When you think about the music of Diablo, you likely hear one specific thing: a steel-string guitar, drenched in heavy reverb, picking out mournful arpeggios over a moody backdrop. Since Matt Uelmen’s masterpiece "Tristram" from the 1997 original, that sound has defined the series. It is a musical identity that feels both ancient and modern, grounding the game's dark fantasy in a way that separates it from the high-fantasy scores of titles like Warcraft or The Elder Scrolls.
But for the Blizzard music team, that legacy is a double-edged sword. While the guitar remains a touchstone, the current team is balancing the need to respect that history with a desire to explore new sonic landscapes.
Finding a New Voice for Diablo
"It is just such a strong piece of music," says Ted Reedy, lead composer for Diablo 4. "So that is something that is always going to be part of the definition of Diablo and it is something we want to always be mindful of and reference. Although we do not want to do it all the time and be too on the nose."
This sentiment is shared by Leo Kaliski, a lead composer for World of Warcraft who also contributed to the Diablo 4 score. Kaliski admits that early in the development of Diablo 4, there was a temptation to mimic the classic sound. "I definitely fell into the trap of like, I am gonna write my 'Tristram.' And then none of those pieces ended up in the game because it was not me."
Instead, the team—comprised of nine full-time producers and composers—is focusing on what music director Derek Duke describes as the core of the series: immersion, gothic qualities, and darkness. According to Duke, the goal is "emotional ambiguity," creating a soundscape that allows the listener to project their own experiences onto the story.
Experimental Textures and Vocal Choices
Rather than relying solely on the guitar, the team is leaning into experimental sound design. For the Hawezar region in Diablo 4, the team utilized a drone choir called Nyx to create ethereal, unsettling vocal textures. In Scosglen, Kaliski even recorded a bagpipe session, running the audio through a distorted amp to achieve a "witchy" feel that still felt authentic to the Diablo setting.
For the Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred expansion, Reedy took a different approach, centering the score around two unique vocalists, Úyanga Bold and Asja Kadrić, to embody the lore of the Oracle Queen and the Amazon Queen. "Those two voices were so unique and definitive for the world, and such an inspiration to build the entire score around," Reedy says.
While fans may always associate the franchise with that plucked steel-string guitar, Blizzard’s internal music department is clearly intent on building new, experimental layers around it. The guitar is still there in a pinch, but the future of Diablo's sound is looking much broader than a single instrument.