Album Info Hide Show Artist: Martin O’Donnell And Michael Salvatori Album: Halo: Combat Evolved (Original Soundtrack) Released: Worldwide, 2025 Tracklist: A1 Opening Suite A2 Truth and Reconciliation Suite A3 Brothers In Arms A4 Enough Dead Heroes B1 Perilous Journey B2 A Walk in the Woods B3 Ambient Wonder B4 The Gun Pointed At the Head of the Universe B5 Trace Amounts B6 Under Cover of Night B7 What Once Was Lost B8 Lament for Pvt. Jenkins C1 Devils Monsters C2 Covenant Dance C3 Alien Corridors C4 Rock Anthem for Saving the World C5 The Maw C6 Drumrun C7 On a Pale Horse C8 Perchance to Dream C9 Library Suite D1 The Long Run D2 Suite Autumn D3 Shadows D4 Dust and Echoes D5 Halo Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Halos music didnt just set the tone for Bungies scifi epic, it gave the series a spine. In June 2002, Sumthing Else Music Works issued Halo: Combat Evolved (Original Soundtrack), collecting Martin ODonnell and Michael Salvatoris score into a listenable arc that still hits like a memory you cant shake. The game had landed on Xbox the previous November, of course, but the album stands on its own. It feels carefully curated, with cues arranged into suites that mirror the sweep of a campaign, not just a dump of ingame stems. The famous opening is still a small miracle. Male voices enter with monklike chant, then toms and strings lift the room. Anyone who booted the game in a dim lounge remembers that first chill, but the recording here has a glow that rewards proper speakers. ODonnell and Salvatori werent new to this kind of storytelling. They had already honed a cinematic style through Bungies Myth series, and you can hear that lineage in the way themes recur and evolve, almost like a film score tracking a characters arc. What sets this album apart is its balance of austerity and swagger. Take the Truth and Reconciliation Suite. It moves from stealthy pads and tight rhythmic figures into fullbodied orchestral statements, then back to a hush. You can follow the shape of a mission without needing the controller in your hands. Then theres Rock Anthem for Saving the World, the guitardriven adrenaline shot that basically taught a generation of players that firstperson shooters could strut. It could have dated badly, yet it still feels cheeky and huge, a release valve after the choral gravitas. Under Cover of Night might be the stealth MVP. It threads delicate percussion and glassy synths through a nocturnal groove that carries more emotion than youd expect from a level set on an alien ring. A Walk in the Woods keeps that reflective mood, all spacious reverb and patient melody, the kind of track that made people who didnt care about games ask what album was on. Perilous Journey, by contrast, pushes hard with insistent strings and rolling drums, a reminder that this score always had weight behind the shine. The production choices mattered. ODonnell spoke often about blending live players with electronic textures, and you can hear those seams in a good way. The choir reads ancient, the percussion feels tactile, the synths paint in colours an orchestra alone couldnt touch in 2001. It is an early template for the hybrid game score that would become standard later in the decade. Sumthing Else, the label founded by Nile Rodgers, helped bring that approach to a wider audience, and this release was one of the catalogue pillars that nudged game music into record collections next to film and TV scores. Reception at the time backed that up. Critics routinely singled out the music as part of Halos impact, and the main theme quickly turned into a concert staple, from Video Games Live to symphonic programs that treated it like modern repertoire. That status feels earned when you sit with the album, beginning to end. The sequencing is smart, with long cues that breathe. Youre not skipping around for the hits, youre living in the world again. All of which makes Halo: Combat Evolved vinyl such a satisfying proposition. The dynamics love a turntable, and the contrast between chant, strings and that chunky guitar really opens up when you give it space. If you haunt a Melbourne record store youve probably seen a recent pressing on the wall and felt the pull. For collectors hunting Martin ODonnell vinyl, or those who want to buy Martin ODonnell records online without diving into later series spinoffs, this is the bullseye. It also sits neatly next to other Martin ODonnell albums on vinyl, since it captures the partnership with Michael Salvatori at the moment they rewired how blockbuster games could sound. Two decades on, the album is more than nostalgia. Its a document of craft, of melody first thinking, and of a team that knew how to write themes you could hum while waiting for the tram. If you grew up with a controller, it will flood you with images. If you didnt, it still plays like a bold, moody, confident score that earns its place in any stack of vinyl records Australia can offer. And if you spot Halo: Combat Evolved (Original Soundtrack) in the wild, dont overthink it. Pick it up, put it on, and let that first chant roll out across the room. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review