Music department did NOT hit it out of the park (Login screen)

[Shaetha]

I actually like the first bars of the tune, but then it explodes into an orchestral cacophony that completely kills the "afterlife" mood. In that regard, Bastion does a much better job, as does Night Fae. On the other hand, Maldraxxus and Revendreth themes are pretty meh, and whoever composed the music for the Maw didn't have a clue about what the zone is supposed to be.

Well, the issue is it's not just Shadowlands. It's also for the rest of WoW, so it can't just be the "afterlife" stuff. It makes sense that the zones in SL represent it better. I thought the BFA one leaned too far into BFA themes, personally.

[Unlimited Power]

I've never thought any music in WoW sounded outright bad, but nothing has impressed be quite as much as the WoD soundtrack.

[Balbuto]

What music?
Ive already logged in before it actually starts.
Nobody is going to sit staring at the screen waiting to listen to the music.

I only hear it when Im logged out from being afk for too long ^^

[Mojo03]

I think it's good, but feels bleak and depressing, which isn't a good feeling to feel every time I log in.

[Dalheim]

Huh? I love new login music. Are we going to argue that orange is better color than pink next? It's so subjective...

I hate the orange, honestly. I wish they had made the sky blue, or their new death magic Green/Blue. :P

But it doesnt really matter, I mean, I see it for 5 seconds when I log on.

[Ragnarohk]

The iconic opening music just doesn't get a chance to kick in before you're already ingame. Every time I log in, I just hear feint background chorus as I login, pick my character, and load in.

Conaidering you only hear the firat dew seconds most of the time.

Vanilla/BC are a classic staple

Legion/Cataclysm were too loud, stressful and annoying

WoD/BfA were a mixture of both of the above.

MoP/SL/WotLK (before Sindragosa's roar) were more slow paced, relaxed and blend nice when loging into the game.

The wost log-in music ever has to be Cataclysm. It was so stressful to get disconnected

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I've never thought any music in WoW sounded outright bad, but nothing has impressed be quite as much as the WoD soundtrack.

I still think that the music from the Argent Tournament patch from WotLK is one of the best in the game. The music from Karazhan gets me every time, love it. For SL I think Ravendreth has the best. It might even become my alltime favorite

[Cosmic Janitor]

Eh, it sounds like wow music. It's okay to good for what it is, but I never got why people get so excited for it. Imho it is rather bland (especially after 15 years) and doesn't have much range as far as gemre go. Everything tries to either sound "epic" (more drums, we need more drums!!!11) or "tranquill", but always with the medivial fantasy theme, when wow is a wild hodgepodge of everything from medival fantasy over steampunk nonsense to scifi spaceships. Most people I know don't even have the music on when asked.

[Die]

Remember, the SL login screen music is directly in competition with the WoW Classic login screen music. Classic hits you right in the face with a war beat, while SL just mumbles for a long time at the start. Not surprising SL would get criticized.

[Eurhetemec]

Being stuck listening to it a lot yesterday thanks to login issue - I actually think it's pretty great.

I think @Die is right that the main issue is the Classic and some of the other login music immediately goes hard on some loud-ass war music or the like, whereas Shadowlands keeps it lower-key and is a bit more musically complex, eventually.
@Haidaes - I agree that WoW could do more musically, and I think your reasoning is sound. They have a really wild game but the music doesn't explore enough. That said you can hear some fun stuff if you listen to the whole Shadowlands loading-screen track, like the "Venthyr bit", where it's cool that you can tell it's referencing Venthyr/Nathria just from the musical cues and style. Still yeah, they could do more. Unfortunately Blizzard's way of working seems to have alienated some of their composers. I know this is "My Uncle Works At Nintendo", but one of my friends worked with the guy who did the famous D2 music and a bit of the early WoW music (mostly TBC stuff I think), Matt Uelman, my friend claimed, and this way long ago, like in the WotLK or Cata era, that Uelman had just got fed up with how Blizzard treated composers, which seemed to unreasonable deadlines and not a lot of respect. I don't think it was a hostile environment or anything, just that they were treated like they could just poop out music on demand. Which is not quite how it works for most composers.

[TheFirstOnes]

If anything, the problem imo is that it doesn't maintain that mood, and explodes half a minute later into a big, "epic" fanfare which completely kills the serene, even mournful mood of the beginning.

Not really. The usual WoW Motif is actually far less "epic" than it usually is.

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Remember, the SL login screen music is directly in competition with the WoW Classic login screen music. Classic hits you right in the face with a war beat, while SL just mumbles for a long time at the start. Not surprising SL would get criticized.

It doesn't "mumble" at all. It's similar to Wrath, the motif starts off chilling yet effective.

[Lurker1]

Anyone else extremely disappointed with the Login Screen music?

One of my favorite parts of new expansions is turning the game on for the first time, sitting back and just... enjoying the login screen music. It sets the mood for the entire expac, and transitions into core racial themes or city themes, and I've always loved it... until now.

I login, and you can barely hear anything. I've already logged in, clicked my character, and appear ingame before WoW's iconic theme even gets a chance to play. And by the time it actually starts, it's just so... generic.

• WotLK was the first real departure from the classic login theme and started slow... but about 20 seconds later went straight into it's own uplifting, thumping, classic WOW login screen music. At least you had Sindragosa's roar to keep you occupied while it built up.
• Cata departed significantly from the classic theme, but was thematic for what was happening.
• MoP had it's own Asian twist, but the iconic music still began playing after 20 seconds.
• WoD had a fantastic "savage" twist on the classic theme music, and went straight to the "Iron Horde" theme music and I loved just sitting back and enjoying it.
• Legion also had a forboding twist and then went to it's own rendition of the classic login theme, before moving on to Anduin's Theme which was AMAZING (I think it's called Anduin's Theme. It's THIS one and it's absolutely glorious) before moving on to the Nightborne theme (which i also loved)
• BFA added it's own twist to the login screen music before going full on into Anduin's theme, and went on to the Zuldazar city music.
• Shad, though?

The iconic opening music just doesn't get a chance to kick in before you're already ingame. Every time I log in, I just hear feint background chorus as I login, pick my character, and load in. I never get to hear the latest thematic version of the iconic WoW opening score. And when I just sit back and let it play in it's entirety, it's just... whelming. Nothing I haven't heard before. No original, distinctive track. Just "tick the box" generic stuff.

And it's not a 9.0 thing. This is it for the entire expansion; A feint background "aaaaaaw" while you log in. That's it.

The login music is iconic, and I always enjoy hearing the latest remix every time I log in, and the login screen music is always deliberately designed around that because you'll be hearing those first 20 seconds e.v.e.r.y single time you login in, so those 20 seconds have to be amazing.

But Shadowlands never gets a chance, because it doesn't even start properly until 30 seconds later, which means you'll never hear it.

And that's sad.

lolwut? i disagree it's the best i ever heard period it blow my mind away everytime infact im going to be playing the beta soon as well that is how hyped i am for it!

[Hyrja]

I agree, its beautiful but doesnt fit.

[Eggroll]

I kind of agree. Irc, the theme struck me as silly or comical even at some points. I didn't find it particularly fitting. I'll give it a listen again, though.

Maybe 2nd time is the charm.

[Unir]

Anyone else extremely disappointed with the Login Screen music?

One of my favorite parts of new expansions is turning the game on for the first time, sitting back and just... enjoying the login screen music. It sets the mood for the entire expac, and transitions into core racial themes or city themes, and I've always loved it... until now.

I login, and you can barely hear anything. I've already logged in, clicked my character, and appear ingame before WoW's iconic theme even gets a chance to play. And by the time it actually starts, it's just so... generic.

• WotLK was the first real departure from the classic login theme and started slow... but about 20 seconds later went straight into it's own uplifting, thumping, classic WOW login screen music. At least you had Sindragosa's roar to keep you occupied while it built up.
• Cata departed significantly from the classic theme, but was thematic for what was happening.
• MoP had it's own Asian twist, but the iconic music still began playing after 20 seconds.
• WoD had a fantastic "savage" twist on the classic theme music, and went straight to the "Iron Horde" theme music and I loved just sitting back and enjoying it.
• Legion also had a forboding twist and then went to it's own rendition of the classic login theme, before moving on to Anduin's Theme which was AMAZING (I think it's called Anduin's Theme. It's THIS one and it's absolutely glorious) before moving on to the Nightborne theme (which i also loved)
• BFA added it's own twist to the login screen music before going full on into Anduin's theme, and went on to the Zuldazar city music.
• Shad, though?

The iconic opening music just doesn't get a chance to kick in before you're already ingame. Every time I log in, I just hear feint background chorus as I login, pick my character, and load in. I never get to hear the latest thematic version of the iconic WoW opening score. And when I just sit back and let it play in it's entirety, it's just... whelming. Nothing I haven't heard before. No original, distinctive track. Just "tick the box" generic stuff.

And it's not a 9.0 thing. This is it for the entire expansion; A feint background "aaaaaaw" while you log in. That's it.

The login music is iconic, and I always enjoy hearing the latest remix every time I log in, and the login screen music is always deliberately designed around that because you'll be hearing those first 20 seconds e.v.e.r.y single time you login in, so those 20 seconds have to be amazing.

But Shadowlands never gets a chance, because it doesn't even start properly until 30 seconds later, which means you'll never hear it.

And that's sad.

Disagree. It's remarkably on point and well-written, but it may take a musician to recognize what's happening. What's most interesting about the login screen is all of the inversion that is taking place. The WoW or "war" theme in particular is where it can be heard. The notes and phrases are literally turned upside-down or inverted - which makes perfect sense if you look at the broken sky and think we're going "up" through the sky into the Shadowlands. It's even called "Through the Roof of the World."

Each of the covenant themes are also present and cycle through, and they're all very distinct from each other. The Kyrian theme is the big rich lush sounding one, the Night Fae theme is the more minimal one with almost folksy sounding instruments, the Necrolord theme is the slightly brutal sounding one with the ripping French Horn line (makes sense, they're the military arm), and the Venthyr is the almost Victorian-sounding waltz kind of theme. You can literally hear represented in music when the sounds go from one covenant to the next.

It's very well done. The music team did in fact knock it out of the park.

[Izzyfurious]

All about tastes. I personally love the starting part when the music get much more intense and crazy with the higher male vocals. Brings me some WoD Login Screen Music flashbacks with the Drums.

[AndromanceR]

The iconic opening music just doesn't get a chance to kick in before you're already ingame.

Maybe you should swap your game client back to HDD.

[Asrialol]

Some people spend time in character creation.

Bro I heard the classic login screen music back in 2005/6 for hours, every day, waiting in queue. Hours! Not even in char creation

[BigZik]

After disliking the Legion and BFA login screen music and thinking the soundtracks of those expansions overal felt really hit and miss to me, I've actually enjoyed the login screen music and a lot of the in game music I heard during beta testing a lot. They did a great job in my opinion.

[thottstation]

I hate the orange, honestly.

Google Orange Blue contrast to see the reason why Blizzard chose this scheme.

[Dalheim]

Google Orange Blue contrast to see the reason why Blizzard chose this scheme.

I still dislike it. :P