Choirs in Hell: The making of Diablo 4's iconic soundtrack

Published: July 10, 2026

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred marks a key turning point in Blizzard's latest tale, acting as the culmination to its first major narrative arc. Where its grimdark tale will wind next remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: it'll sound phenomenal. Starting from more ambient origins, D4's soundtrack has grown more defined over the years in tandem with its storytelling. I recently sat down with Diablo 4 Lead Composer Ted Reedy and World of Warcraft Lead Composer Leo Kaliski (who previously worked with Reedy on D4's base game) to discuss how they found and evolved the RPG's musical identity, and the underpinning technology that helps keep your adventures feeling fresh after hours of grinding.

Reedy has now been with Blizzard for five years, during which time he's been at the forefront of bringing Diablo 4 to life through its audio. "The first Diablo had a very simple premise," he recalls, "but the way the score was crafted, and almost part of the sound design soundscape, it was entirely atmospheric and just drew you in. There wasn't much story, but that was enough to keep you going." Each subsequent iteration has seen Diablo grow larger and more complex, with bigger stories to tell and more characters to meet. That means evolving the music alongside it, but also remaining faithful to its core.

"Just going back to Diablo 1, and the town track there - Tristram is probably the most well-known track in the Diablo franchise, for any game music fan, it's such an iconic piece," Reedy says; I've certainly got no argument. "There's kind of two little ideas, and it's all based on five notes." He hums the unmistakable melody. "Then there's also the descending cadence, which starts it all over again. If you use those two things, instantly it feels 'Diablo,' but you don't want to overuse it either."

You'll still hear those core melodies returning in Diablo 4. "Those little motifs sort of weave their way through the score," Reedy continues, "so we try to keep that as a central touchstone while also developing the new themes for whatever region we're going to." For Lord of Hatred's journey to Skovos, Reedy began with the very first track you'll hear - Firstborn.

"It defines the region of Skovos based on the history there and the Pools of Creation and the Firstborn," he recalls, "and as it turned out that was five notes as well. So this five-note idea can appear in multiple ways, but it's also a way to tie new themes back to the original Tristram theme, to kind of have that throughline from 30 years ago."

When Diablo 4 first launched, it was much more focused on the open-world elements, with each act taking you to a different region of Sanctuary and a lot of the action kept to the overworld. "We knew where [base] Diablo 4 was going to end, but we didn't know where it was going after that, and so a lot of Diablo 4 musically felt sort of like a question as you're exploring and getting deeper into the world and story."

Reedy recalls that the score of the base game "was generally well received," but that he "would see comments from people that didn't notice it, or said it, for whatever reason, didn't come to the forefront of their experience. I feel like a lot of that had to do with us making the base game more open-ended and ambient. What that told me is that there was a certain group of people that wanted more storytelling, wanted more action, in some places of the score, so I feel like I always wanted to do a little bit more of that, but when it made sense."

The opportunity to bring that growth in came with the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, and Blizzard's winding path towards the rise of Mephisto as its focal antagonist. "In expansion one, it's more clear that Mephisto is the villain who we're trying to stop," Reedy remarks. Watch the very last scene of Diablo 4's initial story, where Neyrelle departs on the boat, and you'll catch a rapid, repeating three-note motif that comes in right as things fade to black. Reedy says this would become the foundation for that growing sense of peril.

"It was executed in very fast strings, but then it was slowed down in Vessel of Hatred as a sort of underlying motif of, 'Mephisto's out there,' like this sort of feeling of dread. But then with Lord of Hatred it became very clear that this was the path to the final battle, the stakes were even higher, and we were going to meet him and stop him at the very end - it made a lot of the score feel like it wanted to just be driving toward that conclusion, and that's sort of where Lord of Hatred ended up."

It's not all dark despair and hopelessness, however. "Skovos is supposed to be one of the most prosperous areas in Sanctuary," Reedy notes. "For a change, it's not all dreary and dreadful and death and demise - they've had success and it's beautiful there, and now that beauty is facing a threat and facing corruption. How do you define that world to be that, but also feel like it's being threatened?"

One of the most unique challenges faced by game composers, especially in a game like Diablo that is designed to support a long endgame grind, is balancing the desire for a strong score to deliver the full emotional weight of the main narrative with music that won't tire your player out after dozens of hours of running Nightmare Dungeons and The Pit. During my discussion with Kaliski about the evolution of World of Warcraft's soundtrack, he described how Blizzard creates a wide variety of alternative variations that can keep a zone feeling fresh each time you return. Diablo 4 is one step ahead of that.

"Leo and I really wanted to address this in the base game of Diablo 4," Reedy tells me, "so with all the music that we did, we basically put all the stems of every single track into the in-game engine. All the different pieces that comprise the total - the strings, the brass, the woodwinds, the guitars - every single instrument is on its own in the engine." Then, the game is able to randomize which layers are active on each loop to create a constantly shifting soundscape, enabling variety in a new way that WoW's older tech simply can't support.

This was particularly important early on, where players were expected to spend so much of their time in the open areas. "We did a little bit less of that in the expansion," Reedy recalls. "In Vessel of Hatred we deployed the same approach, but with Lord of Hatred we kind of just focused on making longer, more driving, high-stakes pieces to support the story." Ultimately, he says that his team's focus "first and foremost is just the immersion of the storytelling for people that want to be fully engaged in the story and the world."

As for the blasters pushing up the Paragon ranks? Reedy understands if you eventually switch over to your own tunes. "I feel like the people that grind have played the game for 500 hours, or are not fully invested in being fully immersed in the world, and they may be doing other things at the same time. It kind of makes sense if they want to do their own thing at that point. It's a constant thing that we're aware of, but I think at the end of the day the best we can do is make that initial narrative experience the best it can be."