Ages of Heroes is based on the true story of the formation of the 30 Commandos, one of the most respected, secretive, and exclusive Special Forces regiment formed during the Second World War, from which the now legendary SAS was born. After weeks of mentally intense and physically grueling training ops where the highly esteemed Captain Jones tests his men to their breaking point, his ‘Commando’ unit is quickly assigned their first mission; to parachute into occupied Norway and capture a deadly new radar technology from the Germans. But as they soon get near the drop-zone, the newly formed band-of-brothers crash land in a Norwegian village where Nazis have been mercilessly executing civilians...

My first impressions of Michael Richard Plowman's score for The Age of Heroes was that the opening credits sounded very much like Stephen Harwood and David McGarry music for the 2005 Brothers in Arms: The Road to Hill 30 game soundtrack. This was one of the first game where I was totally blown away by the music and ended up tracking down the limited edition promotional score that was released (in case you were wondering). In addition, other parts of Plowman's score sound similar to some of the early Medal of Honor game scores - which themselves borrow heavily from John Williams's music for Saving Private Ryan.

There were a number of tracks on this score that brought to mind other composers work, not that that detracts anything from Plowman's music. Most notably is 'Heroes' which reminded me very much Hans Zimmer's music and as I mentioned previously the opening track sounds very much like a John Williams track.

I'm not usually a fan of atmospheric filler tracks that go nowhere, but Plowman pulls it off so well with 'The Farm House' that I couldn't help but be impressed. This is the only atmospheric filler material on the album, and it fits in well.

Overall this is a good, meaty score that soundtrack buffs will want to sink their teeth into.

8

Darren Rea