Berserk (Soundtrack)

Susumu Hirasawa scored the 1997 Berserk anime, and his sound is unlike anything else attached to a sword-and-armor story. He sings in an invented language over banks of synthesizers and layered, processed choirs. "Forces," the opening, is the famous one: a marching, anthemic pulse that sounds triumphant until you notice the menace under it. The rest moves between heavy electronic dread and odd, almost devotional calm. It does not sound medieval at all, and that mismatch is exactly why it sticks to the show.