Exclusive: listen to Jesper Kyd’s main theme for ‘Warhammer 40k: Darktide’

Fatshark has shared the main theme to Warhammer 40,000: Darktide with NME, which you can check out here.

The soundtrack to Darktide has been created by BAFTA-winning composer Jesper Kyd, who listeners may recognise as the composer for much of the Assassin’s Creed series (including Valhalla and the Ezio trilogy). Kyd also composed Fatshark’s Vermintide games, as well as Borderlands and Hitman: Contracts.

Ahead of Darktide launching on November 10, Fatshark has shared a taste of Kyd’s Darktide score with NME – you can listen to the survival shooter’s main theme below:

Discussing Darktide‘s main theme, Kyd shared that it “embraces the sound of dark folk music mixed with a thundering analog sequencer synth bass line.”

“The Imperium proclaimed ‘reject’ you play in the game with ‘nothing to lose’ is celebrated in the music as a call to arms,” continued Kyd. “The tagline of Darktide is ‘Rejects will Rise’ and throughout the game you rise from prisoner of the Imperium to a valuable member of the Imperium. This is reflected in the music. The bassline is the driving force of the underground vibe instilled in much of the score. In short, the uplifting parts of the cue are about celebrating who you are, where you came from and being given a second chance.”

On the topic of Darktide‘s wider OST, Kyd shared that it “needed to sound like it could exist in the year 40,000 so I knew we had to create something really out there and unique, something that sounds like it’s from a distant future with totally different priorities than what we are accustomed to.”

Earlier in the year, Darktide was delayed by a month to give Fatshark more time to make “critical” improvements. NME previewed Darktide in June, and praised the hands-on as a “gory sci-fi power trip.”

In other gaming news, Dishonored creative director Harvey Smith has shared that he once pitched a Blade Runner game, and came close to making a Heat-inspired immersive sim.