Two Steps from Hell

Two Steps from Hell was a production music company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 2006 by Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix, a pair of composers born in Norway and England, respectively. They created the company to make trailer music demos to be circulated exclusively within the movie advertising industry for the purpose of licensing; and were partnered with Extreme Music who handled licensing arrangements. The duo were among the most successful in their field, having supplied background tracks for thousands of film trailers and TV commercials. They composed separately but released their creations together. Typically, their music was orchestral and choral based, but with modern complements and structured similar to pop songs. The stentorian nature of their works led the frequent use of a contemporary label, "epic music", to define their style. They established themselves as a major player in the market of the late 2000s, providing tracks to trailers for major film franchises such as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek and Twilight. As the public became exposed to their music, the pair gained a cult following online who pleaded for their compositions to be made available to purchase; Two Steps from Hell soon released their first two public albums, Invincible (2010) and Archangel (2011), collections of their most popular demo music to date. These were followed by the album SkyWorld (2012), this time consisting entirely of brand new music straight to commercial release. With these albums all successful, the duo organized their first concert, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, in 2013. A waning demand for traditional trailer music in the movie industry emerged by the mid-2010s; the pair has since focused increasingly on creating further public albums consisting of new and more varied compositions, with far less of an emphasis on composing demos for trailers, while continuing to release more of their back catalog commercially as well. Such music performed well in the United States; 13 of their releases reached the top ten of the Billboard Classical Crossover Albums charts, 3 of which peaked at number one: Battlecry (2015), Unleashed (2017), and Myth (2022), the first also charting on the Billboard 200. The 2020s began with the group consolidating their popularity by organizing their first tours in Europe. However, in 2024, it was announced that Bergersen and Phoenix were going their separate ways, ending Two Steps from Hell.