Berserk/Awesome Music

Susumu Hirasawa's work for the Berserk series deserves a serious mention.

• "Forces" is probably the best place to start. It plays during Guts's first raid with the Band of the Hawks.
  • Word. Once our Vampire: the Dark Ages group was listening to this soundtrack while we were playing. Just as a climactic battle started, Forces came on. We set it on loop and ran it for the rest of the battle. It took a battle that was already tense and made it epic.
  • Pretty much any variation of Forces.
  • Fun fact: "Forces" is actually a reworking of another song by Hirasawa called "Kajiwotore" (Take the Wheel). And its just as epic as Forces, maybe even more so.
    • Well, I know what I'm playing at my wedding now. "Kajiwotore" all the way!
  • Every time I hear this song, I want to go out into the street with a giant claymore, scream at the top of my lungs in an archaic language, and hunt buffalo - and I'm a vegetarian!
  • If you thought Forces and Kajiwotore were badass enough, you should hear it when they're smashed together.
• Guts's theme from the series is nothing short of beautiful.
• "Behelit" is an eerie track that captures Griffith's road to darkness.
• "Earth" is another beautiful theme.
• Berserk is not without its creepy moments as well, as "Monster" and "Fear" show.
• And then there's "Murder", which plays as it's all going to hell for the Hawks.
  • Made even more eerie with that Ominous Latin Chanting going on.
• "Sign" is the opening theme of the PlayStation 2 game, and is appropriately awesome. A slower, more melancholy and heroic version plays near the end and is just as awesome;
• Hirasawa's done it again with "Aria", the opening for the first of the new Berserk Golden Age Arc film series.

Need we be reminded of the non-Susumu awesomeness that is "Tell Me Why" by Penpals and "Waiting So Long" by Silver Fins?

• "Tell Me Why" is a total Ear Worm with its Engrish-ness. You may think it's weird as hell at first and you ask yourself, "why the hell is this song in this series?" but then you get to this point that it's so cheesy, that it's good.
• "Waiting So Long" has the same effect, only it's slower and more peaceful as the series' Solemn Ending Theme.
  • ... But it's kind of ruined when you have to hear it in the last episode, right after you see Guts screaming in pain at the sight of Casca's rape. Yeahhhh...

Shiro Sagisu's score for the new film series is nothing short of breath-taking, and (arguably) fits the dark fantasy setting of Berserk much more than Hirasawa's synthpop offerings.

• "Blood and Guts" is a beautiful piece that perfectly captures the tragic essence of Guts' character (amusingly, the chorus sounds like "GOD HAND GUTS", though that was probably not intentional).
  • When I listen to this score, I'm oddly reminded of "Passion - Orchestra Version" and "The Shinra Corporation."
• Also from the movie is "Utsukushikumono" by Ai. It's the ending theme and is breathtaking. It sings like an inspirational gospel song to me (which kinda makes sense, since the artist, Ai, sings hip-hop), but it sounds so uplifting that it'll just raise your spirits. Just a tidbit, the title translates to "something beautiful" and the song truly is.