Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
From the most successful entertainment launch in history, comes the most anticipated video game soundtrack of the holiday season. Bungie created a new variation on the Game's musical themes this time around. Martin O'Donnell, Bungie's composer incorporated a full live orchestra and chorus which goes "above and beyond" what they've done in the past. Album produced by Nile Rodgers.

Amazon.com:
In terms of mood (both martial and eerie) and structure (the score is divided into 10 suites), there's no major departure from the previous installments in the Halo series here. The biggest difference is that this time, composers Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori seemed to have had a bigger budget and were able to hire a large orchestra. Where the synthetic feel of the previous two CDs sometimes made them feel a little thin and cheap, Halo 3 has the means to match its ambitions: This music would not shame a big-budget Hollywood sci-fi/action movie. Tracks such as "To Kill a Demon" and "This Is the Hour" (both of which, typically, recycle the composers' own themes) illustrate well this expanded sonic palette. The second CD ends with a hidden track ("Love Your Friends") by a band called Princeton, a fairly run-of-the-mill pop-punk effort which won a competition to be included on the soundtrack and which feels jarring compared to the rest of the music here. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Rating : - If you liked the soundtracks from Halo 1 and Halo 2...
Don't waste your money on the soundtrack for Halo 3. All the good stuff is on the first two soundtracks. There's nothing here that makes me want to play a track over and over and over like "Brothers in Arms" from Halo 1 or "Unyielding" from Halo 2.

Halo 3 is a remix of the good parts of the first two and a lot of it sounds like its done with a synthesizer; makes for good filler.

There doesn't seem to be a connection between the tracks of this soundtrack and the game (which I really like); just random bits of different tracks all strung together. For example, when I hear the track "Lament for Private Jenkins", I can picture the Master Chief catching Jenkins body when it falls thru the door. Nothing like that here.

This soundtrack is good for background music just to have something playing.

To say I'm disappointed with this product doesn't do justice to the word "disappointed".