This just started off as something where I was playing with some new sounds I got during the sales after the holiday... And it just so happened that I got all these new big, loud, and powerful sounds just right as the official release of World of Warcraft's latest expansion came out, Dragonflight. And because I told everyone I would be making cyberpunk inspired music, I totally didn't.

So the "big bads" we deal with in this expansion are protodragons who call themselves the primalists and are all about "purging the filth of order from Azeroth." Now I don't know about you, but a dragon who looks like a cross between a T-rex with the tiny arms, a disheveled parrot, and a hunchback lizard with wings that is a destructive force of nature is both the most ridiculous and most terrifying thing at the same time. Imagining one of these guys flying around or walking around as I built this music piece, looking like some rejected muppet while unleashing furious storms and wheels of flames, and it eventually gave me some direction of where the music could go.

As for the music itself, it's really built around three things; low brass, a male choir, and lots of percussion.

In regards to the brass, I felt it was just right for the cimbassi to take the main melody. If you wonder what those are, they're essentially trombones trying to be tubas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimbasso); they look rather goofy, but the sound is absolutely sinister and metallic in nature. For percussion, nothing really can go wrong with people banging on various bass drums, sheets of metal, a timpani, and anvil; the sounds of thunder. For the choir, well, you can't really do much for a fantasy soundtrack without a choir, and utilizing a male choir with some extra basses and baritones helps drive the "big scary dragons" idea.

Honestly for something that was thrown together in the past two days and is based on what you interpret from a video game, it isn't half bad.

Image for thumbnail belongs to Blizzard Entertainment
Music made with the Metropolis Ark series, Babel, and Inspire by Orchestral Tools