Review Summary: This review is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the massacre at Falador on June 6th, 2006. May your accounts live eternally, and your mithril armor be put to good use.
I want to preface this review by admitting that I am not an expert on Runescape, new school nor old. My experience with the MMORPG is limited to about a two month span in middle school, circa 2005, when all of my socially challenged friends were playing it, and suggested I do the same. I would go onto my father's computer when I got home from school and play for a few hours each day, completing various free-to-play quests, which included tasks like reuniting an amnestic Romeo and Juliet, and procuring a bottle of rum for a forlorn pirate. After completing all of the free quests that didn't require any sort of serious time investment, my options were to pay five dollars per month for a membership to do more quests, or move on with my life. My friends did the former, and I did the latter.
As the years went on, that original game of Runescape was replaced with a more modernized version, but then re-released as what is now called "Old School Runescape", or OSRS for short. While OSRS's gameplay is simple, charming, fun, the aspect that I always remembered the most fondly from the game was the music. There were a plethora of different songs, usually unlocked whence travelling to a new area, and available to re-listen at your heart's content once unlocked.
As with the general vibe of OSRS – which is a free(or otherwise very cheap)-to-play game with blocky graphics, designed by a then low-budget company – the tunes that make up its soundtrack were composed entirely on a MIDI keyboard. Don't be fooled by this bit of info however; the variation that Ian Taylor was able to display with just this one small instrument is rather impressive. For each area – which range from big cities, small villages, forests, seashores, boardwalks, cemeteries, haunted houses, caves, inferno maze (RIP all my items when I wandered in there by accident and died), castles, and dungeons – there is an original song Taylor-made to set the tone for the experience you are about to have. These aren't just 30-second sound clips played on repeat either – these are fleshed-out, three to four minute tunes, with multiple layers of synth.
Although I wasn't able to find this specific information in any biographies or interviews of Taylor that are available online, I believe his main source of inspiration for Runescape's music had to be from the dungeon synth genre, specifically Burzum's albums
Daudi Baldrs and
Hildskjalf. The compositions on those albums mirror many of those found on this soundtrack: slow-starting, but with a gradual, dreary buildup to a main "hook", oftentimes with a catchy, folk-like rhythm. The paganistic, somewhat primitive essence that is commonly conveyed in Scandinavian music, metal or electronic, lends itself seamlessly to the medieval world of Runescape.
The soundtrack as a whole is 43 songs, and spans almost two and a half hours. While the music is best experienced in-game, there are times when I've played through the entire soundtrack as background music while doing other work (such as currently while I write this review). The music, as interesting as I find it, is not intended for active listening, but has a way of stimulating the brain when doing other activities. The compilation
Runescape: Original Soundtrack Classics was not available until 2018, when Jagex finally delivered what fans had been asking for for years, which was an easy and accessible way to listen to OSRS's music.
I'm obligated to conclude this review the same way I've concluded video game soundtrack reviews in the past, and how I will do so in the future, with the question: Can one enjoy this soundtrack without having played the game? In the case of Runescape's original soundtrack, I would say yes, but probably not all at one time. If one is tempted to check out a single track, it absolutely must be
Sea Shanty 2, without exception (this song pwned way before sea shanties became cool). For longtime fans of Runescape who already love the soundtrack, I recommend looking into the genre of dungeon synth if you have not already, for many musicians have expanded upon this particular sound.
