The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

One of the more serious drama efforts in his career, Beltrami scored The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys along with Joshua Homme (guitarist and vocalist from Queens of the Stone Age) and it is clearly one of his more important scores because it shows non horror music, so basically difference in his voice. While the score is extremely enjoyable on its own, I had the pleasure to see the film first and experience the score it was written for in context. Its a different film from the others that it mixes live drama and the struggles of young teenage kids in real life but also the storytellings of their superheroes they draw in their spare time. That vision of animation gets mixed between the story and sort of becomes a special way to respond to their anger while they are preparing the real deed outside of it. But this also means that the score gets mixed between the real life and the animation and without knowing the film you could guess which scenes sort of appear during the animation. But truth be told, you are wrong for at least several scenes since basically a few begin with the real life scoring and gets mixed directly in animation mode and thus scoring. A case in point is 'The Couch' where first piano shows up before the heroic growing music states the animation scoring. And by god does it work effectively in the movie. There are other examples too but the animation scoring does come like good music on itself, like 'The Atomic Trinity vs. Heaven's Devils' with its sinister use of dark material mixed with electric guitars and light choir, that choir appearing somewhat heavenly in various tracks such as 'Skeleton Boy is Born'. Here this choir sounds a bit like its choral use of Scream 2 and therefore is easily liked I guess.

But the other scoring is good too, if a bit more varied altogether. 'The Atomic Trinity' (one of the 5 Homme tracks) presents the theme for the Trinity warriors and doesn't appear anymore but the electric guitar theme is catchy nonetheless. 'Hanging (aka Ramble Off)' scores its vehicle scene with a special version on both acoustic guitar and electric guitar and sounds cool too, so is 'The Atomic Trinity vs. Heaven's Devils, Round II' which is a little more action based. 'St. Agatha' is a quirky piece for guitar and works very well in the respective scene while more somber and heavier music is heard for instance in 'Margie's Confession'. 'Dead Dog, Part II' catches a very lovely cello tone that breaths more life into the music then for instance Beltrami's horror music and this returns in 'Eulogy'. The 3 songs are good too, the first is a known classic while the third and last is composed and sung by Homme himself and therefore concludes the 40 minute soundtrack in full circle. Basically, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is recommendable because its not Joy Ride, its not Blade II, its not The Faculty, its not Dracula and its not Scream. Basically its not horror Beltrami and therefore its a testament to his somewhat other side. Of course we knew the composer had different voices too but if he can't present it in other movies then just horror, or doesn't get the chance to present it on CD, then at least this score proves more then its fair share. Its not super quality but it works effectively between the animation and it enjoys on disc because of its various styles and tones. Beltrami and Homme made the film work and differently the film has effect on its music, forming one pair that strangely enthralls to amuse its listener as its viewer.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. The Atomic Trinity * (1.31)

2. The Atomic Trinity vs. Heaven's Devils (1.31)

3. The Empty House (1.30)

4. The Couch (2.10)

5. Hanging (aka Ramble Off) * (2.02)

6. Margie's Confession (2.54)

7. The Atomic Trinity vs. Heaven's Devils, Round II (1.59)

8. St. Agatha (3.23)

9. On The Road Again: Canned Heat (3.22)

10. Francis And Margie * (0.54)

11. Stoned * (1.35)

12. Dead Dog, Part II (2.04)

13. Skeleton Boy Is Born (0.56)

14. Do For The Others: Stephen Stills (2.51)

15. Story Of The Fish (2.00)

16. For The Gods / Act Like Cougars (2.02)

17. Torn Apart (1.09)

18. Someone Is Coming (2.48)

19. Eulogy (1.25)

20. All The Same: Joshua Homme (4.45)

* Additional music by Joshua Homme

Total Length: 43.40

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

=== Link to Composer Site: Marco Beltrami ===