REVIEWS BY TOMB DRAGOMIR, MARK R. HASAN, AARON VON LUPTON AND GEORGE PACHECO
SPIDERS 3D Joseph Conlan
SOUNDTRACK
SCREAMWORKS RECORDS The title may imply another cine- matic quickie on track for a fast leap to home video, but Joseph Conlan has provided a mostly dead-serious score that seems more fitting for a summer blockbuster. Much of the music for Tibor Takács’ Spiders 3D consists of pensive tracks with deep, pulsing bass notes and low brass – a nice touch, conveying both the grandeur of the creatures, as well as the dire plight of the characters – and each cue is part of a deliberate design to escalate orchestral and ki- netic tension for a climactic battle. Conlan’s build-ups consist of persist- ent rhythmic motors, leaving no room for humanistic theme statements: this score is purely about the hunt. A few cues are slight homages to John Powell’s blend of orchestra and techno (notably in The Italian Job), but this is a really fun score, and one of the subwoofer-friendliest record- ings in recent
years.MRH 000
problem stems from cues that start with a bang and build to a frenetic action pace and then just… fade… out… making for an album that teases and entices but sometimes fails come up with the goods. Addi- tionally, the orchestral emulations that recall early ’90s gear limit the score’s scope and give the cues an unwanted sameness. Uchiyama stays away from extremes here, avoiding grunge, severe discord or deep bass tonalities. The score’s en- gineering is also weirdly restricted to the mid-range, so while rare ambient and synth cues (“Paths Cross”) offer pleasing analogue tonalities, there’s just no bass or resonance. MRH 001/2
and just 35 minutes of music, Between the Devil and Two Black Hearts ulti- mately spins thin. The songs don’t really mesh well with one another, and they’re lyrically light on the fright. 8mm won’t be shooting up my personal playlist any- time soon. TD 00
8MM Between the Devil
ROCK
DEAD UNITED Night Feature
PUNK
THE DARKSIDE CHRONICLES Shusaku Uchiyama SUMTHING ELSE Building on the industrial sound of the Resident Evil franchise, Shusaku Uchiyama marries real and synthetic orchestra sounds for this lengthy two- CD portrait of Raccoon City. But while it’s an exhaustive collection of score, source and vocal and choral cues, it’s also a fairly uneven work. Part of the
RESIDENT EVIL: SOUNDTRACK
AF MUSIC/CONTRA LIGHT It’s common to criticize horror punk “vokillists” for trying too hard to im- itate Glenn Danzig, but in the case of Germany’s Dead United, the band ac- tually would have been better off doing just that. Instead, frontman Buzz Vendetta sounds more like Jello Biafra, which isn’t exactly the best approach if you’re trying to add a ghostly vibe to the music. Apart from that irritation, Dead United is a fairly predictable, though still serviceable, horror punk outfit along the lines of The Spook and Blitzkid, with speed, melody and lots of sing-alongs about things that go bump at the drive-in. This five-song 12-inch EP (also avail- able for download) is the band’s fol- low-up to 2009’s Chainsaw Chronicles and seems to embrace some kind of “concept” that involves having the word “night” appear in every single song title. For the record, “Hell of a Night” is a hell of a track, but the rest of this EP isn’t much more inspiring than a zombie book display in the entrance to Barnes and Noble. AVL 01/2
and Two Black Hearts CHELSEA GIRL RECORDS Quietly haunting the LA area since 2004, Sean Beaven (hotshot producer/ mixer for Trent Reznor) and wife Juli- ette’s 8mm project is about as far away from the schizophrenic mechanics of Nine Inch Nails as they could get. The title track is a dusty western-sounding tune with witchy drumbeats and twangy guitars that has the duo trading vocals over a hypnotic, chant-it-out break- down. “The Weight of You” is a bluesy rock tune that brings slide guitars to the galloping sound of an impending four- horse apocalypse, while “Glimmering” conjures an ethereal 1980s goth vibe complete with eerie EVP recordings of a dead woman whispering, “He won’t let me live.” I wouldn’t be surprised to come across these cuts on a show like True Blood; it’s the kind of metaphoric horror where the lyrical “ghosts” are merely memories, not spooky spectres from beyond the grave. With eight songs
YEAR OF THE GOAT Angels’ Necropolis
ROCK
VAN RECORDS Just when you thought there was one too many classic rock-influenced occult bands around the midnight fire (see Ghost, Blood Ceremony, Devil’s Blood, etc.), here comes Sweden’s Year of the Goat with its debut full-length of hymns to the hoofed one. Unlike certain, more tongue-in-cheek acts, Year of the Goat delivers its demonic message with ut- most earnestness, as Angels’ Necropo- lis spins a long, intricate tale that sees Jesus and the Father becoming Lu- cifer’s bitches in Heaven. In musical terms, Year of the Goat’s songs aim to draw the listener in with sweeping melodies and epic, progressive song-
BLACK SABBATH Les Baxter
SOUNDTRACK
INTRADA SPECIAL COLLECTION Making its debut on CD – and running almost twice as long as the old LP – is Les Baxter’s must-have gothic score for Mario Bava’s 1963 horror anthology. The first suite, “Drop of Water,” is characterized by ongoing contrasts between sharp brass and grungy, vibrato- heavy strings in a slightly beefed-up chamber orchestra, whereas for “The Telephone,” Baxter switches to a more contemporary jazz style, propelled by swaggering brass and heavy bass lines, and a breezy tone that dances around the story’s mordant subject matter. The idiomatic shifts are almost seamless due to Baxter’s use of the same four-note motif, which goes from chamber to jazz and, in the finale, a full orchestra. The lengthy “Wurdalak” is a perfect hybrid of the prior suites, and is riveting for its colourful instru- mental contrasts. Bava may not have appreciated AIP replacing Roberto Ni- colosi’s original score, but Baxter’s more playful approach yielded one of his best gothic
works.MRH 00000
A U D I O D R O M E 59RM
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