At the risk of inciting the rage of all Twilight Princess fans, I think its soundtrack is pretty average for a Zelda game. I don’t remember any dungeon themes, and the Gerudo fanatic inside me cried at the lack of a decent Gerudo theme or at least a catchy recreation (like the “Pirate Fortress” theme from Majora’s Mask). But having said that, at least one of the races’ reprisals was genuinely awesome, and probably the best for them to date: the Death Mountain-dwelling Goron tribe.
Aside from the bulk up these bad boys got, plus a new hot spring to cool off in after a day of sumo-style wrestling, one of the greatest aspects of the Gorons in this game was their revitalized theme music. It has a marching-band style and yet remains completely catchy, and is repurposed for the entirety of Death Mountain. Because this time, they don’t just live there; they own it. And they let every wannabe mountaineer (i.e., every human) know. You won’t catch them rolling out a welcome mat; rather, they’ll just roll right into you.
Even 14 years after the game’s release, I still regularly stick this track on in the background to hear some of them pumped-up trumpets, marching drums, and classic xylophone riffs (which this piece somehow made legitimately epic). The tone of this tune is just so upbeat and feel-good, despite the fact that there’s usually an absolute unit of a Goron ‘round the corner ready to roll you down. It gets you pumped to smash some rocks, vault like a daredevil over some lava, wrestle some Gorons who weigh tons more than you, and save the whole world once and for all. Erm, after just one more wrestle and a dip in the hot spring, that is.
What I really admire about this piece is how it managed to transform an already pretty unique track from Ocarina of Time into one that is higher in energy and more complete orchestrally, yet it still remains immediately recognizable and actually sounds better than its predecessor. That doesn’t happen very often with great compositions, I feel, especially when it comes to Zelda tracks that usually hit the ground running in their first installments.
In fact, I genuinely think this piece is flawless and I have yet to find a remix or reorchestration that does it justice (or is at least worth listening to over its standard Twilight Princess version). Fan versions usually try to turn the epic up to eleven, but you can’t top something that already set the bar as high as the smoke ring around Death Mountain.
