REVIEWS BY DAVE ALEXANDER, JUSTIN ERICKSON, THE GORE-MET, MARK R. HASAN, AARON VON LUPTON, GEORGE PACHECO, SEAN PLUMMER, JESSA SOBCZUK AND TREVOR TUMINSKI.
PIRANHA 3D Michael Wandmacher
SOUNDTRACK
LAKESHORE RECORDS Michael Wandmacher’s latest work fo- cuses on a community’s sense of being under siege by fishy elements, but un- like My Bloody Valentine 3D, it uses no central themes for misunderstood characters or wanton lovers – just a mélange of dissonance. A simple four- note motif slowly evolves into a full “End Titles” theme, but the bulk of Pi- ranha 3D is comprised of brass and gliding metallic sounds for the dining sequences, and low strings for mo- ments where humans are wandering too close to the danger zone. Wand- macher does add a few ephemeral bits of tranquility, such as the tender strings in “Rescue,” but any peace is usually smothered by aggressive emulations of gnashing orchestral sounds. The album does have a narrative flow, and while not as engrossing as Wandmacher’s Cry_Wolf, it’s a solid, compact score. MRH 000
switches the score into non-stop, full- action mode with heavy brass and per- cussion, plus those familiar buzzing passages and delicious congas that signal the hunt is on for shiny human skulls. Towards the end, Debney funks up the Predator theme with fuzz guitar and a juicy bass lick in “Edwin and Is- abelle Captured,” and it’s kind of a pity these edgier renditions weren’t further developed into longer, nastier cues. Still, the big sound and excel- lent orchestrations make Predators a perfect companion to Silvestri’s orig- inal scores. MRH 0000
unpretentious musical horror romp. MRH 000
VAMPIRES SUCK Christopher Lennertz
SOUNDTRACK
MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE The Dead Matter
SOUNDTRACK
PREDATORS John Debney
SOUNDTRACK
LA-LA LAND RECORDS John Debney (The Relic) has managed to integrate all of the snarling goodness from Alan Silvestri’s Predator and Pred- ator 2 scores to craft a natural balance between the franchise’s signature themes and his own brand of big-scale, orchestral mayhem. After a series of slow-burning atmospheric cues to re- mind us of the Predator’s stealth stalk- ing techniques, “Cages/Trip-wire”
LINFALDIA RECORDS Part score, part soundtrack to Edward Douglas of Midnight Syndicate’s own directorial debut, The Dead Matter doesn’t exhume anything new in the duo’s timeless Halloween music but the instrumentals comprising the bulk of the album are classically haunting and will definitely put you on edge. Deep brass swells, eerie high tension notes and the recurring main theme’s simple piano strokes are the focus, but when they meld with disquieting muted trumpet bends, regal timpani and skittering percussion on compositions such as “Possession,” “Late Night Snack” and “Death is the Answer,” you’ll be checking for closet monsters before bed. From there, the album becomes more soundtrack, incorporating vocal numbers such as the dark pop of Gavin Goszka (Midnight Syndicate’s other half), the power metal of Eter- nal Legacy and two wonderfully at- mospheric cuts from ghost rockers Lazy Lane. Well-assembled, if not top heavy, this could’ve been a more var- ied listen had the tracks with vocals appeared earlier. With all due respect
to the dead, dynamics matter too. TT 000
LAKESHORE RECORDS The real shock of Vampires Suck is that Christopher Lennertz’s music actually betters Carter Burwell’s original Twi- light score – which is a heck of an ac- complishment, given Lennertz’ score is for a goofball parody that’s supposed to trash the popular teen franchise. There are a handful of tongue-in-cheek cues, but cuts such as “The Breakup/Killing Jack” illustrate the fleet moments in which Lennertz moves from a rhapsodic, gothic-drenched theme about impossible love to punchy action, smoothly blending orchestra and electronic pulses. “Becca’s Con- frontation” has a wandering female voice struggling for clarity above metal- lic screeching, and the love theme for “Edward and Becca” is centred on a simple, gentle phrase with piano and silky-soft strings. Most of the cues are short and the CD ends rather abruptly, but Lennertz’s sharp orchestrations combine a lot of fast action, romance and a few scoring clichés to create an
DAX RIGGS Say Goodnight to the World
BLUES
FAT POSSUM Dax Riggs’ last album, We Sing of Only Blood or Love, began with the feverish lament of “Demon Tied to a Chair in My Brain,” which set the tone for an album searing with garage-blues-punk fury. His follow-up, Say Goodnight to the World, opens with the slow-burn title track, which announces a ten-song col- lection that smoulders with doom more than it flares with hellfire. The acoustic “You Were Born to be My Gallows” – with the cryptic invite “lay your velvet casket lid closed” – casts a deathly pall, while “Sleeping With the Witch” and its talk of Judgment Day, lets loose a hyp- notic wall of noise. (Riggs has deemed the album “transcendental,” and there are moments where it could be mis- taken for Queens of the Stone Age, a Perry Farrell project or even My Bloody
Valentine.) The doomsaying troubadour Cont’d. on p.120
EARTH VS.
SOUNDTRACK
THE SPIDER (1958) Albert Glasser KRITZERLAND Albert Glasser’s scoring style for bug-eyed monster movies is easily recognizable thanks to his ener- getic and robust approach to informing audiences that the monster is ONSCREEN! and the hero is IN MORTAL DANGER! Earth vs. the Spiderwas written with a sense of humour, but it’s impossible not to get drawn in by the score’s drama because Glasser wrote every cue with such precision. Selective use of a theremin gooses the spookier cues, but the main thrust comes from a lumbering two-note motif that bellows from the brass whenever the spider’s getting antsy. Those ag- gressive cues are softened by the exquisite violin solo in the mournful “Sad Carol” and the jazzy dancehall sound in the bouncy source cue “The Band Rehearsal.” Glasser was perfectly suited for monster movies because of the genre’s rapid shifts from horror to greasy romantic schmaltz, so it’s not surprising his deft orchestrations come through quite sharply in this 39-minute gem. MRH 0000
A U D I O D R O M E 117 RM
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