Dungeons Mixtape Vol.1

It is said that music is a window to the soul. My soul isn’t much to look at, but my windows are truly stunning! After all, the only soundtrack I’m listening to right now is the Minecraft Dungeons Howling Peaks DLC OST.  

We recently added this album to our growing music collection on Spotify, which now includes seven hours and 40 minutes of musical goodness. With such a large library, we thought it would be fun to showcase our diverse discography by having Mojang Studios’ most musical employees make a playlist of their favorite Dungeons’ songs. Sadly, they’ve already left for the holidays, so you’ll have to do with me: Mojang Studios’ most tone-deaf employee. Queue the songs, DJ! 

Dalarna - Minecraft Dungeons

Dungeons may contain a library full of melodic music from each DLC, but nothing beats a true classic. “Dalarna” is one such example – a sweet tune that soothes the soul of any weary adventurer or disgruntled spelunker that ends up at the camp after an intense mission. 

What is the secret to this masterpiece? The subtle piano? The sweeping synth? The occasional merchant “Hrmm...” or llama “UUOOHUU!!” in the background? While we may never know, my reliable in-house source tells me that there’s “a whole Swedish region named after this song” and that it’s “totally not the other way around, hahaha.” Thank you, reliable source!

Iron Mine - Creeping Winter

Don’t let the sinister and utterly terrifying intro to “Iron Mine” scare you! This Creeping Winter track would make most players shiver. Not out of fear but of... er, excitement! It has a catchy, ambient beat combined with unorthodox instruments such as anvil hammering and ominous bells ringing in the distance.  

It even creates a stone-cold tune so powerful that you can’t help but wonder if there’s an iceologer lurking somewhere in your house. Wait, there’s an iceologer in my house?! Please go check for me, it’s pretty hard to do it myself when I’m writing this from underneath my bed.

Windswept Peaks - Howling Peaks

Not only is “Windswept Peaks” the perfect song for traversing high altitudes in the Overworld – it’s also ten minutes long. That’s about as much time as it took me to realize I can’t clear a single daily trial beat the game on Apocalypse+7!  

While this windy, low-key Howling Peaks theme features both flutes and sitars that really captures the mystery of the mountains, its lack of yodeling and screaming goats is palpable. Everyone knows that the first rule of composing mountain themes requires these two, and without them... well, I’ll just have to yodel with goats myself in the Dungeons in-game level with the same name.

Overgrown temple - Jungle Awakens

Grab a pair of your sharpest shears – we’re heading for the dense jungle! Most of us Minecraft players are used to playing with blocks, but a majority has likely never used a woodblock – an instrument that together with the piano and flute really adds a feeling of mystery and exploration to the score.  

The choice of flute really baffles me though – I was positive that fellow composers Peter Hont, Johan Johnson, and Samuel Åberg were going to feature me on this track after I gave them a personal demonstration of my skills on the recorder. It was so good that they cut me off after merely three seconds: “We’ve heard enough”.

Tempest Golem - Howling Peaks

The intensity! The energy! The chaos! While the music in Dungeons usually seems to aim for an ambient approach, “Tempest Golem” is more of an epic crescendo that helps bring the latest Dungeons DLC, Howling Peaks, to an anticlimactic end.  

It’s also the perfect theme song for procrastinating writers that desperately fight against impending deadlines by filling their paragraphs with weird metajokes. The drums and the choir really make this a boss battle a fight to remember. If only we had some lyrics to it! Maybe I can commission Minecraft.net’s resident songwriter, Sofia Dankis, to write some for it? 

TUNE IT UP TO ELEVEN!

By now I hope you feel so inspired by this playlist that you’re eager to create one yourself. All of our Dungeons albums are available on Spotify, including the soundtrack to our latest DLC, Howling Peaks, which contains 32 songs. Which ones are your favorites? Give it a listen and enjoy the tunes!