Enemy aircrafts arrive at your base. Aliens deploy; equipped with armor, tanks, guns, and one objective: To ensure you never leave the secured area alive.

Halo 3’s 2009 installment: Halo 3: ODST introduced a co-op PvE mode called “Firefight”

In Firefight, you attempt fight off a nearly endless amount of hostile alien covenant through a series of rounds. It’s basically a survival game where you put your SMG strafing and precision weapon skills to the test.

More than 10 years ago, I played this game mode quite often. I like games that are simple and to the point, but also very challenging. I like to be able to track my skill development as waves of enemies become increasingly difficult. I enjoy focusing on a few simple tasks in a game and doing them to perfection. Bonus points if there’s a competitive co-op element too.

So, naturally Halo 3’s new Firefight mode was right up my alley. I played it non-stop.

While playing, I loved the Halo Soundtrack but I would also play music through the saved library I had on my Xbox 360.

One day, I put my Peter Gabriel collection on shuffle. I realized that specifically, the album “Birdy” by Gabriel (featuring music for the 1984 film of the same name) was perfect for playing Halo and sounded quite similar to me in terms of intensity, vibe, instrumentation, and composition.

Later on, I started playing all types of instrumentals from Peter Gabriel’s music.

Gabriel pulled inspiration from music all over the world. He was a pioneer in pop music; using cutting edge technology, the latest synthesizers, samplers, tribal chants, and world rhythms. His live performance was an amalgamation of his anthropologic study. He was, and is, a legend.

Now, more than 10 years later, the Halo series is gearing up for it’s next release this holiday— Halo Infinite. On the Halo youtube channel they’ve released new music from the game’s soundtrack.

Today we highlight: “Through The Trees" as our Video Game Song Of The Month.

This month’s pick is composed by Joel Corelitz (The composer behind Eastward and Death Stranding)

This song reminds me of some of the work by Peter Gabriel, but the work of Corelitz is without-a-doubt in league of it’s own.

Enjoy “Through the Trees” by Joel Corelitz…. A song with chilling vocal pads, mixing old and contemporary drums. The song is peaceful and introspective, conjuring the heroic stillness in each of us.

Afterwards, enjoy “Shaking the Tree” by Peter Gabriel featuring an incredible usage of tribal drums and swelling strings.