PushSquareSotD Dark Souls 1

We’re listing the ten best Soundtracks of the Decade. These are the ten PlayStation scores released over the past decade that we believe left the biggest impression on our sonic palettes. Whether it’s Journey's Grammy nominated masterpiece or Destiny’s 8 movement symphony, these are the soundtracks that hit the best notes across the last ten incredible years of gaming. Head here to see the complete series.

The odds are, if you’ve played Dark Souls, you remember the music. The gothic boldness of the music pervades just about every corner of the game, and the number of memorable tracks that appear are innumerable. The vast majority of these memorable tracks are tied to individual boss fights.This is true to such an extent that if a bossfight is mentioned, fans of the series can probably already hear the music playing.

The music is exceptional from top to bottom throughout the entire game, and even some of the boss fights that have practically turned into jokes – such as Pinwheel – have memorable themes tied to them. The music serves a further purpose in the game by helping to craft individual identities for each boss fight as you come across it, allowing encounters that were already memorable to be even moreso.

Now while the gameplay of the Souls series arguably went on to define an entire generation of gaming, with a plethora of successful and not so successful knock-offs, no one really has soundtracks quite like these games. Sure there are plenty of incredible scores, but none really come close to capturing the macabre richness of the arrangements of FromSoft’s crowning achievement.

Motoi Sakuraba’s score was an incredible ride upon the game’s release, and the impact has proven to be both lasting and wondrous. There are multiple tracks on this list that we consider to be among the best ever made for a video game, but nowhere is that more evident than on 'Nameless Song', the title’s credits track. Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of the series, the music is good enough to warrant a quick peek. It takes something really special to linger in the way that Dark Souls has. What a ride.

There was never any doubt this game would be popping up in this list, but how do you feel about it? Is this one you'd have put on your list? Higher? Lower? Let us know in the comments.