Virus

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

If you look at the career of Joel McNeely you will discover some of the weirdest projects ever composed. Splash II? Parent Trap III and IV? The Tiny Toon Adventures of TV? The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles series which nobody seemed to care about? Frankenstein: The College Years, oh my goodness! His projects that seem to have a bit of decency left are Iron Will and Soldier, hardly successes. And the only big budget movie The Avengers was the funniest movie ever made, sadly it supposed to be adventurous and action all the way. So, score fans can hardly admit of hearing any good music for a good movie. Some amazing music for Shadows of the Empire (for a book by the way), some additional music for Goldsmith's Air Force One (not found on the release) and Virus (another medium but if fair rather solid attempt). Joe McNeely hardly seems to pick up steam for such projects but this is something to adjust your volume knob, it packs a hell of a orchestral punch to say the least. Virus, seems to be horror mixed with a doses of action and science fiction, and all in all, it confirms that McNeely is someone with talent, a composer that hardly will thrill the people in the theatre but surely those movies can not ask the same of the attention standards. It is increasingly demanding to offer new and exciting material while maintaining to bring pace, power and a scary tone once and a while, Virus is your score if you want it. Choral is something to add to that list, and the short choral presence is found in the begin 'Volkov and the Mir' and at the end 'End Credits' (the best track on the CD and The Hunt for Red October fans will love this), sadly no choral music during the massive action moments.

The main theme, hardly ever used also shows up in those two tracks, the rest has the power and the feel of an action movie out of control, 'Typhoon Leah', 'Seven Footer Chase', 'We Can Kill this Thing', 'Robo - Captain', 'Interrogation' and 'Sinking the Ship' bring the fierce force and some excellent powerful stuff. The style is comparable with Aliens of James Horner but it soon changes when the shorts bursts start pumping up the volume. At the end you have to admit that it all begins too sound quite the same but several moments will deliver the boost for your thrill. People with a healthy doses for enjoying their scores loud and simply want bombastic action music, and don't dislike the occasional scare will find Virus no disease at all, Joel McNeely adds the antidote with his massive musical sounds. I had my preconceptions about Virus, first of all I don't like scary horror music, it only gives you the satisfaction in the movie but Virus is something else, it adds the occasional scare with the expected atmosphere but with the powerful boom boom to add some decibels to your house, guarantee to rock it when the volume is a bit too much to handle. I haven't said that Virus will enjoy everyone listening to it but seen the circumstances and seen the potential skill discovered in Joel McNeely's sound, Virus is a definite improvement for the horror genre.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Volkov And The Mir (2.14)

2. Typhoon Leah (6.19)

3. Another Ship (4.17)

4. Anchor's Away (2.14)

5. Squeaky Gets Greased (2.11)

6. Nadia Runs (1.10)

7. Nadia's Story (3.17)

8. Seven Footer Chase (3.29)

9. Turkey Hunting (2.56)

10. We Can Kill This Thing (3.57)

11. Robo - Captain (5.12)

12. Interrogation (2.47)

13. Sinking The Ship (4.21)

14. End Credits (5.42) Excellent Track

Total Length: 50.25

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=== Link to Composer Site: Joel McNeely ===