When Halo 2 was released, it was accompanied by a soundtrack. Unfortunately, it wasn't the soundtrack fans had been hoping for: instead of one featuring the music from the game, it instead pulled the old "music from and inspired by the game" trick. While a few game tracks could be found on it, including "Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix" and "Ghosts of Reach", it was also loaded with tracks by Breaking Benjamin, Incubus, and Hoobastank.

It was tolerable. The game-specific tracks were great, and a few of the "inspired by" tracks grew on you over time, but it wasn't the soundtrack we wanted.

Volume 2 is that soundtrack.

Where are the fun bands?

Over the last few months, as I have been happily lost in a non-radio paradise of podcasts, audio books and my music collection, this is a thought I've had many times.

Where are the fun bands?

For decades, Dungeons & Dragons players have cobbled together custom soundtracks for their games from diverse sources, including various movie soundtracks (Conan the Barbarian, Lord of the Rings), game music tracks (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights) and even specialized albums (Midnight Syndicate, Toxic Bag Productions). But now they have an official soundtrack, one sanctioned by the Wizards of the Coast, and one that promises to bring cinematic sound to the gaming table.

It succeeds wonderfully.

At Dawn at Rivendell is filled with the music and poetry of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, as performed by the Tolkien Ensemble.

This is the Denmark-based Tolkien Ensemble's third outing, and this time around they are aided in their endeavourer by Christopher Lee, who played the villainous Sauramon in the Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers movies (and allegedly will appear in the opening of the extended DVD edition of Return of the King).

All through my high school career and a good chunk of my college one, I spent a fair amount of time questing for the soundtrack to the movie 2010. I finally got it in my sophomore year (1992), when my girlfriend at the time found it for me in a CD store up in State College, PA.

Of course, I was ecstatic, and after a quick kiss I ran back to my dorm room, where I happily through it onto my CD player ... and was horrified by an opening track that had taken all that was good and proper about 2010's excellent cinematic overtures ... and combined them with disco.

The horror was near absolute. Had great Cthulhu appeared at that moment, his tentacles writhing, his eyes shining with celestial madness, I doubt the horror could have been any greater ... and I'm pretty sure I could have thrown the CD at him and even he would have fled screaming.