Bear McCreary & Featured Guitarists
Key Project Lineup & Lead Guitarists
- Bear McCreary – Founder, Lead Songwriter, Keyboards, Vocals, Orchestral Composition
- Guitar Collaborators & Shredders (Featured on The Singularity and Live Tours):
- Slash (Guns N' Roses) – Guest Lead Guitarist
- Joe Satriani – Guest Lead Guitarist
- Steve Hackett (Genesis) – Guest Lead Guitarist
- Buck Dharma (Blue Öyster Cult) – Guest Lead Guitarist
- Rufus Wainwright, Guthrie Govan, and Brendon Small – Extended Instrumental and Vocal Contributors
Note: While Bear McCreary is universally celebrated as a master multi-instrumentalist and elite Hollywood composer, his heavy rock and symphonic metal excursions (such as his rock concept album project *The Singularity* and associated live tours) feature heavy metal and rock royalty on lead guitar duties, including legendary shredders like Joe Satriani and Slash.
Extensive Biography
Bear McCreary (born February 17, 1979) is an Emmy Award-winning American composer, musician, and producer widely recognized as one of the most influential and prolific architects of modern cinematic and video game music. Mentored by legendary film composer Elmer Bernstein, McCreary first achieved widespread critical acclaim for his groundbreaking, percussion-heavy and ethnic-instrument score for the Syfy series Battlestar Galactica (2004).
Over the past two decades, McCreary has built an astonishing catalog spanning television, blockbuster films, and AAA video games, creating iconic, instantly recognizable musical identities for franchises such as The Walking Dead, Outlander, God of War (2018 & Ragnarök), The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Known for fusing massive orchestral forces with folk instrumentation and heavy rock aesthetics, McCreary has consistently blurred the boundaries between classical scoring and hard rock aggression.
In 2024, McCreary expanded his creative footprint into a full-scale rock artist project by releasing The Singularity—an ambitious, multi-media concept album accompanied by a graphic novel and live world tours. The project brought together a pantheon of legendary rock musicians, including iconic lead guitarists like Joe Satriani, Slash, and Steve Hackett, transforming his cinematic compositional style into high-octane stadium-ready symphonic metal.
Selected Discography & Major Releases
Rock Artist & Concept Albums
- The Singularity (2024 / Sparks & Shadows) – Concept hard-rock album featuring Slash, Joe Satriani, Serj Tankian, and Corey Taylor.
- The Singularity: Ekleipsis (2026 / Sparks & Shadows) – Companion album and continuation of the heavy symphonic rock saga.
Selected Landmark Score Albums
- Battlestar Galactica: Season 1–4 Soundtracks (2005–2009 / La-La Land Records)
- Outlander: Original Television Soundtracks (Seasons 1–7) (2015–2024 / Sony Masterworks)
- God of War (Original Soundtrack) (2018 / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2019 / WaterTower Music)
- God of War Ragnarök (Original Soundtrack) (2022 / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 1 & 2 Soundtracks) (2022–2024 / Amazon Music)
Bear discusses his 8-date West Coast North American tour planned for September, his wild collaboration with Gojira's Joe Duplantier on the single "Black Box," and how his work on massive properties like "God of War," "Outlander," and "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" translates to a live rock setting. He also talks about bringing a hurdy-gurdy on tour and his upcoming projects.
Bear McCreary Discusses The Singularity: Ekleipsis | Paltrocast