Customer Reviews

Secret Weapons Over Normandy

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I've been following Michael Giacchino's video game scoring work for some time now. From his debuting and brilliant score for The Lost World to the absolutely amazing work that spans the Medal of Honor series of games. Just from these soundtracks alone, one can tell that Giacchino is a master of capturing the mood of the games' material at an astonishing level.

The game (again, having played it myself) is a heavily action packed, WWII arcade-style flight sim, and to say that the score for Secret Weapons Over Normandy captures the mood of the material is an understatement of the largest kind. Not only does Giacchino capture the mood of the game, but he has managed to orchestrate every break-neck dive, flak burst, bomb blast, every enemy swooping in from out of the sun, and every juking turn to avoid a collision with a canyon wall (I'll stop now because the list could go on for hours) and has put it into two breathtaking CDs.

As the booklet in the CD case says, "This is not music for sipping tea or knitting," and as a final word: BUY IT! You won't be dissapointed.

One of Michael Giacchino's latest game score's Secret Weapons Over Normany is right up there with some of the best music written for the genre. In fact, it's as good as any film score could get! Written to be heard in the Lucasarts PC game based on world war 2 air combat, almost every track is jam packed with brilliant orchestation and frantic battle cues. Every note is played to perfection by The Northwest Sinfonia along with the Taiko Drum Ensemble and choir.
Much like his brilliant game scores for Medal Of Honor, The Lost World and the Alias TV series Giacchino fills this score with heroic themes combined with dark nemesis tunes mixed with exciting action music. With the use of swirling strings, pounding timpani, blazing brass and woodwinds with choir Giacchino creates one of the most heart pounding action scores to come out in years. This is a two disc set with disc 2 containing bonus musical cues and interviews with the composer along with video of the orchestra performing to be viewed on your computer. If you love music in the style of early John Willians or Jerry Goldsmith then get this score! It' s awesome!

by now Secret Weapons Over Normandy is an old game (by industry stanards), but I nevertheless play it whenever I get a break from my daily routine because I simply don't get tired of it. And part of the reason for that is the fantastic score, I think the first person who wrote a reveiw here got it quite right. Giacchino captures exactly the right mood so perfectly, I can actualy feel my face flushing sometimes when I play (I'm very senitized to good music). You just can't help but picture a desperate pitched aerial battle over the pacific or the fjords of norway when you hear this. This is a brilliant score all in all, and well worth the money.

Michael Giacchino (and Christopher Lennertz!) created what I believe to be the greatest video game music of all time with the classic Medal of Honor games. No Giacchino collection is complete without Secret Weapons over Normandy, fueled with action music that will test even the most talented orchestras. The performance quality and the musical literature are not to be missed; the only grudge I hold is that the recording is dry, lacking much of the reverb of the superior Medal of Honor recordings (except Airborne). But even the dry recording cannot take away my enjoyment of the music; it stands as some of my favorite material from Michael Giacchino. Bravo!