A bit of a love letter to the BL3 soundtrack

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

As many problems as this game has, I still can’t fault it’s style and artistic direction that has been made by the devs, and in-between the chaos of gameplay there’s really something special to look at, whether it be the gorgeous environments and art style/textures/character and enemy design (besides one I’ll mention in a bit) or in the case this post is about, the music

Yes, borderlands 3 has a very different kind of feel to the other borderlands, which takes away some of the previous charm the series has music wise, but in a way BL3 has forged its own very unique style that has a lot of charm within itself and over the year it’s been gearbox has done nothing but add absolutely great tracks to the ost through the game’s dlcs and extra content, which adds to the newer style

Some choices for BL3 I don’t know why they did design wise, replacing nomads and marauders (even if they’re in some places in DLC4) with more boring designs being one of them, but replacing or changing the music tone in some places was one of their best decisions. Don’t get me wrong BL2 still had more memorable music, but BL3 has all of its own memorable music that feels outside of the borderlands universe, that is up to par with the BL2 soundtrack when looked at in that manner

Some of my favourites, whether you care for my opinion or not but I still suggest checking out, are;

. The whole maliwan takedown playlist (made by finishing move inc)
. The neon arterial ost
. The VIP tower ost/Jackbot fight ( https://youtu.be/buB_c4k8Bk4 )
. Negul nashai ost ( https://youtu.be/20IMsbEbh6c )
. The invincible martyr fight ost
. The first 2/3rds of the DLC4 ost (link for if anyone needs it https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/kQSr )
. And supernova dreamsicle by digby vermouth
. Oh yeah and the sanctuary ost

If youre someone else who nitpicks some of the music, I’d love to hear your favourites and see everyone’s top picks and get a discussion going about it, hence why I made the post :slight_smile: :v:

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#2

Two of the few things that are right with BL3 is the music score and the looks. Agreed.

Oh yes… Running the bloodshot stronghold was a cool activity, especially to test builds

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#3

I am with you on the Digby Vermouth “Supernova Dreamsicle”, but find his other more esoteric drone even more excellent.

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#4

for me none of the BL3 osts are memorable. For BL2 i remember washburne refinery/bloodshot ramparts and fink’s slaughterhouse, but for BL3 i can’t rly name anything…

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#5

Yes, one thing BL3 does nail consistently is the music.

Everything in Maliwan Takedown. Hell one of the reasons I run it so often is because of the music.

Guardian Takedown is no slouch either. The Anathema boss fight music is a freaking banger.

Sometimes I just hang out in Meridian Outskirts after dispatching everyone in the Borman Nates camp and just listen to the klaxons and explosions in the distance in combination with the ambient music. Maybe I’m just weird but it’s oddly relaxing.

Everything in the Cartel event, man that was some good stuff.

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#6

I play with sound effects turned down and the music cranked. Amazing soundtrack. My favourite is Nekrotafeyo. The ambient sections are awesomes. Maliwan Takedown a highlight as well.

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#7

The Sanctuary theme song and the MTD entire soundtrack are just amazing. The intro guitar on the Sanctuary theme gets me in the feels every time. So good.

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#8

The music is generally really great. It’s hard to pinpoint to a track that soars above others but Spendopticon does come to mind first. It fits so well and builds the atmosphere of the place perfectly. Also just noticed one of my favorite game music composers has had a hand in it which doesn’t surprise me in the least.
EDIT: How do I link that without an embedded player automatically slapping itself here?

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#9

I very much adore the Evil Lilith battletheme in the new DLC.

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#10

Trust me you aren’t weird man, I do exactly the same thing in negul nashai lmao, and everything else you said I completely agree on, cartels event was something special like goddamn

#11

Maliwan takedown music is SO good. It does a great job of making you tense up when you go in for the first time. standouts to me are the themes of killavolt, captain haunt, sanctuary, and main menu music.

sadly a lot of the music gets drowned out for me. im not sure if its the mixing but it was hard for me to get on the music hype train at launch when i couldnt hear the tracks

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#12

The music you hear when you enter Nekrotaeyo is epic…lets you know some sh** is about to happen :eyes:

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#13

Music is quiet for me as well. I crank my speakers up and turn down the sound effects and voices to compensate.

#14

For the base game, as far as I can remember, Sanctuary III soundtrack makes me feel like it’s just a chill out place. Where you can take a break, check your build, all the things you farmed. Fits there. For the DLCs, probably people won’t agree with me that much, but it’s okay :slight_smile: So I’m gonna get through all of them I guess. For DLC 1, sure, it was Digby, no question. Next, the Fabricator soundtrack. For DLC 2, Negul Neshai. Unfortunately that’s all :confused: DLC 3… Bounty of Blood… this is the part where people might hate me the most :smiley: I’m a Jakobs fan since Borderlands 1, do I need to say more? But if I have to choose one specific map soundtrack, it would be Bloodsun Canyon. The first time you’re there and the story mission puts things in your face, the atmosphere, the way the music changes through you progress on that map… the narrator… uhm, yeah… For DLC 4, I enjoyed all the music. It was well written, really fits to the actual DLC. It’s kind of chill out (?) (when you’re not on a fight). I really liked the music for Sapphire’s Run for example. That’s just fits for me. So did the boss fight for Locomöbius. And as an extra, Revenge of the Cartels. That was really, really, really nice. The event (and the soundtrack) had really some heavy “Scarface” relation. I know I might think different, I know I might like different things, but this is why life is beatiful :slight_smile: so we can share each others opinion :slight_smile:

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#15

Same here - it was much less prominent when I used my 5.1 surround sound setup on XBOX+TV. Playing with headphones on PC made it much more enjoyable.

BL1 music still gives me goosebumps, though, BL3 is not there yet. :slight_smile:

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#16

Moxxi’s heist has some killer tracks, but I was especially floored by this:


And it’s just tucked away at the end of a sidequest that a bunch of people probably didn’t even hang around for.
I also love all the walkout songs before facing Pain n Terror, never understood why it cuts off during the fight itself.
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#17

Maliwan Takedown music has not a single weak track or moment. There are many great tasty music throughout the whole game, too.

I have to say it was disappointing to have certain tracks completely omitted from the official soundtrack release, for example Mouthpiece themes or Droughts music, I’m sure there’s more missing. What’s up with that. They also ordered the tracks by composer, but what’s the point of that I’m not sure. In my opinion it would be better to space them out how they are encountered in the game “chronologically”, somewhat like BL1 soundtrack, and what they actually did (somewhat) in all the DLC soundtrack releases.

I feel they also went a bit overboard with the interactive/dynamic nature of the music. I mean sure, it’s cool system when there’s more enemies or something else is happening then the game will mix in more layers of instrumentation, so you would have slightly different “arrangement” themes every time you play, but do people really notice that in game? I doubt it.

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#18

The combat theme in the Scraptrap nest is fantastic.

Also, I need to get the Anvil soundtrack with the extra beats when badasses start to show up. I will play that map sometimes specifically to hear that track ripping. :metal:

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#19

Nope, not I. :smiley: I love the music in DLC3, especially in…

Yep I love that too, how it changes through the map and once you discover the secret of the company and get into the depths of the facility, the music changes to that eerie drone (some elements of the map’s music, including that drone, are in the music that’s played while Rose steals the egg at the beginning.) I really like how Gearbox went with something different for the music for that DLC, going with stuff with an more atonal eastern flavor.

Me too! Like the Maliwan Takedown I run that map partially because of the music.

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#20

Never ended up hearing this one as I forget to do the side quests, this one’s going on my favourites now lol, no wonder you like it