Awesome Music / Command & Conquer

Nearly every song in near every Command & Conquer game is either made of pure concentrated awesome of the combat, searching or construction variety. All of it, except for the music from Generals, Tiberium Wars and the majority of Red Alert 3, is the work of Industrial/Industrial Metal/Electronic Music composer Frank Klepacki.

You can even listen to a lot of this Awesome Music at Frank's website using the jukebox.

Tiberium Series

• All of the music from the first game (either Tiberian Dawn or The Tiberium Conflict) is awesome.
  • Except maybe "C&CThang".
  • What C&C theme could possibly top Hell March? Why, only the first music you hear when you play the original Command & Conquer, the music that defined the game and set the standard subsequent entries in the series strove to match. Ladies and gentlemen, three words: "Act on Instinct".
    • Four words: "Act on Instinct" remixed.
    • Here's a longer, better quality version: "Extended Act on Instinct Remix". (from Kane's Wrath)
    • One of the good things to come out of C&C Renegade: Act on Instinct remixed (again)
  • "No! No! No! No Mercy. Mercy Is For the Weak!"
    • Some of the verses are rather Narmtastic, mixing a lot of villainous tropes we've learned to love and hate, which only adds to the Campy appeal that is C&C.
      Just in preparation... With the aid of my secret weapon!
      No longer will the world be dominated... by the legacy of these fools!
    • These appear to be voice clips from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, of all places. Why? Who knows? Who cares?
  • And of course, Surf No Mercy is catchy as hell.
  • The soundtrack version of In Trouble. 'Perhaps you need another shot' indeed.
    • "LET ME CLEAR MY THROAT!"
    • In the N64 version, the part used with the airstrike in that one cutscene is especially badass.
  • The amazing thing about the first game's soundtrack is the sheer diversity of style. There's the expected (yet still badass) stuff like "Industrial", but the we get crazy bouncy songs like "Radio", or soundtracks along the line of funky ''(Just Do It Up)'', quasi-hip hop ''(Thang)''), or even eerie ambient songs ''(On the Prowl)''. Then there's "Rain in the Night", and "Airstrike", which are just the sex.
  • Hilarious Outtakes in musical form from the singer feeling ashamed doing the voice sample of "Just Do It Up" to gems such as this.
    Joseph D. Kucan: Two GDI bases rest on ground I have chosen to be the temple... of my cradle of Nod! [cue laughter]
    Eric Martin: It's up to you to mobilize a strike force. Acquire Mobius and rendezvous with the— $&!#!
• March to Doom. Awesomeness pure!
• While the music of Tiberian Sun and Firestorm music is...different from that of Tiberian Dawn it is still awesome.
  • Slave to the System. A driving beat pumps you up to kick ass.
  • Lone Trooper is a slow, mournful, slightly creepy tune that sums up the grim state of the Earth.
  • Stomp was actually first heard in Tiberian Sun but was also included in Renegade for its penultimate level then the song shows up again in the teaser for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for a badass sequence of GDI forces being mobilized.
  • Pharotek. Egyptian-style, baby!
  • Valves. The first track you hear in the game (assuming you weren't playing as Nod scum), which like Act on Instinct before it set the tone for the next entry in the Tiberium sage - dark, futuristic, and apocalyptic.
  • Dusk Hour is single handedly the creepiest song in the entirety of the Command and Conquer soundtrack (Red Alert included).
    • The only other song that can contest that is the aptly-named Gloom, at least in its first half of the song.
    • What Lurks is another contender for this spot. Tiberian Sun just seems to have a creepy as hell soundtrack in general.
    • One more possible contender: Approach. The first half of the track gives a similar creepy apocalyptic vibe (which was re-used in one trailer for Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars to show how things went From Bad to Worse between the Second and Third Tiberium War), while its second half encapsulates humanity's grim determination to prevail despite the widespread Tiberium contamination.
  • Nod Crush is really popular as a nod theme, it also gained a remix for the Renegade mod Reborn.
  • Link-Up, typically playing in the last mission for Tiberian Sun Firestorm (either side), this piece doubles as a Moment of Awesome, both for the atmosphere of the moment and for making a piece of music around the old modem dial-up noises that we're all familiar with. Because Dystopian Sci-Fi Is Techno.
  • And of course, Frank's favorite track from the game, Mad Rap, is such with good reason.
  • Mutants, particularly the intermittent nightmarish chord progression (beginning at about 0:10).
  • Want to be creeped out for the rest of your life? Ion Storm will claim your soul.
  • "Infrared", a drum and bass-esque song that goes really well with stealth operations.
  • "Infiltration", which actually sounds quite similar to many of the slower tracks from Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. A meta-case of Foreshadowing?
  • The rarely-heard "Initiate," which was intended to be used in Firestorm. Its absence is conspicuous, considering its absolutely awesome segue from ominous techno to rockin' metal.
  • The Main Menu Theme. Happy dreams!
  • While a lot of Tiberian Sun soundtrack is moody and creepy, Killing Machine goes the other way with a badass mix of metal, techno and industrial music that goes well with kicking Nod's ass.
• Command & Conquer: Renegade has more action based tracks due to it's Genre Shift from the rest of the series but action typically makes the soundtrack more awesome in this case.
  • Some of the tracks are completely unused but still found within the .dat file of the game, such as Mechanical Man's Revenge (which did show up in a cutscene when Sakura shot Havoc's plane down), Sakura Battle Theme (not to be confused with Dogfight which was more of a Full Stop/Warfare remix), Denfunkt (which became a song in one of Frank's standalone albums), a remix of Great Shot!, an unused menu theme.
  • Command & Conquer. A composite remix of "Looks Like Trouble/In Trouble" and "C&C 80s Mix" was used for the teaser of this game in Yuri's Revenge. Frank considers this song to represent the series as a whole and he's right, especially since you can hear a mechanical voice name the very series subtly during the entirety of the song flawlessly.
  • On Your Feet, fitting for the (Optional) Stealth Mission. Bonus points going to the fact that Havoc is wearing gray urban camo during it not unlike a certain other espionage operative.
  • For the credits, Stop Them Again (remix of We Will Stop Them), followed by Renegade Jungle which also had a shorter mix in the opening cutscene.
  • Ammo Clip, which plays during the fourth mission that places Havoc right in the thick of emergency-paradropping onto an ongoing beachhead assault between Nod and GDI as it plays a foreboding-yet-awesome song all-the-while as Havoc goes about what he does best.
  • I've Got A Present For Ya, a rocking track showing how much of a real tough guy you are and that you can take them all on left-handed even if they keep 'em comin', provides the game's Recurring Riff as well. Come on! Worth mentioning that the main part kicks in right as E.V.A. warns the Dead Six of an incoming nuke.
  • The cut Fight, Win, Prevail! remix was supposedly intended to play when fighting against Mendoza, and emphasizes how insane he really is.
  • "Stomp" returns from Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun once again for the penultimate level, in which you level an entire Nod base in Cairo with nothing but a Mammoth tank, your trusty C4 and maybe an MLRS and a Humvee too before leaving an Ion Cannon beacon at the Temple of Nod's front door.
• C&C3's "Heavy Handed" is disturbingly creepy in a good way, but the most epic and ferociously brutal of all the tracks in the game is "Radiation Alert"
  • Black Dawn lets all people playing it know desperately the world is struggling to survive.
  • Hell, all of the C&C3 stuff is pretty good. Might not be Frank, but Steve Jablonsky sure did his job well in composing for this game. There's a great sense of urgency and panic in the combat themes (Deadly Force, Renegade Attack, Apocalypse) that suits the sudden arrival of the seemingly unstoppable Scrin, GDI's all-out assaults, or NOD's multi-pronged Mind Screw-based offensives, and an apocalyptic ambience in pieces like Gathering Intel.
  • The victory and defeat themes. "Blue Glory" is a good contender with "Victory" for how much it makes your heart leap from accomplishment. Meanwhile "Guilty Pleasure" cements the fury that the Brotherhood of Nod or the Scrin lives upon. "Mourning Hour", instead gives you a sense of lost hope, even if you're playing as the bad guys.
• Fight, Win, Prevail. Short, yet chilling...
• If there is one redeeming feature of the seemingly ruined forever C&C4, it has to be this: To The Death.
  • Or Prophet's Ascension played in the final cutscene of the game. The whole soundtrack reflects the games relation to the previous incarnations of the Tiberium series: has nothing to do with it. Doesn't mean it's bad though.
  • Then there's "We Rise," which apparently got its start as a track for the cancelled game Tiberium.
• The Fan Remake of Renegade (Renegade X) is worth mentioning too. Not only does it bring in remakes of old favorites (Act On Instinct, No Mercy, and of course, Stomp, among others), it also has its own unique, and rather awesome, tunes, such as Valiant and Blinded.

Red Alert Series

Hell March

• Hell March from Command & Conquer: Red Alert. The entire Soviet Red Army marching over the German border to crush the Allies into dust underneath massive tanks? BRING IT ON! A number of fans actually prefer the original Hell March to its sequel counterparts. It also has a swinging second part at 3:38 where the song shifts genres and feels like a dance track.
  • The Retaliation remix of Hell March makes the already awesome song even more badass. It even has some dialogue from the Allied campaign, and it fits right in with the pacing of the song exquisitely.
  • Hell March LIVE. Pure awesome.
  • They did Hell March 3, and remixed Hell Marches 1 and 2.
    • Hellmarch 3 Orchestral and Performed live at Video Game Live!
    • And even if this song isn't official, this guitar cover is purely epic in its own, especially Hell March 3, which, in the final part, combines every single Hell March to create the ultimate one. This song also plays in Mental Omega during the first Allied Mission when the Soviets invade Washington D.C.

Red Alert (Includes Counterstrike & The Aftermath)

• Both Floating and Fogger (along with Traction) go great to building a base.
• Search, which is like being lost in a forest during winter.
• "Radio 2" just makes you want to get up and dance. Not the best thing in the world when you're trying to not be blown to pieces by the Soviet War Machine, but a kick-ass tune either way. The random chanting monks in the background don't hurt, either. Remixed for the Counterstrike expansion, sprinkled throughout with voice clips from the actual game.
• Both Tracks 1 & 2 of "Face the Enemy". They rival Hell March in diversity and awesomeness.
• Big Foot, which often is the first thing you hear when starting a mission. Perfect track to get you pumped up for the battles to come.
• Needless to say, the entire soundtrack for the first in the Red Alert series is made of epic win, and ranks among the best music Frank Klepaki ever made.

Red Alert 2 (Includes Yuri's Revenge)

• Destroy. If it weren't for Hell March 2 or Grinder, It would definitely be Red Alert 2's defining Epic Riff. "Détruire tout, c'est une obligation." ^{In English...}"Destroy everything, that is an obligation."
• The menu themes from Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge: Grinder and Drok respectively.
• The loading theme in Red Alert 2, Jank, is an excellent song.
• Grinder has an interesting callback - one of the voice samples comes from a cutscene in Red Alert (the one where Einstein is chrono'd away seconds before his execution).
• Brain Freeze, which borders on Nightmare Fuel. Your feeling of helplessness is your best friend, savage!
• Apocalypse Rising, a mod for Renegade that brings in Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge content, has a pretty awesome theme that combines Hell March 2 (at the pace of the original Hell March) with Destroy,
• The Yuri's Revenge expansion gives us Phat Attack.
• Deciever. The soundtrack lives up to its name by having a Mood Whiplash feeling going from a fast paced track, to a relaxing tune with the riff of "C&C Thang", then back to action again.

Red Alert 3 (Includes Uprising)

• From Red Alert 3, the Allies combat music (Shock and Awe) and the music it segues into when you're winning the fight ("How the West Was Won") are particularly awesome, and one of the few times dynamic combat music has sounded good.
  • Also their Uprising combat theme, which goes completely over the top into awesome territory.
  • When it comes to summing up the Allies, though, the slow, solemn Victory Theme outshines them all.
• Not to be outdone by the Allies' theme, the crunchy, violent, brutally epic Soviet combat theme answers it with both barrels glowing. To say nothing of the glorious and triumphant Soviet March in the main game, and the expansion.
• Since the Empire of the Rising Sun has awesome music For The Emperor!
  • There's another example of this in Red Alert 3 during the Rising Sun campaign. That example is Enter the Shogun Executioner
  • "Mecha Storm" is a stand-out. It is supposedly the "epic" song, playing when someone reaches threat level 3. The Soviets have their own version too: Battleground of the Bear.
  • Red Alert 3's Grinder 2. Just pure awesome. Heck, you could practically see the Apocalypse Tanks, Tesla Troopers and Kirov Airships getting ready to pound the utter crap out of something when you listen to this.
• The track on this trailer features George Takei singing All Your Base. That's right: It features GEORGE TAKEI singing ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.
• The "Epic Themes": rarely-heard parts of the soundtrack played on specific maps, when you're utterly SLAUGHTERING the opponent, or when you've just unleashed catastrophe via your super-weapons: Soviet Empire and Allied.

Generals Series

• While very, very different from the usual C&C offerings, Generals is full of musical badassery. If you can listen to the GLA Anthem without an immediate urge to start blowing shit up, there is something very wrong with you.
• Generals, while it didn't feel like a C&C game, did come up with music that fit the factions perfectly. The GLA is characterized by Arab-ish techno that alternates between sounding mysterious and slightly insane. This Chinese battle theme conjures up images of rank after rank of marching infantry, while this ambient music for the USA captures the feel of heroic resignation accompanying American troop deployments... and was actually heard at the Beijing Olympics, which is unintentionally hilarious
• The music of official Trailer of the Zero Hour expansion, after all these years you can still feel the emotion!
• The American Victory theme. If heroism and triumph could be distilled into music, then this is it.
• Something of an odd-one-out, the ninth Chinese track is downright spooky, and a complete case of Soundtrack Dissonance compared to the rest of the music. It's like it came from an entirely different game.
• The Seventh GLA track has a dark and aggressive melody that is punctuated by rapid drumming; a flute solo that starts off mournful but gradually turns ecstatic; and Ominous Arab Chanting as it reaches crescendo. Fittingly, its debut is the third mission where the GLA starts a riot that consumes entire city.

Dune series

• Before Command and Conquer, there was Dune II, which had context-sensitive midi music that matched the flow of the game. The battle music in particular is very well suited to get the Adrenaline (Rush) flowing. Klepacki reused many of the same melodies in Dune 2000, giving us some epic tracks such as Fight for power and Harkonnen battle.
• Every single track in Emperor: Battle for Dune. The Atreides tracks have this valiant hero feel while still being badass, and were made by Frank Klepaki, who made 90% of all the Command and Conquer music. The Ordos music is creepy and mysterious, and was made by Jarrid Mendelson who made about a third of the Tiberian Sun music, while the Harkonnen music by David Arkenstone goes towards a guitar-heavy rock sound that is surprisingly remiscient of the Harkonnen music in Dune (1984).

Cross Series remix

• Our dear Mr. Klepacki also worked on Universe at War: Earth Assault and left several presents for us Command and Conquer vets (and he even provides a free download):
  • Act on Instinct —> Act on Invasion.
  • Prepare for Battle —> Prepare for Oblivion.
  • Mechanical Man —> Mechanical Brain.
  • Mud —> Composite.
  • Big Foot —> Bass Case.
  • No Mercy —> Doom of the Aliens.
  • Really, the soundtrack as a whole has a very Command & Conquer vibe to it.
• Regarding that last one, Frank still couldn't resist reusing it once more on one of his solo albums. The result is the incredibly epic Machines Collide - basically, "Big Foot" with a One-Woman Wail. You'll even notice the beep-like noise in the song sounds like the same dial-up noises from "Link Up" as well.
• And just in case anyone was longing to relive the glory days of the series, Frank teamed up with the Tiberian Sons for a joint performance at the 2019 MAGFest, resulting in 87 minutes of grin-inducing nostalgia, with songs ranging from the original series, to Red Alert, to Tiberian Sun, to Red Alert 2, all the way to Renegade. Especially notable are Connor Engstrom's jawdroppingly emotional guitar solo for "Rain In The Night", Frank's own absolutely brutal personal performance at the drums for "Brain Freeze" that left the crowd chanting "Ho-ly shit! Ho-ly shit! Ho-ly shit!", as well as Frank performing several songs wearing an actual Nod uniform from Westwood's FMV recording set, finally finishing off with a back-to-back encore of all three versions of "Hell March". Watch the whole thing here. And if that wasn't awesome enough, Frank and the Tiberian Sons subsequently recorded a studio version of the above remixes, which was included in the official soundtrack of the HD remaster of the first two games, along with a signed physical disc version in the game's collector's edition!
• Frank pulled out all the stops and then pulled out more when it came to the Remaster. You can customize the jukebox to use original quality tracks, remastered tracks and even bonus tracks that include the aforementioned studio recordings from The Tiberian Sons that are extended versus their MAGFest versions.
  • Remember some of the low quality tracks like "Fogger" and "Snake"? Well, Frank couldn't find archived recordings of the originals. His solution? Mimic the original setup and samples from the old days at WestWood and recreate them faithfully in full quality.
  • The Tiberian Sons version of "Bigfoot" contains an amazing guitar solo in an otherwise quiet part of the original song.
• Game Mods can have some pretty Klepacki-level songs and remixes of their own but Twisted Insurrection has a unique song with Space Echo Remix. Why? Frank himself remixed it, for a fan game!

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