[Album] DIRGE of CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII- Original Soundtrack (CRCP-40137~38)

As a certified orchestra and film score whore, I can assure you that my disappointment with this album has nothing to do with it being too orchestral or too much like a film score; it's far less so than many other pieces of VGM.

The OST is filled with mood pieces that don't incorporate much in the way of melody or theme. While the tracks are generally good at conveying a general feeling (sadness, darkness, night--they tend to be pretty dark), they fade from memory the instant they're done. The lack of thematic cohesion, and the atmospheric nature of the tracks, is what really torpedoes the album.

I've never found Hamauzu to be particularly melodic--lack of melody is one of the biggest beefs that I have with his SaGa work--but it's particularly damning here, where there were strong themes established for several of the characters. Other than a brief allusion to Uematsu's Shinra theme, none of the earlier melodies are reprised. Combined with Hamauzu's sensibilities and the probably-studio-dictated instrumentation and orchestration, interpretation of the existing themes might have made the album.

I'm sure it'll work fine in-game, but this album is dirgelike indeed for me. And the less said about those J-Rock tunes, the better.

2/5

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Perhaps it's just too subtle for my cloth ears.

Did ye who find so much melodic consistency in olde Hamauzu find any here, in Dirge of Cerberus?

There's nowhere I can't reach.