“The apocalypse has a theme song in Bear McCreary’s haunting score for hit show The Walking Dead” – CNN.com
Lakeshore Records and Sparks & Shadows are proud to release the first soundtrack featuring EMMY® award-winning composer Bear McCreary’s (10 Cloverfield Lane, Rebel in the Rye) original score for AMC’s “The Walking Dead”. The soundtrack will be released digitally and CD on October 20, on LP October 27, 2017. Listen to a track premiered exclusively at Yahoo! Music. See the album track list and more below.
“When we started discussing the first season we agreed that drama, action, and horror would be felt more intimately if the score were used only in pivotal scenes, and that it should be written with tonal clarity,” McCreary explained of his initial approach to scoring The Walking Dead. During the zombie apocalypse, silence would be the most prevalent – the lack of sound is what survivors would notice. Those moments when McCreary’s music kicks in, viewers know they are about to be treated to something important. “This approach allowed me to create big emotional impacts with sparse musical gestures.”
Pre-order The Album: [Download/CD/Vinyl]
As the series progressed, McCreary was able to expand the musical palette. For the second and third seasons he did so with “acoustic guitars and drums to connect with the farmhouse setting (check out ‘Message to Morgan’).” He blended these with a small orchestra for the gut-crushing mid-season finale (‘Sophia’). As audiences were introduced to new characters like the Governor, McCreary incorporated a synth pulse to his largely organic instrumentation. When Neegan was introduced a few seasons later, he employed “creepy electric guitar gestures.”
The eighth season of The Walking Dead premieres Sunday, October 22 at 9PM ET on AMC.
Catch up on the series now: Season 7 available now on Blu-ray/DVD (get it here); stream Season 1-6 now on Netflix.
Premiering on Halloween 2010, in 120 countries simultaneously, The Walking Dead became a cultural zeitgeist practically overnight. A deserted car wreck. A policeman walking through it. The back of a little girl. He calls to her. At first she doesn’t respond. Then she turns around… revealing that all is not quite what it seems. The cop left with no choice shoots her, and as she falls, the tremolo string arpeggios of the “Main Title Theme” by McCreary crescendo, drawing millions of viewers into this harrowing world of The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead (Original Television Soundtrack)
Bear McCreary
01. Theme from The Walking Dead
02. Rick’s Despair
03. Glenn’s Wheels
04. Lord of the Vatos
05. Bag of Guns
06. Message to Morgan
07. Herd on the Highway
08. Sophia
09. Coalescence
10. Eulogy
11. Carl
12. Farm Invasion
13. Beside the Dying Fire
14. C-Section
15. The Governor
16. Bye, Baby Bunting
17. A Return to Compassion
18. The Badge
19. Welcome to the Tombs
20. Reconciliation
21. Three Questions
22. Negan
23. The Day Will Come
