Far far FAR from Band's best. It's from his frustrating low-budget period in which he'd have a small orchestra, but barely seemed interested in using it in lieu of DREADFUL midi samples.
MUTANT, THE ALCHEMIST, HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, GHOST WARRIOR, FROM BEYOND, THE DAY TIME ENDED, TROLL, METALSTORM - A wonderful symphonic voice he inexplicably abandoned:
I'd frankly rather see Perseverance "fix" MUTANT instead of releasing a 90's-era budget-starved Band score. Their complete release for that score was dreadful-sounding compared to the old Intrada CD. Now THAT is a fan-freaking-tastic horror score from back when this composer was on top of his game!
I'd frankly rather see Perseverance "fix" MUTANT instead of releasing a 90's-era budget-starved Band score. Their complete release for that score was dreadful-sounding compared to the old Intrada CD. Now THAT is a fan-freaking-tastic horror score from back when this composer was on top of his game!
I agree but I would like to see Intrada do it instead of Perseverance.
I'd frankly rather see Perseverance "fix" MUTANT instead of releasing a 90's-era budget-starved Band score. Their complete release for that score was dreadful-sounding compared to the old Intrada CD. Now THAT is a fan-freaking-tastic horror score from back when this composer was on top of his game!
I agree but I would like to see Intrada do it instead of Perseverance.
Yea, agreed moreover there for sure. This is one of those scores that should always be in print. What inspired Band to belt out one of his most robust, sweeping and thematic orchestral scores for this little toxic waste zombie movie has always been a mystery to me.
I agree but I would like to see Intrada do it instead of Perseverance.
Yea, agreed moreover there for sure. This is one of those scores that should always be in print. What inspired Band to belt out one of his most robust, sweeping and thematic orchestral scores for this little toxic waste zombie movie has always been a mystery to me.
Yeah, I bought the movie on dvd last year and I can't agree more lol. This was a movie I remember seeing when I was a kid and back then it was still watchable and scary. Now less so. I also remember renting Castle Freak and it was rather disappointing. I think I sold off the score as it didn't grab me as much as "Mutant".
Sure, it's not a huge score, but it's a very intimate film and doesn't require a huge orchestra. I love the score and the movie. The string quartet main title is fantastic.
It's saddled with an awful title though which puts a lot of people off. It's very well acted, directed and has a lot more going on than just shlocky exploitation horror.
It might not be composed by Band. The Intrada-CD has "musical acknowledgments" credit to Reinhold Glière, a German-Russian composer born in 1875 who did many chamber works. Is anyone familiar with Glière's work and Band's score? Band's "The Pit And The Pendulum" had a similiar credit to Cristóbal de Morales, from whom the choral work of this score was derived.
It might not be composed by Band. The Intrada-CD has "musical acknowledgments" credit to Reinhold Glière, a German-Russian composer born in 1875 who did many chamber works. Is anyone familiar with Glière's work and Band's score? Band's "The Pit And The Pendulum" had a similiar credit to Cristóbal de Morales, from whom the choral work of this score was derived.
Intriguing. My CD is in storage somewhere so I haven't looked at it for a while.
Just wanted to jump in here to say that the Reinhold Glière quote is actually in "Il Castello Di Giove," which is lifted note-for-note from the seventh piece ("Romanze") in an evidently rather obscure piano work, "12 Pièces enfantines" ("12 Pieces for children"), Op. 31. It's so obscure, in fact, that I can't find a commercial recording of it, but here's a nice YouTube performance:
I was alerted to this after hearing the piece in Don Hertzfeldt's wonderful short film World of Tomorrow, though it wasn't until the third or fourth time I watched it that I realized how I recognized the melody!
I do still wonder whether Richard Band actually composed the string quartet in the main titles. I don't have the Perseverance release, but on the Intrada CD there was one Stephen Cohn credited with "additional arrangements" (or something to that effect) on that cue, and the Castle Freak main titles are stylistically somewhat similar to his string quartet, "Eye of Chaos":
Listen to the faster portion that starts at 2:30, for example. Perhaps the Castle Freak quartet comes from a different Cohn piece, or Band asked him for something similar. According to IMDb, Cohn was an orchestrator on Zone Troopers, so they have some history.
