Heroes of Tyria: First Wave / Heroes of Tyria: First Wave / Heroes of Tyria: First Wave

1325 AE; Zhiatan's fall. 1326 AE; The menace of Scarlet Briar. Throughout history, the bravest have always answered the call to defend Tyria from those who would destroy her. For those two years, the need for champions was never greater.

Listen to the stories of seven souls who stood and fought against the dragons and villains that would have destroyed the realm; the Heroes of Tyria.

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Heroes of Tyria began in 2014 as an attempt to create a body of orchestral work and practice orchestral music composition at the same time, all while creating original, short loopable themes for the Guild Wars 2 community.

This release contains the first wave of characters I did themes for, the titular arrangement of core Guild Wars 2 themes, and two concept pieces for boss battles. These compositions were created between January 2014 and May 2015, and represent my first forays into orchestral music.

I'd like to thank:
• God, for everything
• ArenaNet, for creating Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, and for supporting my music in such a huge way (if you're reading this and don't own the game, don't bother paying for this album; BUY GUILD WARS 2)
• Jeremy Soule, for composing the original Guild Wars 2 soundtrack
• Maclaine Diemer, Lena Chappelle, and Keenan Sieg, for continuing to create awesome music for Guild Wars 2, supporting my musical endeavors, and being some of the coolest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing
• Regina Buenaobra, for reblogging my pieces on Tumblr as they released
• Rubi Bayer, for being the most awesome tour guide during my trip to ArenaNet
• Gaile Gray and Elizabeth Stewart, for constantly featuring my tracks on Community Showcase Live and being super-supportive of my music
• All of the players that submitted characters for this project
• Iri Alexander, for contributing the epic album art featuring all of the characters
• codemite, for being my one-man hype team over at Reddit as I released these tracks originally
• OverClocked ReMix, for helping me grow into the musician I am today
• My wife Kristina, for continuing to put up with me pouring all this time, effort, and money into making music that I just end up releasing for free
• You, for listening to this aspiring video game composer's first attempts at orchestral music


All compositions by Dustin Branscum unless otherwise noted in track descriptions.
Original album art by Iri Alexander. Album art edited by Dustin Branscum.
All assets copyright of their respective owners.

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Artist's track descriptions:

M-01
Arrangement of "Overture" and "Fear Not This Night"
Original compositions by Jeremy Soule
Arrangement by Dustin Branscum

M-02
Theme of Thorfinnr Sleggja, a proud norn warrior. Subtle nods to the norn motif found in several Guild Wars 2 compositions by Jeremy Soule.

M-03
Theme of Kyera Fearghus, noble-born human elementalist with an affinity for water.

M-04
Theme of Semele Isra, my human elementalist.

M-05
Theme of my asura necromancer, Lyzixx.

M-06
Theme of Alesia Langmar, the ghost of a fallen Ascalonian warrior.

M-07
Theme of Dathius Eventide, my human guardian and main character.

M-08
Theme of Rhew Anfarwol, a frozen sylvari necromancer.

M-09
This is the first orchestral piece I have ever created with any actual sincerity behind it. It's a conceptual piece that I created during the January 2014 GW2 content release.
The idea behind it was to create a story of the heroes of Tyria preparing to assault Scarlet Briar at her final stronghold. Scrambling for ideas, she prepares herself for a final battle.
The first section of the piece was designed to portray her planning for the battle, and descending into madness as a result of her recent failures. The second half of the piece was designed to be the fight track itself.
This track includes a variation of the melody to the Twisted Marionette battle theme created by Maclaine Diemer, as well as a nod to the Guild Wars theme by Jeremy Soule.

M-10
This piece was an extremely ambitious composition created to "re-score" the Tequatl the Sunless fight. It was written with all of the shifts and cinematic cues of the battle in mind.