CD Review: GOD OF WAR ASCENSION soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/20/2013
GOD OF WAR ASCENSION soundtrack | ©2013 La La Land Records

Tyler Bates knows a thing or two about playing Spartan vengeance after his seminal score for 300, which made sword-and-sandal music hip again by incorporating a heroic orchestra with anachronistic metal guitars and time specific ethnic instruments. Now after showing ancient sword and sorcery vigor with the videogame THE RISE OF THE ARGONAUTS and the underrated reboot of CONAN THE BARBARIAN Bates once again proves that crossing a muscular death-dealer will be hell to play, especially when it’s a titan-slayer named Kratos. Bates furiously delivers again for this popular berserker’s latest button-mashing adventures in GOD OF WAR ASCENSION. It’s a […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/19/2013
STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM soundtrack | ©2013 Azeroth Music

WORLD OF WARCRAFT‘s band of scoring brothers Neal Acree, Glenn Stafford, Derek Duke and Russell Brower get their sci-fi grlll power on for the Queen of Blade’s great escape in this score to STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM that accompanies the expansion pack of WINGS OF LIBERTY. Its exceptional cut scenes generate one of the more crazily stylized scores for the genre, starting off by mashing a galaxy-spanning orchestra by way of the grunge sensibility of its sword and spine-slinging heroine. Sarah Kerrigan’s treated like an ersatz Lisbeth Salander, bringing on the lizard beast hurt with industrial metal rock […]Read On »


COMMENTS (1)

CD Review: WAR GODS OF THE DEEP / CROSSPLOT (1,000 edition) soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
WAR GODS OF THE DEEP / CROSSPLOT soundtrack | ©2013 Quartet Records

In addition to releasing current international scores like Alberto Iglesias’ I’M SO EXCITED and Pino Donaggio’s PASSION, Spain-based soundtrack label Quartet has also been digging into some of the 60s and 70s loopier scores like Dominic Frontiere’s HAMMERSMITH IS OUT and Riz Ortolani’s WOMAN TIMES SEVEN. But where said American and Italian were lucky enough to get some LP albums out long before a time when silver age soundtrack CD’s became hip, the equally prolific British musician Stanley Black (VALENTINO) had unaccountably never had one original title available. That makes this two-fer of WAR GODS OF THE DEEP and CROSS […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: THE WILD BUNCH End of the Line Edition Soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/18/2013
THE WILD BUNCH END OF THE LINE EDITION soundtrack | ©2013 Film Score Monthly Records

Collector labels had been around long before Film Score Monthly magazine launched their soundtrack offshoot with THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE back in 1996. Founder Lukas Kendall’s fastidious attention to detail and shrewd mix of popular and obscure titles from the golden and silver ages of film music ensured FSM’s longevity over the course of 249 titles and nearly two decades, Now as if he were the grizzled leader of a bunch of ragtag outlaws, Kendall has chosen to take out FSM on his own terms in a big, gloriously bloody bang for number 250. Given Kendall’s biting […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/17/2013
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES soundtrack | ©2013 Milan Records

Indy movies, and their scores can smack you upside the head with their high-minded pretentiousness, especially when attempting to grasp the epic with music that screams attention as to how outside the box it is. Yet what often provides pitfalls for those movies proves to be terrific assets in the cases of THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, a decades-spanning American crime saga graced by an impressively big, WTF score by Mike Patton. Here the former Faith No More singer makes an auspicious jump in quality from the mindlessly fun electro-carnage of CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE using a voice that’s just as […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: JURASSIC PARK 20th ANNIVERSARY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/16/2013
JURASSIC PARK: 20th ANNIVERSARY soundtrack | ©2013 Geffen Records

By this point in a nearly four decade collaboration, John Williams’ DNA is as inseparable from the magic of Steven Spielberg as a moth encased in million-year old amber. And given a gigantic body of work whose themes are as instantly memorable, whether played with two notes (JAWS), five notes (CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND) or a plethora of them, it’s hard nailing down just what might be Williams’ finest melody for the director. But when it comes to his most singable theme, the award must go to JURASSIC PARK. God forbid this movie had come out when Meco […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: HAREM soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/15/2013
HAREM soundtrack | ©2013 Quartet Records

For a bright, shining English language decade in the 1980s, French composer Philippe Sarde stood out as the beacon in the next wave of the romantic French invasion, a worthy successor to the likes of Georges Delerue and Maurice Jarre with his lush, thematic sound that graced such memorably diverse scores as GHOST STORY, QUEST FOR FIRE, LOVESICK, PIRATES  and THE MUSIC BOX. And while Sarde certainly hasn’t stopped working in the years since, there’s quality that stands out, and remains unequaled from his work during that period. It’s true from major Hollywood pictures to even lesser known Cannon productions […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: THE HOLE Soundtrack (3000 limited edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/14/2013
THE HOLE soundtrack | ©2013 Quartet Records

Kids and the monstrosities often mixed in Joe Dante’s legendary collaboration with Jerry Goldsmith, from mischievous GREMLINS and SMALL SOLDIERS to the atom bomb in MATINEE. One might imagine what Jerry would have done had he been around to peer into THE HOLE for Dante, only to find far more of an ephemeral and psychological threat than he’d been given to handle before with the filmmaker. Yet Dante’s still in very capable musical hands for a low key entry into teen horror, especially with the heavy lifting being done by Javier Navarette, a composer who teamed with Guillermo Del Toro […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: SHOCK TREATMENT soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/13/2013
SHOCK TREATMENT soundtrack | ©2013 Intrada Records

Jerry Goldsmith had a particular talent for playing characters in the process of losing their minds, drawing on the dark, string musings of such avant garde composers as Bela Bartok to pioneer his own Hollywood sound for psychosis. Using a chamber approach of devilish fiddles and strings for the TWILIGHT ZONE episode “The Invaders,” the composer further plumbed a snapping mind with the waltzing sexual symbolism that haunted his Oscar-nominated FREUD to the eerie, conspiratorial tones of assuming a new identity in SECONDS. But when it comes to the pure, batshit enjoyment of a breakdown, then 1966s SHOCK TREATMENT gets […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: OBLIVION soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/12/2013
OBLIVION soundtrack | ©2013 +180 Records

Architect-turned-director Joseph Kosinski is promising to become the multiplex answer to Stanley Kubrick after the almost shocking, mind-blowing intelligence he’s brought to TRON LEGACY and his latest, terrific trip into sci-fi dystopia OBLIVION. If there’s a style of music that complements his icily beautiful visual sensibility, then it’s a fusion of strings and electronics, all the better to convey high technology dining on ashes. Kosinki’s cutting edge made him seek out the French band Daft Punk to capture the neon-black groove of TRON. Now he’s brought in that country’s similarly evolutionary (and temporarily one-man band) M83 for OBLIVION to play […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)
  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 8
  8. 9
  9. 10
  10. 11
  11. 12
  12. 13
  13. 14
Increase your website traffic with Attracta.com

Dr.5z5 Open Feed Directory

bottom round