Warning: Major spoilers ahead!
The second episode of "Game of Thrones" Season 6, titled "Home," sent out quite a few ripples when it aired recently. Ramsey Bolton was confirmed to be an illegitimate child and he murdered his father Roose and newborn brother. Hodor's real name was revealed to be Willis. And Jon Snow returned to the land of the living with the help of Melisandre's magic spell.
To emphasise the rippling effect of certain pivotal scenes and the episode in general, Ramin Djawadi composed a soundtrack that is eerie, epic, scintillating and profound at the same time.
Djawadi checked all the boxes of an epic fantasy fiction soundtrack for this episode. Layers and layers of eerie synthesiser notes, demonic piano arpeggios, hair-raising sound effects and up-tempo drum rhythms, the soundtrack had it all. In fact, the sounds were so gripping that I couldn't help but wonder whether Djawadi had composed the music with acoustic instruments or used realistic-sounding VST emulators of those very instruments.
Right at the beginning of the episode, when the recaps were being shown, heavy synth layers and a combination of minimalistic major and minor piano notes quickly moved on to a fast-paced bass and drum rhythm. This helped set up and amplify the overall mood of the episode that was about to throw a lot of surprises.
One scene in which Djawadi continued the use of heavy and scary synth tones was when Ramsey Bolton discovered the existence of his newborn brother and legitimate heir to his father Roose. The synth layers quickly gave way to brass sounds as Bolton killed his father. The best thing about the sounds accompanying this scene was that although they comprised of individual notes held for a long time, they did manage to convey the overall mood of death and shock.
Generally, the final scene of an episode in a TV show is reserved for creating the most dramatic moment of the episode. The scene in which Melisandre cast a magic spell to revive the dead Jon Snow created that very dramatic effect for this episode of "Game of Thrones." And the music accompanying this scene was equally dramatic. Bottle noises, background chimes, bell sounds, brass instruments, cello and dark synth layers helped in creating the emphasis intended for this scene by the creators of the show.
But the cherry on top was the end credits track. It was a faced-paced symphonic extravaganza that had orchestral and dark synth rhythmic layers based over a rock music-oriented drum groove.
Overall, the soundtrack of this episode transported me to the epic fantasy world of "Game of Thrones" and let me wanting for more when it all ended.
