“Silver” was a nice but not outstanding RPG by Infogrames, a mixture between character-driven Japanese RPGs and hack and slay stuff like the AD&D games by Bioware.
Featuring synthesized orchestra and choir, this CD is probably for fans only. If you haven’t played the game, there’s little here that might interest you. Those who know the game will be delighted to find the cinematic tracks without the annoying sound effects, so they can finally be enjoyed without distraction. Turn up the volume, close your eyes and live through the game scenes again! The sound quality could be better, it all sounds a bit muffled (due to reverb used to cover up the fact that you are listening to a fake orchestra). Don’t get me wrong though: it’s similar to Falcom Electric Orchestra so you could almost believe it’s real. By the way, The more ambient tracks found in the game are missing, but that’s not a great loss.
Memorable moments are the flute and violin parts in “The Forest of Verdante”, one of the main themes in the game. The “Battle Cry” and the other battle themes also fulfill their function as background-tracks, despite some repetition.
Overall there’s a dark, brooding kind of sound, reminiscent of movie soundtracks. “Caves of Gno”, “Glass Palace” and “Towers of Metalon” are good examples for this. “Theme from Haven” has a majestic second part, even if it shares the problem of most of the tracks: they are too long without anything exciting happening, so outside the game context the music doesn’t work as well. “Final Confrontation” is appropriately dramatic with it’s haunting choir and snare drum rythm, it also has an upbeat variation in the final part, almost the best melody in the game although it’s only 30 seconds long! The “End Credits” are again a very cinematic track, with a slow start and a majestic finale.
Also note that most of the tracks blend into another, there is no pause between tracks. The final track from the ending FMV-sequence brings this album to a fitting finale.
This is not a CD for repeated listening, nor for listening from beginning to end. I often just play those few tracks I like best. There’s no booklet, just an inlay. I guess when you find this soundtrack on eBay it might be pretty expensive, or not, I wouldn’t know. Anyways, don’t pay too much for it. If you want the soundtrack, you could also convert the wav files of the PC version and put them to disc…on the other hand, if you have played the game you probably want an official CD release – it’s up to you.
