The Music of Tristram Village is a Classic for a Reason
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- čas přidán 12. 05. 2024
- Being the Nintendo Fanboy that I am, there's a lot of classic western game music that I overlook. I try to buck that trend in this video breaking down the Tristram Village Theme from Diablo, analyzing how it uses atmosphere, texture, and the natural strengths of the acoustic guitar to create its devilish vibe.
FamilyJules' cover of Tristram Theme: • Diablo - "Tristram Vil...
0:00 - Intro
1:04 - Opening Chords
5:07 - Fmaj7b5 - F#11
7:12 - Bmadd2 - Dm/F
8:53 - Back to Am
10:33 - Lighter Chords
11:37 - Tonal Ambiguity
13:43 - Final Chord Sequence
15:13 - Outro
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#Diablo #gamemusic #8bitMusicTheory - Hry
I was in college when this came out and we would sometimes just leave the game running so this music played on a loop in our living room.
That's true appreciation right there.
I was going to comment nearly the exact same thing! 😅
There were around 5-6 of us, on the same floor in my dorm, who all played D1&2 like it was a career for a while. You could tell who was studying just by hearing Tristram's theme.
Such ambience
Respect 🫡 🙏
For real. I would take town trips way more often than needed, and then stay in town and just use the chat with my friends while they died by the hands of demons... all in an excuse to listen to that song repeatedly. lol
The Tristram theme does a lot of the heavy lifting in the first game to really anchor the setting. It's just a small village, scarred and haunted by the murder of a child at the hands of a pillar of the community.
Absolutely it does. For me it's what immediately drew me into the world. I could stand in town for several minutes following Deckard Cain's advice and listening for a whlie.
Nicely put. What I always liked about D1 is how low the stakes seem compared to later entries. No world ending threat and quest to save the entirety of humanity until way late into the game....Just a small town, broken and tortured, and a small band of brave souls still willing and able to do something... _anything_ ....about it. Fantastic stuff!
@leerv. You stayed a while. You listened.
@@monkeybusiness673yeah it's not until later into the game that you realize how the world is gonna get rekt if you don't take care of the LITERAL devil.
Music does so much for any film or video game. Terminator, Star Wars, Ultima Online, Baldur's Gate 2, Diablo, Fallout 1/2... I doubt I would feel nearly as passionate about any of these titles without their absolutely incredible music. And with nearly all of those titles, some of the sequels failed to capture the beauty of the music. Almost always, it's because for whatever reason they lost the original music composers. I will say they've done a really good job replicating Matt Uelmen's style in Diablo 4.
I can only assume Matt Uelmen is some kind of music wizard
“Flute thing again” is excellent notation 😂
this is a good adaptation of King Diamond's Black Horsremen song from 1987 Abigail album
@@zsoltbocsi7546 Holy crap
@@zsoltbocsi7546 WHAT IN THE FUCK!?
@@zsoltbocsi7546 just listened to it. Has to be an influence!
@@RandyLott i am pretty sure it was
Much of the game’s success may well be attributed to this very piece. This theme is so addictive. Seduces to you keep on playing, dreaming, exploring
And the others as well. There are some fantastic other tracks as well.
Introspecting, longing and so on and so forth.
@@Helaw0lf yes
Omfg those opening chords just brought back about five solid years of my gaming life. Immensely wonderful game and ost
::blows out cigarette smoke:: rookie numbers i spent 4000 hours on d3 and 12000 hours on d2 non stop since 1999 ::hacks out a lung::
@@kylezoI've been doing Comptess run non stop for 2 week, still havnt drop anything beside an Ist, sometime I hate this game
The world needs more bass clarinet over acoustic guitar
Why does u comment shows that it was two days ago?
@@heavytheheavy Weird I see it too... pateron maybe?
@@HeartPlusUp 'xaxtly!
I couldn't agree more
A 12 string acoustic guitar specifically
One of the coolest things about how legendary this piece is is that at the time Matt Uelmen was pretty much completely unheard of, started his career basically self taught, and this was his second game doing any sort of composing for, but because this was the 90's and game companies were super scrappy, Matt was basically THE audio guy for all of Diablo. He's the reason the game sounds the way it does, from skeletons falling apart to the haunting Tristram theme.
He's not as famous as giants like Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, Frank Klepacki or Jeremy Soule but he is definitely one of the foundational sound designers and composers of video game history.
I've been forever addicted to imitating the uneasy sense of voidful calmness this theme has always inspired me.
Just a city condemned that has no more energy to deal with how severe their troubles are. Just accepting that much won't change anyways, or if everything changes, that they have no say on it whatsoever.
Such a delicate piece to represent something that doesn't even seem possible and yet feels like the true reality someone would embrace once despair goes further than a human can hold.
Damn. That is exactly how it feels listening to it. It absolutely nails a specific and complex mood.
you should share some of your imitations, mate, cause the rest of us been forever addicted to finding something remotely similar !
Tristram Village is etched into my soul. Diablo II (which also featured this track) was a huge part of my childhood
ditto
I'm pretty sure it was this theme that got me into Diablo as a franchise. A buddy who was really into gaming would find games and try to get me interested in them, so we could play them together. I was way more picky. But he knew the music in this one would hook me, and it did. He brought it along for a weekend sleepover gaming event, we connected our computers via a serial cable (haha), and played for HOURS and HOURS ...
Although, back then, with Windows 95 (retail, Microsoft's first release of a 32-bit Windows for consumers) running on jank hardware with early versions of "totally not held together by duct-tape and bailing-wire" DirectX, I'm not sure I've ever heard this entire theme without random jumps and gaps in it. I might have to burn it on CD and play it while 4-wheeling to get the proper experience.
I stayed a while and listened.
Nice work.
Wilderness, Rogue, Sisters, Jungle, Tombs are some of my favourite OST from Diablo 2. Would be cool to see some of those being analysed.
Wilderness is awesome... the DRUMS ! So good.
I agree. Wilderness is my favorite
Wilderness 👌👌
The greatness of this piece, will forever remind us of how far from grace has Blizzard Entertainment fallen.
For what it's worth, the music has never fallen. It's still very good in every game they make.
@@Beranin Not as epic as here or in StarCraft/Warcraft IMO. The cinematics/trailers are the only one thing that has still this old Blizzard stamp of quality.
@@Blufferb00r Diablo / Diablo II music was never surpassed, sadly, not even by it's composer - Matt Uelmen (see Torchlight I/II/III music - distant echoes of his former glory).
D3 music was weak but D4's is pretty damn great. Nothing will match D1/2, but still.
@@jeffreyhill6990 they do a good job of going back to d2 vibes in d4, in one of the towns they recreate the tristam theme too - look up d4 Vision of Tristram
This is my favorite piece of music from any game ever. I remember watching my oldest brother playing this game when I was a kid. Childhood memories! ✨ Diablo 1 and 2 are such great games.
One other important thing to remember is that this piece was always meant to play as a loop. It's environment music for the town. If you leave the town, the music will start playing something else. But if you don't, it just keeps looping.
So that spoiled resolution and lingering unease from the end carries through to the next loop of the song, reinforcing the ominous vibe of the opening and reminding you that while this place is "safe", for now, it won't necessarily stay that way. Tristram is a tiny island of relative security over a roiling ocean of horror, and any piece it finds is temporary at best.
Kind of sets up some nice thematic resonance for the series as a whole, in a way. Peace may come, if you strive for it, but evil will always be lurking in the background, waiting for its next time to strike. And next time, you may not be ready.
It's amazing how instantly recognizable this music is to so many people from the two opening chords alone. As far as I'm concerned, those two chords represent the most iconic moment of the game's soundtrack.
Oh BOY you do not know how MUCH I jumped when I saw the notification for this. The Tristram theme is one of my favorite pieces of all time and genres.
Diablo 2 was my childhood, and holy crap is that soundtrack just absolutely fantastic. Thank you for covering some of the great music that went into the early diablo games. They really are treasures.
Uelmen is the only game OST writer that I'd consider a serious COMPOSER, solely because of Act V's score, full of Debussy and Wagner and Holst. It's just astonishing.
@@ianwilliams2632 That's an incredibly elitist take.
@@Bobbias Yep
It’s funny, I was just considering getting resurrected yesterday. Never played it, do you think I should?
@@Bobbias nah that was mildly elitist at best lol
Also... Another reason why the Tristram theme is so carved in our soul is because the town is a major hub that you have to constantly return to... The song has to be good, because we have heard it for dozens of hours at least!😅
Man, the sound of the bass descending gives me chills every time. I love it so! =)
To this day, my wife and I talk about "Diablo guitar". It's such a hard quality to pin down, but I think a lot of it comes down to harmony that meanders, instead of driving towards a resolution.
Fantastic summary!
This track has haunted and delighted me since I was a young kid. It's a joy to see it broken down and analyzed to this degree. Thank you!!
It's also extremely Pink Floyd-inspired. Similar to the OSTs of the MOTHER series, there's a lot of influence from Welcome to the Machine.
This whole song is based on King Diamond's Black Horsremen...
All of the D1 soundtracks are masterpieces. They convey exactly the information you need as a player to immediately understand what kind of world you're being thrown into. I would compare the game's overall quality to a movie like the first Jurassic Park, which has a very similar place in my heart.
20 years later I played through the D1 single player a few times and I can say the game hasn't aged one bit. It's timeless.
Man… I love the Tristram theme. I feel like if I were to make a playlist of songs to relax to, that would be one of the first songs I would put it in.
Glad to hear your first thoughts on this wonderful piece of music.
Great video! The Tristram theme from Diablo is one of my all time favourites. So many hours spent in the village in the late 90s… 😊 As an amateur guitarist many years ago, I remember trying (and failing) at some point to figure out the chords, after randomly stumbling into one and saying “a-ha!” while trying to learn other pieces.
Revisiting it now, with some more music theory knowledge, I think you perfectly described its magic: soundscapes, chord choices (those pivot chords are genius IMO!) and instrumentation all play key roles in making this piece stuck in your mind for a long time, despite it not having hooks or catchy refrains. Thanks for this video! Kudos 👊
Been playing the Reign of Terror D2 MOD for Grim Dawn with a friend, total conversion mod that plays through all of D2 and then has the original D1 as an Act VI. I feel like Tristram easily lives among the most iconic video game tunes ever. There are very few that could compete against it, especially from other Western games with the exception of maybe Halo. I'm genuinely shocked you only just recently became aware of it.
I keep forgetting that exists. I need to check it out. D1/2 are my all-time faves and GD is my modern fave.
I love how you can explain to me *why* a piece of music makes me feel a certain way, even if I don't really understand what you're saying. Your words are so enthusiastic that I can't help but feel excited and nod along with your explanations
I love everything that Matt Uelmen has composed from Diablo onward. The guy's music is so amazing.
I listen to tons of spooky music and extreme metal as well as noise and drone but this is the most sinister and anguished piece of music I've heard still today. The nostalgia of playing at a kid definitely adds to that but I think any first hearing will understand
Tristram gets the most play (and for good reason) but the other music tracks in Diablo 1 are also incredible. My favorite is the theme of the caves. Having music that conveys the feeling of "having a hard time breathing in a cramped, too-hot, hostile space" has to be pretty rare.
Literally my favourite game music of all time. It only took 8-bit like 7 years to get to it! Looking forward to watching. :-)
Best thing about the Diablo 2 OST is that the theme introduced first in B minor (7:00 in the video) pervades the wilderness areas of every single Act like a theme or leitmotif for Hell's forces. So much went into this game.
NOT covered here is the ~3 minute outro conceived for D2's version of the town.
More like almost twenty years 🤣
D1 came out in '97, so 😉 keep going
@@ji604December '96 really. ;P
6:26 I am so glad you said this. I am a massive Rush fan, and all of these diminished acoustic guitar chords kept me thinking of La Villa Strangiato
I appreciate you mentioning the similarity to Rush songs.
The chord progressions at the beginning, especially moving around the As, were reminding me specifically of Xanadu.
For me, the most iconic Game Music Track in my life. I've listened to it in a lot of strange circumstances, under various effects, and it's always impressive. Thanks for the analysis.
Dude. So glad you discovered this. Enjoying so much the analysis!
Stellar video, as always! Love that you have transcriptions to follow along with what you're talking about!
I remember being introduced to this game as a child. I was staying at a friends for a week during summer break and we would take turns playing this game since we only had one computer, which was located in his parents bedroom. Whoever got up the earliest would get first choice. After a few days I was up so early I got told by the father of the family to get out of his bedroom. He was a farmer and was used to getting up no later than 6 am, if not earlier. The music was definitely a huge part of the atmosphere of the game, and Tristram Village theme most of all.
I’ve been waiting on this since I first discovered your channel. Thank you man, great work.
I can't tell you how many hours I've listened to this song. Both in game and on CZcams. It really is a beautiful and nostalgic jackpot. Thank you for breaking it down. Kinda surprised you're the first to do it!
Definitely stayed a while and listened
This song is in my top 3 of all time favorite VG songs, I’ve sometimes played this to relax, and I’ve used it as background music during tabletop role playing sessions.
The entire Diablo II OST is incredible. My favorite is "Blood Moor". There's very unique instrumentation - hammered dulcimer, drum kit, cello, contrabass, bass guitar, electric guitar, lapsteel guitar, contrabassoon?, samples, shakers, acoustic guitar, flutes, french/english horn, harp, choir, etc.
I've never heard anything like it and the atmosphere is unbelievable.
The song I could imagine was influenced by it is "Raider II" by Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree) and possibly Opeth's music.
Since the first time I listened to this master piece.. I add it to every single playlist I had throught out the years.. I still have it on my MUSIC playlist here in youtube and still listen to it from time to time in the background..
This piece has something to it that no other game music has.. Cheers to master Matt Uelmen for composing this beauty..
Genuinely one of my favorite video game pieces. Thanks for the analysis!
As much as I love that you're covering this piece, it absolutely kills me that you didn't talk about my favorite part of the song where the guitar strumming picks up and plays the fast descending melody! I was waiting for it the whole video, and then you referred to the "end" chord just before my favorite part of the song! Aaaaagghh!!
Anyway, thanks for your amazing videos! I love your content!
Yeah it shows that he didn't play and appreciate diablo as much as the og fans.
I'm so glad you are covering this song, It inspired a lot of my music I feel.
Glad I stumbled upon this video. Amazing work!
I always loved that piece so much. Incredible arrangement.
I have never thought, 27 years later, is the day where I can finally see what chord it used and the musical theory explanation of how it worked to stir your emotion. (The sound that I thought was a wailing is actually an overblown flute!)
I am very thankful that you went the whole extra mile to make this video for us! ❤
11:28 - "Overblown wooden flute thing" LOL
Lovely, lovely analysis! The tristram theme is one of my favourite video game pieces from my favourite game of all time, and is brilliantly composed. Glad to see someone appreciating the technicalities of it all. Well done!
Without a doubt my favorite video game track of all time. Still gives me chills decades later every time I hear it.
So glad you highlighted Jules, his/her convers are just phenomenal
I'm pumped that you covered this song. It remains probably my favorite video game song of all time and I adore listening to it on foggy or rainy mornings.
Diablo 1 was one of my 1st video games. i played it on a computer in a basement and i remember the music from the menu running through These also dark corridors 😂 the atmosphere of d1 is simply unsurpassed by even all the following games of the franchise. The village seemed so sad and always facing the demonious activities under the nearby churche. The voice Acting of the villagers was so amazing and the music of each part of the dungeon (Cathedral catacombs and hell) was so eerie you just felt you are getting closer and closer to the bottom of things. Just remembering all this makes me wanna play again.
It’s such a stunning track, so memorable and technically complex and performatively difficult. One of those pieces that makes me think “How did anyone even compose this thing!?”
As a guitarist, THE biggest strength of the guitar that not many realize is that the guitar is a chording MACHINE. You can easily make complex chords and sounds and still have very intuitive fingerings and voicings for them, and it's something you don't even think about if you've been playing long enough.
As you get more advanced, you start learning the fretboard more and realize that no matter where you are, all 12 notes are right under your fingers, which means you can EASILY create voicings of common chords without large stretches, anywhere on the neck, including open voicings of chords, and with a little practice, 7th chords and chords with extensions aren't too difficult to create either.
In short, lots you can do with a guitar if you sit down and play around with one for a bit.
I love this song so much I started learning it by ear at the guitar almost 20 years ago, still improving it over the years. Such a great tune
Matt Uelmen also composed the OST for the two first Torchlight games which, to be honest are like Diablo I and II with 3D cartoonish graphics and almost no multiplayer but with the same vibes on most of the tracks of the OST and sounds fantastic.
The way the chords echo around you makes you feel like you're surrounded by an enemy you cannot see. It's spooky.
In the lore, the town of Tristram is under siege by hooded riders, who kill anyone who tries to venture onto the plains around the small, hopeless town.
The dwarf fortress soundtrack is also great.
This is such a fantastic breakdown!
Thank you for this, I remember being mesmerised by the guitars in Diablo back in the days.
Amazing video! Thank you for this content!
So beautiful to see how it works under the hood! I absolutely adore Uelmans compositions in Diablo and Diablo 2; thank you for breaking down just why this tune is so haunting but alluring at the same time!
subscribed. Long term diablo music fan, your music theory tips and tricks are wonderfully explained and laid out. Brilliant job, thank you so much.
as a musician and someone who use to play this game a lot when i was a teenager , this video brought me to tears
Matt Uelmen's stated influences include Peruvian guitar music as well as some of the earliest formative goth rock like Bauhaus.
Thanks for reminding me of this song, I've always loved it!
I love hearing you explain things that mostly go over my head about a song that was super impactful growing up.
D1 scared the crap out of me as kid! This song is so peacefully unsettling and works so well on repeat walking around town hearing everyones awful backstories.
As a D1 player from the late 90's, its by far my favorite music theme. And there are incredible ones ALL OVER gaming. Truly, music in gaming is way greater than people realize.
Would be cool to see the rest of the Diablo I soundtrack songs covered as well. Many gems of odd times signatures, bass and violins
10:18
I saw, and enjoyed, the subtle editing gag here. I love it.
i really wish Corptube's algorithms were as consistent with content creators and channels as it is with ads because i've somehow never visited your channel before! great stuff here!
Good breakdown of this timeless piece. A game I'm playing time and again just for the soundtrack.
Fantastic content. The Diablo Theme is one of my all time favourites. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
I've heard this a million times, and when it hit the lighter chords ingame you suddenly felt hope and resolve. I still get that feeling listening back to it now, so amazing.
I always thought the Fyrestone theme from Borderlands was in some ways an evolution of the Tristram theme. With the random loot and skill tree mechanics it makes a lot of sense to have an homage.
yeah, bordelands soundtrack came to mind when watching this video. don't know why, maybe a similar sense of openness, echo-y emptiness
Man. I literally listen to the Diablo 1 soundtrack on loop all weekend, last weekend. Great pick! =D
This song also set what appears to be the ARPG Home town song standard, you can hear it in Grim Dawn, Torchlight, and other games of the genre, you almost expect this music when you're clicking your character around the map, no matter what ARPG you're playing.
Glad to see this gem reviewed!
One if the things I've liked most about this song is the near perfect loop when ending and starting again. I don't know if that has and significance for music nerds though.
Woo! Been waiting for this for a long time!
You mentioned Yes and Rush, but i always thought the textures and instrument colors reminded me of Genesis, Specifically the 12 string playing uneasy arpeggios on top of a cello sounds almost exactly like the first few mins of Supper's Ready
I always felt I would hear this kind of acoustic guitar playing on Opeth's 'Damnation' album
I wholeheartedly agree! It was especially reminding me of Steve Hackett's solo work; the 12-string part in the track "Land of a Thousand Autumns" (that segues into "Please Don't Touch") has arpeggios/timbres similar to this.
Awesome video! Super hyped for D4
"flute thing again" - my thougts exactly, every time
You should check out the Age of Mythology OST. Especially with how it both builds character but also how great it is at nailing ambiance for each of the civs.
There's a point in D4 that uses just the simple opening strum and I still got so damned nostalgic.
I was waiting for this to come out ever since I first heard the song
I, for one, love the overblown flute thing notation. Great analysis on something that always seemed to be something unique and pretty far from standard compositions (being a musical idiot, was probably hearing the heavy use of tritones).
Oh right the tristram theme. Definitely inspired me as a guitar player, D2 was still fresh on my mind when I started to learn playing, everyone was addicted to it back then.
5:17 A bit of a Bathory - Shores In Flames vibe
"Just discovered Diablo's iconic music," In the words of xkcd, you're one of today's lucky 10,000.
I enjoyed this a lot! Would love to see more (oldish) PC games covered.
Thanks for finally covering this one! Now we just need that Goldeneye pause screen theme. lol
Yesss I've been waiting for so long for this! A band that often has the same vibe as diablo's tracks is Opeth. Really good stuff there
I was very pleasantly surprised when playing Steamworld Dig 2 that one of the early background music pieces took very heavy inspiration from this theme's opening. There's the same sort of echoing reverb chords at roughly the same intervals, though I'm not enough of a music person to tell how closely the match the original. The game definitely has a lot of the same sort of play loop as Diablo.
I have to recommend the GDC postmortem on Diablo. The part about how Matt got the job is a sensible chuckle.
Oh, and my favorite piece by him is "Siege" from Diablo II. There's a bit in there that gives me chills every time.
I love the dissecting of one of my favourite music game themes!
1:47 That is such a small detail, but so effective: The heavy delay fills up the space AND in addition: The fading between the left and right channel is what makes it sound ethereal and eerie (listen to the part 3:57 - 4:19 with headphones).
Wow, this really brings me back. Great video; I really enjoyed your analysis.
I think the overblown flute thing might be a handflute/hand whistle?
How have you never heard of the Tristram theme before?! Probably the piece of music I've listened to the most, Matt Uelmen made something so otherwordly that it put you right into the world you're playing.
Diablo was such a great game and the music was so amazing. I got my mum to buy it when I was like 11 or 12 because the box art looked cool and as soon I heard the Tristram scene, I was immersed. As someone who's listened to a lot of game music and is beginning a career in composition and sound design for games, this is still a solid favourite of mine all these years later and an inspiration. Absolute banger