‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ Score Is Dark and Powerful

Christopher Drake’s captivating score to the new video game Batman: Arkham Origins drops October 22nd, three days ahead of the actual game. With “Assassins” – which premieres here and is one of dozens of pieces Drake prepared for the project – the composer provides the kind of dark and powerful instrumental that not only enhances the action and emotion of the gaming experience, but has the ability to stand on its own. “The previous soundtrack had a much more elegant, traditional score,” Drake tells Rolling Stone. “But for Origins, I wanted it to be more electronic.”

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Batman: Arkham Origins is the prequel to popular franchise games Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) and Batman: Arkham City (2011). Its narrative finds a young and still developing crime fighter encountering key characters in the Batman story in the days before Gotham City’s most dangerous villains come to power.

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Drake is no stranger to Batman ventures, having penned the score to the animated films Batman: Gotham Knight (2008), Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Batman: Year One (2011) and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012). As for video games, he helmed the scores to Hellboy: The Science of Evil (2008) and, more recently, Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013).