Darkness Falls

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

There hasn't been a hype for the entrance of a new composer since Klaus Badelt. But since Badelt, Powell or Gregson - Williams are all having a MV sing painted on their, .... eh forehead, the uprising of composer Brian Tyler is simply to say spectacular. And this has got to do also with the releases of Varčse Sarabande, having now released before The 4th Floor, Frailty and then a trio of scores in 3 weeks namely Darkness Falls, The Hunted and Children of Dune. It is easy to say people simply needed a score they liked from the start since either The 4th Floor and Frailty didn't received such hype in 1999 and 2001. On the other hand Darkness Falls did, and its easy to see why people instantly liked Brian Tyler's score from the start. Its a powerhouse effort of orchestral brevity that mixes oddly enough parts of James Newton Howard's ode to Hermann, meaning Signs through the blazing furious power coming of Goldenthal brass and string writing. This together makes that, honestly you will receive at least several of the best horror moments being released in 10 years time in this score. Hence, the reason why so many people liked this score from the beginning. Yet, a sad thing is, this soundtrack can not receive a much higher rating since it honestly deserves one. Darkness Falls has one big problem, the short and numerous tracks don't let the sheer bravura come to the play, since it all is divided into too many short packages along the way.

So the problem of this release is simple, too many short tracks which either bring to little to become really the highlights or just that there is basically not that many horror music per se. To tell you, here are just the horror moments, but some of them are really worth it. 'Evil Rises', the opening track is a giant mammoth brass blast festivity with a pace and some excellent horror statements of the scary motif, 'Eye Contact' is a brass laden action track, 'A Bit Crispy' captures brass fanfares (scary ones) devoted to the great maestro Elliot Goldenthal in that department but then the horror starts to fade away, 'Stay in the Light' and 'Der Zylinder' capture some brief seconds of stunning horror music, but just seconds can't make anything better doesn't it? The same counts for 'We Are not Safe in Here', just 40 seconds but 40 seconds of good horror music. 'That Has Got to Hurt' is the last of 1 minute horror pieces where the brass and string writing get so close to either Signs and something Elliot Goldenthal would write, its all good but just too short to really make any impressions, the tracks do have to bring more then just 40 seconds to a minute of exhilarating horror music. The rest of the music (still some 15 tracks on their own) capture soft background music where a certain mood is translated to the listener, such evidences are too clear in the rest of the tracks. A piano, soft strings or whatever brings the mood to the fore and just a sign of the good main theme in 'Darkness Falls' or 'Overhead' are better to appreciate then just low soft background score.

The simple reason is this, everything you hear is good but several moments are heard so short that they don't really bring a full feeling of excitement, how exhilarating they may be. The last track is actually a well put compilation of every single highlight heard in the 25 tracks before, from the first track to the sole sound of a female vocal in 'Consultation', though muted it sounds in fact. Anyway, whether 'End Titles' was supposed to be on the score or not, it is an impressive highlight that brings as said supreme horror fanfares and shrieking violins along with a statement of the main theme as heard in track 15. Together, Darkness Falls captures horror music like we haven't heard before in many years. Just as Sings, it bring the best out of the good old times back to the living. Just the short time and the numerous tracks don't bring what could have been brought of it. A couple of tracks mixed together and there is no doubt this score would have received a better rating. Some people don't mind apparently the short time so I understand that but I in fact am a little bothered by it nonetheless. Still, the day I saw Resident Evil, I also heard for the first time this score. And the pure crap merely composed by Marilyn Manson in that movie can't even hold a candle to the at times supreme horror effort by composer Brian Tyler. So I know when I say the good horror score has returned to please us. If only the release offered some longer prove of that in lesser tracks, Darkness Falls would truly show Tyler's massive entry even better.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Evil Rises (2.26) Excellent Track

2. Darkness Falls (2.33)

3. Eye Contact (1.50)

4. Interrogatorio (2.12)

5. A Bit Crispy (1.20)

6. 25 Words Or Less (1.41)

7. Stay In The Light (1.20)

8. Lose A Tooth (1.31)

9. Der Zylinder (2.58)

10. One Kiss (1.56)

11. Let There Be Light Sort Of (1.06)

12. We Are Safe In Here (0.37)

13. We Are Not Safe In Here (0.41)

14. Aftermath (1.28)

15. Overhead (0.56)

16. Consultation (2.10)

17. Utter Darkness (1.28)

18. That Has Got To Hurt (1.24)

19. Kyle And Michael (2.28)

20. Perception Tank (1.37)

21. Blood Red Herring (0.44)

22. Meet The Tooth Fairy (2.47)

23. Reading The Legend (0.42)

24. Is This Kyle Walsh? (1.51)

25. The Mask (1.03)

26. End Titles (7.07) Excellent Track

Total Length: 48.32

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Brian Tyler ===