A composer behind movies like The Dark Knight and a former member of the triphop band Massive Attack will unite for the Halo 4 soundtrack, according to a report today.

Edge reports that Neil Davidge, best known as a former producer of the experimental band Massive Attack, has signed on to compose the soundtrack for developer 343's upcoming sci-fi shooter. Working as orchestrator and arranger on the project will be Matt Dunkley, who has helped arrange music for multiple movies including Inception, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight.

This is a rather radical tonal departure for the popular Halo series, which has traditionally boasted the type of choral chants you'd be more likely to hear at church than any concert or movie. Say goodbye to those.

"We respect absolutely what [O'Donnell] did, and obviously these iconic themes are very close to gamers' hearts," Dunkley told Edge. "So we all listened to what he'd done, and I think you'll always be on a hiding to nothing if you're trying to pastiche that. Instead, we wanted to take that to another level... Hopefully the Halo fans will see that we're being respectful, but we've also taken it somewhere else, and maybe onto a higher plane. If you're always trying to reference back, you're not creating new things."

(Above: An example of Massive Attack's work once Davidge had joined the triphop group.)

Composers taking Halo 4's music "to another level" [Edge]