The Lord of Frenzied Flame

The Lord of Frenzied Flame serves as the musical embodiment of one of Elden Ring's most terrifying concepts: the surrender to absolute chaos as a release from suffering. The song accompanies the battle against Midra, a failed Lord who was tortured for eons to contain the flame within him.

The central theme of the track is the tragedy of despair. Explicitly, it soundtracks a boss fight, but implicitly, it tells the origin story of the Frenzied Flame itself. The inclusion of the Nomadic Merchant's motif (the melody played by the merchant Kale and others) connects Midra's plight to the Great Caravan—a group of merchants buried alive for heresy who, in their collective anguish, summoned the Frenzied Flame. The song suggests that this catastrophic force is born not of evil, but of profound, unanswered suffering.

The music captures the transition from containment to release. Midra's transformation into the Lord of Frenzied Flame is not a triumph of power, but a collapse of will. The chaotic orchestration reflects the philosophy of the Frenzied Flame: to melt it all away, removing the boundaries that cause pain, resulting in a homogeneous, burning void.

As an instrumental composition featuring a non-lyrical choir, the song narrates a tragic story of endurance collapsing into madness. The piece opens with a suffocating atmosphere of dread, where low, trembling strings set a stage of ancient, subterranean suffering. It evokes the image of Midra, an old sage who has endured unimaginable torture to keep a calamitous power at bay.

Suddenly, a solitary violin emerges, playing a mournful and familiar melody—the song of the Nomadic Merchants. This melody acts as a voice from the past, telling the tale of a people buried alive, their collective despair summoning the yellow chaos of the Frenzied Flame. It is a sorrowful waltz, dancing on the edge of sanity, representing Midra's fragile hold on his own mind.

As the music swells, the order dissolves. The choir erupts not in harmony, but in a cacophony of shrieks and dissonant wails, mirroring the moment the restraint breaks and the Frenzied Flame is unleashed. The terrifying beauty of the chaos takes over, melting away all distinction between pain and joy, order and entropy. The instrumentation becomes violent and erratic, with sliding strings and thundering percussion simulating the uncontrollable spread of the yellow fire, consuming the world and the listener in a final, ecstatic conflagration of madness.

This track was composed by Shoi Miyazawa for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, the major expansion released on June 21, 2024. Miyazawa, who also composed notable tracks like Mohg, Lord of Blood for the base game, is known for his ability to blend traditional orchestral elements with avant-garde horror textures.

The creation of the song was driven by the need to represent a specific area of the DLC, the Abyssal Woods, a place characterized by stealth and terror. The developers and Miyazawa aimed to create a piece that felt distinct from the heroic or bombastic themes of other bosses. Instead, they focused on a waltz-like structure to convey a sense of twisted elegance and madness. The decision to incorporate the Nomadic Merchant's melody was a deliberate narrative choice to tie the new lore of Midra back to the established mysteries of the base game, confirming fan theories about the origins of the Frenzied Flame.

As an instrumental piece, there is no lyrical rhyme scheme, but the rhythmic structure is defining. The song is primarily in 3/4 time (or a fast 6/8), giving it the feel of a macabre waltz. This triple meter is significant because it differs from the stable, marching 4/4 time often used for soldiers or orderly knights. The waltz feels cyclical and dizzying, enhancing the feeling of being trapped in a spiral of madness. The rhythm is often obscured by the chaotic overlay of the choir, but the underlying pulse remains, driving the "dance" forward relentlessly until the chaotic climax where the meter seems to dissolve entirely.

Musical Techniques:

• Aleatoric Techniques: Miyazawa likely used controlled chance elements or aleatoric writing for the strings and choir, creating a dense, swirling texture that feels unscripted and chaotic, perfectly suiting the theme of "frenzy."
• Microtonality and Glissando: The strings and vocals often slide between notes rather than hitting them cleanly. This "bending" of pitch creates a visceral sense of nausea and wrongness, known as musical tension without resolution.
• Leitmotif Integration: The seamless weaving of the Nomadic Merchant's melody (originally a simple folk tune) into a grand, terrifying orchestral nightmare is a masterclass in thematic development.
• Dynamic Extremes: The track utilizes extreme dynamic range, moving from barely audible, scratchy violin textures to deafening tutti sections, mirroring the volatile nature of the flame.

Since its release in mid-2024, the track has been widely praised within the video game music community and the Elden Ring fanbase.

• Lore Confirmation: The track was culturally significant for the game's community because it musically confirmed long-standing theories about the connection between the merchants and the Frenzied Flame.
• Meme Culture: The intense, chaotic energy of the track, combined with the character Midra's line "The depths of your foolishness!", has made it a staple in community content, often used to represent moments of chaos or mental breakdown.
• Critical Acclaim: It is frequently cited as a standout track from the Shadow of the Erdtree OST, praised for its unique use of the waltz style in a horror context, distinguishing it from the Gregorian-chant-heavy style of other "Soulsborne" boss themes.

The song is rich in musical symbolism that mirrors the game's lore:

• The Waltz Rhythm: The song is written in a triple meter (resembling a waltz), which symbolizes the dance of madness. It suggests a loss of control, where the subject is swept away by a force greater than themselves, spinning endlessly into the void.
• The Solo Violin: This instrument represents the individual voice of suffering and the Nomadic Merchants. It is a fragile, human element struggling to be heard against the overwhelming wall of sound, symbolizing the tragedy of the merchants buried beneath the earth.
• The Dissonant Choir: The choir represents the Three Fingers and the collective scream of the Frenzied Flame. Unlike the holy, harmonious choirs associated with the Golden Order in the game, this choir slides between pitches (glissando), creating a sickening, unstable effect that symbolizes the melting of order and reality.
• The "Drop": The sudden shifts from quiet tension to explosive loudness metaphorically represent the snapping of sanity—the moment endurance fails and chaos takes the world.

The most significant recurring motif is the "Merchant's Melody." This is a sorrowful tune played on a bowed string instrument by the merchant NPCs throughout the game. In The Lord of Frenzied Flame, this melody is:

• Recontextualized: It transforms from a passive, background folk song into the central theme of a cosmic threat.
• Distorted: While recognizable, it is played with more aggression and vibrato, and is eventually swallowed by the brass and choir.

Its recurrence signifies that the horror the player is facing is deeply rooted in the tragedy of these merchants, making the abstract concept of "Chaos" feel personal and historically grounded.