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Filmtracks Recommends: Buy it... one of the limited albums if you seek a bold, true and similarly constructed sequel score to Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian. Avoid it... if the score wasn't enticing enough for you when released by Varèse Sarabande in 1992, for the additional material on the 2002 album isn't significantly better. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
This score is modern Poledouris action and carnage at its most savage. He establishes themes and motifs for every character, as well as one pounding theme for the element of war itself, and through these constantly mingling themes, Poledouris has created a very accessible and rich orchestral powerhouse. With the help of tambourines, triangles, and drums, Poledouris's music dances with light rhythms throughout its scenes of contemplation, courtship, and rest, often relying on the woodwinds (as usual) to add a simplistic, staggered motif to that canvas. What will interest film score enthusiasts, however, is the considerable application of monumental action sequences. The opening and end titles are extensions of this battle music, flowing with the same folk rhythms, but backed up by the intensity of the London Symphony Orchestra and featuring more of a swashbuckle than before. For the slower cues, only 25 musicians were necessary, but that number was beefed up to 75 players for the cues of wartime conflict. These elevated, brass-dominated action cues are lengthy in their presentations, and rarely do they fade quickly. The sheer quantity of similar action material to Conan the Barbarian is overwhelming, but when comparing the two scores, Flesh + Blood's plethora of themes causes it to have a different effect on the listener. Whereas Conan the Barbarian stated its themes in distinctive, unyielding fashion, Flesh + Blood mixes and mingles its ideas. Thus, you get a more rounded score that may, for some listeners, play better on album, but you also get a score that is less memorable at its highpoints. Flesh + Blood is a slightly less brutal, less magical score, but if you were disappointed by Conan the Destroyer in 1984, rest assured that Flesh + Blood is your true sequel score for Conan the Barbarian in terms of quality. On album, this score existed only as part of the rare, original Varèse Sarabande series of albums in the early 1990's. It was a prized collectible until 2002, when Prometheus released another limited edition of the score. The expanded material on the 2002 album is interesting, but not as necessary as the music presented on the previous CD. Still, the sound quality is acceptable (though slightly poorer than the original album's selections) and a few alternate versions of cues round out additional material on the Prometheus label, making it a solid purchase. Both albums present this excellent Poledouris score in its full, relentless beauty. ****
Both albums contain extensive information about the score and film. Both are also hand numbered. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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