Game Of Thrones Season 8 Soundtrack Review

Track Listing

Main Title
The Rains of Castamere – Ramin Djawadi & Serj Tankian
Arrival at Winterfell
Flight of Dragons
Heir to the Throne
Jenny of Oldstones
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
The Battle of Winterfell
The Dead are Already Here
Battle for the Skies
The Long Night Pt. 1
The Long Night Pt. 2
The Night King
Dead Before the Dawn
Not Today
Farewell
Outside the Gates
The Bells
The Last War
Into the Fire
For Cersei
Believe
Stay a Thousand Years
Nothing Else Matters
Master of War
Be with Me
The Iron Throne
Break the Wheel
You Have a Choice
The White Book
The Last of the Starks
A Song of Ice and Fire

Rising from the ruins of Kings Landing and solidifying himself as a truly great composer, Ramin Djawadi delivers a gorgeously written, bittersweet score, one tinged with feelings of regret and finality so sorely lacking from the series itself. With an abundance of violin strings and some drum-heavy battle music, the Season 8 soundtrack surpasses the quality of what’s come before to deliver a stunning soundtrack of classical music, and the perfect remedy to stave off any disappointment over Season 8’s questionable quality.

Following the iconic main theme for the show, Game Of Thrones delivers a haunting vocal rendition of The Rains Of Castamere. I’ll admit, I had goosebumps listening to this one and from here, the rest of the score follows the chronological direction of the season. Much like the TV show, the soundtrack changes its tone partway through its run time, with much more urgency and minor key, fast-tempoed violin tracks contrasting beautifully with the pounding drums.

This is really felt during the climax of this first part, with The Battle Of Winterfell and the following 4 tracks culminating the different parts of the battle, eventually ending with the crescendo; The Night King. This sequence of music is up there with some of my favourite classical music and the musicality between these tracks flows perfectly to form a believable and audible recreation of the battle.

From here, the second half of the soundtrack devolves into a much more sombre, melancholy tone. Of course, a lot of this is reflected by Dany’s (admittedly sudden) descent into madness but the music at least typifies this journey gradually and with undertones of worry. Her theme has constantly evolved through the years too, with the Dudek Flutes giving way to pulsating drums and eventually merging with the main theme of the show in “The Iron Throne”.

The idea of adding The Rains Of Castamere at the start of the soundtrack is an ingenious one too, with a subtle nod toward the Season 4 soundtrack which started with the exact same track. Here though, the motif crops up in tiny snippets throughout the tracks before really coming into focus during “Nothing Else Matters”. The sense of finality is really felt here too and along with Dany’s motif, all the other character themes are joined together, blurring into two or three consistent themes that do an excellent job drawing this fascinating musical journey to a close.

I’ve been a big fan of Ramin’s work over the years, especially with Westworld and his earlier work on Prison Break. If there’s one person whose likely to benefit greatly from this series its him. His compositional work is second to none and this culmination of work over the years is a perfect send-off to an incredible musical talent. His clever work with motifs and themes, evolving and growing over the years, has been central to the success of this series. The Season 8 soundtrack bows out triumphantly, with a beautiful musical journey well worth experiencing again and again.