two further expansions (2024’s Vessel Of Hatred and the recently released Lord Of Hatred) bumped that up with a whopping 65 more tracks in the mix, proving there was still plenty of room for exploration and evolution in this devilish saga.
The influences are wild – from Scandi-folk to Batman
For Diablo 4, lead composer Ted Reedy took influence from the classic game and movie soundtracks he grew up on. That’s Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s “immersive, atmospheric” score for 2005’s Batman Begins – and early Nintendo button blaster Super Metroid, which has fired his imagination since childhood. “You take those [inspirations] and combine them with whatever story is being told in the game,” he says.
To ensure they were crafting songs that served the narrative, Reedy and fellow Blizzard composer Leo Kaliski (who usually works on mammoth online game World Of Warcraft) made time one busy Friday afternoon halfway through Diablo 4’s development to watch all 56 cutscene cinematics that feature mammoth battles, personal losses, savage betrayals and a whole lot of hellish horror as powerful demon Lilith tries to take control of the fantasy realm Sanctuary. “We want to create an emotive musical soundscape that blends in as seamlessly as possible with the game to draw you in even further,” says Reedy.
And that means making sure each area has its own sonic personality. The music that guides adventurers through the frigid wasteland of Fractured Peaks was inspired by minimalist Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, Kaliski combed Spotify for Scandinavian folk to shape the soundtrack for the untamed wilderness of Scosglen while the treacherous swamps of Hawezar make use of experimental drone choir NXY.
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Later, The Lord Of Hatred expansion introduced the ancient Greek and Roman-inspired land of Skovos to Diablo 4, so the team incorporated instruments from the era such as the lyre – and scoured YouTube to find someone who could play the vintage double-piped aulos to give the fantasy region some authenticity. Taking influence from Lisa Gerrard’s haunting vocal work on the Gladiator score, there are even songs in a made-up language to reflect Skovos’ two rulers – The Oracle Queen and The Amazon Queen. “They drive a lot of what happens in the story and we wanted to represent that in the music,” says Reedy. “We didn’t want your typical choral ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’, we wanted something more interesting,” so they reached out to the narrative team to invent a language that they then turned into song.
Famous fans include Halsey, KoRn and more
It doesn’t matter where you are in Diablo 4 though, the soundtrack is a celebration of human creatives carefully crafted by expert guitarists, woodwind players and even bagpipers. “What those instruments can do versus what I can recreate on a keyboard is just totally different,” explains Kaliski. “It gives you an interesting creative constraint that helps produce more inspired music than we would otherwise come up with on our own,” adds Reedy.
The Diablo series has plenty of famous fans – including Halsey, members of Architects, Bury Tomorrow, Lacuna Coil and Cradle Of Filth – all publicly confessing their love for the series. In April, nu-metal titans KoRn teamed up with Blizzard for new track ‘Reward The Scars’ to celebrate the launch of Lord Of Hatred. “I’ve played Diablo for years, so getting to step into that world creatively felt natural,” said KoRn’s vocalist Jonathan Davis. “I’ve always connected to the darkness in the game and the idea of confronting what lives beneath the surface – that’s something KoRn has explored in our music from the beginning.”
“If they’re anything like us, it’s because playing Diablo as kids made such a huge impact on them,” says Reedy. “I grew up in the late ‘80s and ‘90s playing games where a lot of the music was electronic and synthesiser-based. But I can still remember booting up Diablo for the first time and hearing a real guitar. Matt Uelmen didn’t score things in a typical horror way either. It was this weird mix of electric guitar, strange percussion and other sounds like babies crying. It created this unique, immersive thing that was so effective at drawing you in.” How could you not be inspired?
At a time where so many gaming franchises are focusing on reboots or remakes to appeal to a new generation, how does Diablo move forward without betraying that legacy? “It’s something I think about every day,” admits Reedy. “The first Diablo had such iconic music and that’s a lot to live up to. But it’s also a powerful through-line to whatever new iterations we create.
“We’re not the original composers, so trying to recreate what came before is not going to [result in] good music… Instead, we’ll be inspired by that work while trying to create a new experience, just like Diablo 1 was when it was released 30 years ago.”
‘Diablo 4: Lord Of Hatred’ is out now