Incubus (file) (Photo: Epic)

While artists have long used people and places as their muse, Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin have temporarily traded in their romantic odes for paeans to battle rifles, needlers and plasma swords. The bands have contributed exclusive songs to the soundtrack of the much-anticipated video game "Halo 2." Although the songs won't be featured in the new game, each tune was inspired by the 3-year-old original "Halo," whose expansive terrain, advanced artificial intelligence and seamless gameplay raised the bar for first-person shooters. Halo 2: Original Soundtrack Volume One is due November 9, the same day the game hits stores.

Hoobastank lend "Connected," while Breaking Benjamin offer "Blow Me Away." Although the members of each group are "Halo" fanatics, Incubus pay the biggest homage with a four-part musical epic called "The Odyssey." The 20-minute operetta actually came relatively easy to them, guitarist Mike Einziger said.

"Usually when we're writing music, we're not looking at something visual to reference it," he explained. "And since we play this game all the time, every day, it's kind of engrained in our psyche. So when we got the opportunity to write some music for 'Halo 2,' it was actually really easy and natural to come up with something chaotic and beautiful and haunting, because a lot of the music on the 'Halo' we know has got all of those things."

Producer Nile Rodgers (Duran Duran, David Bowie), an admitted gamer, produced the album and also performs on a track.

"When a composer thinks about music for a film, usually the user or the person watching the film is in a passive role," Rodgers said. "But in a video game, you're actually participating, so music takes on a different role. It's not quite spiritually the same."

This report is provided by MTV News