tomandandy give voice to Resident evil:AfteRlife
“Enjoy the silence.” – DEPECHE MODE
tomandandy are not like other guys who
score horror films. The duo of Thomas Hadju (Vancouverite) and Andy Milburn (Texan) are, in addition to composers with credits such as The Strangers, The Hills Have Eyes remake and The Mothman Prophecies, holders of patents on artificial intelligence who’ve worked with Lou Reed, William Burroughs and U2. No wonder then that their music for
the new Resident Evil film sounds a bit different. With its ambient drones, industrial clang and furious distorted guitars (some cour-
tesy of Limp Bizkit/Black Light Burns guitarist Wes Borland; others actually decon- structed cello), the score is the heaviest in the RE film franchise. Thank RE: Afterlife helmer Paul W.S. Anderson, who gave them free reign to explore a purely electronic score. “Paul Anderson, at our first meeting, said, ‘I don’t want to hear any orchestra,’”
explains Hadju by phone from LA. “So we went out and wrote music that had some orchestra in it. And he said, ‘No, you don’t understand. I don’t want to hear any or- chestra.’ So we started from knowing what we weren’t going to do, instead of what we were going to do. And it worked out really, really well.” The negative is part of tomandandy’s overall strategy. Hadju points to The
Strangers, for which a fundamental element of their sound palette was silence. And while Resident Evil: Afterlife is more “wall-to-wall music” in service of a 3-D action adventure, he still considers its invisible properties. “Music is really powerful, because you can’t see it but at the same time you can’t
shut it down, our ears don’t shut off,” he says. “It’s not that we don’t love music on its own, but we think music is best when it’s in service of something, a multimedia approach.” Ironically, this new score, which the composer calls “celebratory music to kill peo-
ple by,” has become a hit in its own right. At the time of our chat, it was #1 on
last.fm (the world’s largest online music catalogue) and charting on Amazon and iTunes. So much so that a deluxe edition is in the works for Christmas. So, will the mad scien- tists ever leave the lab and do it live? “No! No! No! It’s a great question, but the answer is no. We’re not performers,
we’re producers. We live in the Matrix.” SOUND BITE: Toronto surf/goth/pop band Vampire Beach Babes have written
theme music for Nancy Kilpatrick’s new “vamperotic” graphic novel, Vampyre Theatre. Surfin’ undead!
LIISA LADOUCEUR THE BLOOD SPATTERED GUIDE CAN BE HEARD WEEKLY ON
RUEMORGUERADIO.COM
NOCTURNAL BLOOD Devastated Graves –
METAL
The Morbid Celebration HELLS HEADBANGERS Though California has spawned many in- fluential one-man acts within the extreme metal spectrum – Leviathan and Xasthur among them – Nocturnal Blood is one of the few purveying a more bestial, raw style of old school death metal. The
DISKREET Engage the Mechanicality
METAL
CANDLELIGHT RECORDS If you can look past the ridiculous cover (big dude with a giant sword about to fight a huge monster à la grade six binder concept art) and album title (hard to en- gage something that isn’t a word), you’ll find in Diskreet one of the better modern technical death metal bands. (What kind of name is “Diskreet” for a death metal band anyway?) These not-so-fine folks from Topeka, Kansas sound something like Hate Eternal playing black magic tricks with Despised Icon, characterized by pristine production, machine gun kick drums, blistering fretwork and human monster vocals. Though there’s no dom- inant theme here, a preoccupation with violence and horror is revealed on songs such as “Spinal Cord Collection,” “We Are Legion” and “Haunt of Fear.” If you dig technical death metal, Diskreet is tal- ented enough to impress with its com- plex musical wizardry, despite ultimately bringing nothing new to the subgenre. AVL 000½
under-produced attack of this debut full- length echoes the netherworldly and oc- cult vibes of such bands as Blasphemy, Beherit and even Bolt Thrower circa In Battle There is No Law, while containing enough blasting, tremolo-picked sections to appeal to your average underground brutalizer. Admittedly, this belongs to a special sect of death where atmosphere is key – provided here via thick, detuned guitars, skittering leads and the hollowed- out groan of main, er…“man” Ghastly Apparition – and musical execution is secondary to seething violence. There’s a number of bullet-belted battalions mak- ing a similar racket, but the charm and honesty of Nocturnal Blood’s aural car- nagemake the band a welcome addition to the blitzkrieg. GP 000
GWAR Bloody Pit of Horror
METAL
METAL BLADE Shelving much of its affinity for political commentary and cosmic reverie, living cartoons GWAR continue to drench the masses in plasma and jizz during the band’s two-year 25th anniversary Slay- a-Bration with this follow-up to last year’s Lust in Space. The title Bloody Pit of Hor- ror isn’t just more medicine show ped- dling from “front-thing” Oderus Urungus, either. Beginning with the resurrection chuggernaut “Zombies, March,” the 37- minute album is the band’s most horror- encrusted discharge of audio viscera to date. If you aren’t already a fan of GWAR’s adolescent mockery of everything the straight community either adores or ab- hors, this album won’t convert you. Dis- ciples, however, will gleefully wallow in the pressurized thrash riffing of “A Gath- ering of Ghouls” and heartfelt numbers such as “Tick-Tits” – about a chick whose tits are covered in… well, you know – and a sort of-ballad called “You Are My Meat.” Grab your rain suit and get in the pit, scumdogs! TT 000½
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