God of War Ragnarok
(Picture: Santa Monica Studio)God of War Ragnarök, Sony’s latest PlayStation game, has been released today, and Hozier fans have been thrilled that one of the game’s tracks has been made by the Irish singer.
Blood Upon the Snow runs at four and a half minutes and manages to take listeners through a wave of emotions, with its folk-style melody and building drums that cleverly whip up images of the video game’s ancient Scandinavian setting. The God of War theme then phases into the song towards the end.
“His voice is just magical, it conveys so much and his story telling is beyond compare. So happy to have new Hozier, and dying for the 3rd album!!,” commented one fan on the song’s YouTube lyrics video. “For both the message and the vocals, they could not have picked a more fitting artist. I have chills,” said a second.
The new video game, which was released worldwide today after Covid-related development delays, is the first cross-gen release in the highly-popular God of War series, meaning that users can play the game on both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. God of War Ragnarök is the ninth instalment of the franchise, and will be the last that is based in the Norse era.
This time the story focuses on father and son Kratos (wielding alternately his Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos) and Atreus (with his bow) on their quest to bring down the god Odin. The Standard called the new game “a glorious return to form”, saying “on all the essentials – the gameplay, the story, the world-building – it hits the nail on the head every single time”.
Hozier has made the track alongside award-winning American composer Bear McCreary who has composed the soundtrack for the game.
McCreary, who must be one of busiest people working in film and TV also composed the music for the upcoming Netflix prequel The Witcher: Blood Origin, the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and in the past made the music for Battlestar Galactica (2004), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2019), Outlander (2014-2022) and The Walking Dead (2010-2021).
He also composed the music for video games Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021) and God of War (2018) as well as for Ragnarök.
Irish musician Hozier is known for creating music which draws from a mix of soul, folk and blues - perfect, then, for the Norse-themed video game Ragnarök. Hozier rose to fame in 2013 after his debut EP, Take Me to Church, became a major hit, peaking at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100.
In December last year, he announced on Twitter that his next album Unreal Unearth was in the works and released single Swan Upon Leda, in October.
