Soundtrack Reviews

American horror got much needed infusion of creepiness with The Ring, a remake of the Japanese film Ringu. Despite the legacy of authors like H.P. Lovecraft, American horror movies always seem to avoid soul-cringing, subtle horror in favor of the easy gross out or Monster-of-the-Week gorefest.

There are great movie soundtracks, ones that resonate with your soul, invigorate your blood flow, and generally kick ass. This is not one of those albums, but it is a very amusing album, and one that fans of 1980s "B movie" horror flicks should enjoy, if not outright love.

The Deadly Spawn was one of those gore-filled, low-budget horror flicks that dominated the back racks of 1980s video stores. Inspired by big budget monster movies like Alien and the low-budget splatter fests of Halloween and Friday the 13th the films of the era sought to kill as many people with the most lethal gut-wrenching effects possible (well, as long as it didn't exceed the $20,000 budget line).

At least a third of what made Halo such a great game was its original soundtrack, which combined good ol'rock'n'roll with synthesized orchestras and erie discordant notes to perfectly complement the action happening on screen.

The music is just as important to its sequel, but just as Halo 2 is has a certain over-the-top, Hollywoodish feel to it, so does its soundtrack. Indeed, where as the original soundtrack was focused entirely on the game's music, seven of the sequel's 21 tracks are music by popular artists "inspired by" the game.

I'd never bought a game soundtrack before. Hell, I've never even really noticed an original game soundtrack before. Oh, I've commented in reviews about the ones that have sucked, and I may have offered the occasional note on how well the music fit the game, but that's just an obligatory part of a review. Listen, finish, move on to the next please.

And then I played Halo. From the first time I hit the start button I was struck by the game's ethereal opening notes, and as I fought through the opening battles with the Covenant, I was impressed by how cinematic the music was. It wasn't just a question of fitting the game, it was about actually improving and empowering the game. Halo just simply wouldn't be Halo without its soundtrack.

The Two Towers provides gamers with a second invigorating soundtrack to augment their campaign's audiospace, albeit one that isn't quite as successful as its predecessor, The Fellowship of the Ring. As a movie soundtrack, The Two Towers is very enjoyable, providing an epic, cinematic score to a movie that sweeps across the vast lands of Middle Earth.

For decades, Dungeons & Dragons players have cobbled together custom soundtracks for their games from diverse sources, including various movie soundtracks (Conan the Barbarian, Lord of the Rings), game music tracks (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights) and even specialized albums (Midnight Syndicate, Toxic Bag Productions). But now they have an official soundtrack, one sanctioned by the Wizards of the Coast, and one that promises to bring cinematic sound to the gaming table.

It succeeds wonderfully.

Enterprise is Paramount’s attempt to revitalize the Star Trek franchise by returning to the adventurous, thrill-seeking, curious days of the Federation’s youth.

The series, which follows the crew of the original starship Enterprise on its maiden voyage, has been largely successful. The technobabble of Voyager has been exorcised, and – on average – the stories have been stronger than Trek’s seen in years.

Signs is a tightly woven, self-contained sci-fi horror film that owes as much to Alfred Hitchhoch’s thrillers as it does to George Romero’s Living Dead. Both Romero and Hitchcock excelled at putting their protagonists in increasingly more difficult and psychologically crippling positions.

The Fellowship of the Ring, the first film in the Lord of the Ring's movie trilogy, provided gamers with what they've always wanted: a great, glorious movie capturing fantastic adventures on the big screen. It's offers a cinematic backdrop for all future dungeon crawls, helping to focus the mind's eye on exactly what a horde of orcs might look like ... or how rings of invisibility might work.

The soundtrack does the same for gamers' ears.