The Shrouded Isle Soundtrack Steam Charts & Stats

The Shrouded Isle is a lingeringly atmospheric game that takes place in a secluded seaside village. You are the head of a cult which worships a morbid sea God. But never mind about the game - this is a review of its music. So, how is it? The soundtrack reflects the game quite well, not only in mood but also in how it becomes increasingly tense and deranged as it goes on. The first tracks "Scorned Anew" and "Skyclad Faith" are brooding and atmospheric yet still comparatively melodic tracks with post-rock and folk elements. Their mood fits the game very well, making you imagine some distant, rural locale with eerie, otherworldly undertones. From there onward, highly uneasy avant-prog and chamber music elements begin rearing their ugly head. The rock instrumentation almost entirely disappears in favor of slow-burning and later extremely dissonant cello, horns and piano pieces. "Lethargic Deosil" creates the impression of mundane, slow-winded everyday rural life, except now there is an unusual charge in the air - something restless is happening underneath the surface, soon to awake, much like the cult's all-devouring God. "Rite of Ostara" I believe plays during the game's final year, and it's a very frantic track which quite accurately captures the increasingly tense and apocalyptic mood in the village. The orchestral sound and thorough sense of wrongness remind me of something like older Univers Zero, or perhaps later Elend. It's cinematic in its own understated way, as well as refreshingly different compared to your usual cloyingly sentimental indie game soundtrack. No, this is the opposite - it's dissonant, it's mad, it's off-putting, and it's a perfect match with a quasi-Lovecraftian setting. I don't know if this soundtrack contains all the music in the game, but at least the main tracks seem to be here, and the track list works quite well as a stand-alone whole. So, kudos to the songwriter - it's an intricately crafted work and I enjoyed listening to it both in- and out-of-game.