Buy it... on the 2010 Intrada album if you seek a bold, glorious, tonal, and rhythmically constructed companion score to Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian in its most obviously superior sound quality.

Avoid it... if you are not an audiophile and the score has never really enticed you going all the way back to Varèse Sarabande's CD in 1992, in which case subsequent presentations of additional material will likely not impress you.

Poledouris

Flesh + Blood: (Basil Poledouris) In 1985, audience fascination with the raw brutality of the Middle Ages continued to feed Hollywood's production of topics involving swords and sorcery. The popular acceptance of these violent depictions of barbarians and magic had begun to taper off by the time Paul Verhoeven's Flesh + Blood blindsided audiences with what some have said is perhaps the most bloody and gruesome vision of the era to come from Hollywood to date. The story of Flesh + Blood wasn't spectacularly new, though unlike many of the other films to come from that genre, there wasn't one clear-cut hero in the plot to follow. Each of the film's primary characters is flawed, leaving the audience to exist as a sort of outside observer while witnessing massive sieges, bloody battles, religious offense, political debauchery, explicit rape, and conflicting courtship splash across the screen, usually in shades of red. Perhaps due to the lack of a single superstar in the cast (Rutger Hauer was the most recognizable name), Flesh + Blood was soon forgotten by audiences, and many critics blamed Verhoeven's blood-splattering realism in the violence for turning audiences away. After successfully elevating the character of Conan to greatness with his tonal yet brutal scores for that franchise of films, composer Basil Poledouris was an immediate and logical choice for the project of Flesh + Blood (despite consideration of Jerry Goldsmith cut short by budget concerns). Poledouris had not worked the Middle Ages out of his system quite yet and was very eager to compose for another barbarian-related film. Through his meetings with Verhoeven, Poledouris discovered that the director's desired score was essentially an extension of the tonal and rhythmic Conan the Barbarian sound. The thematic development in those earlier scores, especially in regards to Poledouris' ability to form harmonic battles between two themes simultaneously in counterpoint, is what the director was seeking. An additional dose of adventurous, sword-fighting spirit would also be requested of Poledouris, as well as a general scope of grandness meant to aid in the filmmakers' efforts to hide the on-screen manifestations of the restrictingly low budget for the production.

Using folk music from the time was a consideration, but while a couple of source songs were employed as source material, that sound simply didn't offer the modern standards of thematic power needed for a film of this magnitude. Thus, the only music rooted in the period for this project is similar to that in Conan the Barbarian, with simple, rhythmic themes performed by woodwinds and percussion. Despite the inherent reliance on folk elements at the roots of many of Poledouris' scores, don't be fooled into believing that there's any attempt at authenticity in Flesh + Blood. There are even slight synthetic effects employed to compensate for the ensemble's smaller size, such as those heard the crescendo at 1:30 into the opening cue. On the other hand, the percussion section was augmented with several notable unique tones to assist to the same end. The style of this score consists of accessible Poledouris action and carnage at its most savage. He establishes themes and motifs for every character, as well as one pounding identity for the element of war itself, and through these constantly mingling themes, Poledouris creates a very satisfying 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 low woodwinds (as usual) to add a simplistic, staggered rhythm to that canvas. What will interest film score enthusiasts, however, is the considerable attention to monumental action sequences featuring muscular French horn performances. The opening and end titles are extensions of this battle music, flowing with the same slightly folksy rhythms that define much of the rest of the score but backed up by the intensity of the London Symphony Orchestra and featuring more of a swashbuckling style than heard in previous Poledouris entries. For the slower moments, only 25 musicians were necessary, but that number was beefed up to 75 players for the numerous cues of wartime conflict. These elevated, brass and timpani-dominated action cues are lengthy and repetitious in their presentations, and rarely do they fade without a fight. One unfortunate abnormality, however, is the trumpet solo at 2:15 into "Siege of the City," a passage that awkwardly reminds of Poledouris' title theme for 2000's Kimberly.

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The sheer quantity and forcefulness of action material similar to Conan the Barbarian is overwhelming, but when comparing the two scores, Flesh + Blood's plethora of complexly mingling themes causes it to have a different effect on the listener. Whereas the earlier score stated its themes in distinctive, unyielding fashion, Flesh + Blood mixes and fragments its ideas with better clarity, sometimes even with elegance. The score's two love themes, led obviously by the one represented in "Martin and Agnes," are significantly accessible in their romantic appeal. Thus, you get a more rounded score that may, for some listeners, play better on album, but you also hear a score that is less memorable in terms of individual highlights. Surely, Flesh + Blood is a 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. Despite Poledouris' mentioning of chants in this work, it should be noted that there is no choral accompaniment, which has always been something of a surprise. On album, this score long existed only on a pair of rare, collectible releases made from relatively poor source tapes. It was a member of the original Varèse Sarabande series of Club albums in the early 1990's and remained a prized collectible until 2002, when Prometheus released another limited edition of the score as one of the last in their original club series. The additional material supplied on the expanded 2002 album, secured from Poledouris' own cassette copy of the complete score, is interesting but not as necessary as the music presented on the older Varèse CD. The sound quality of the appended material is acceptable, though slightly poorer than the original album's selections (due not only to the cassette source but also to the fact that these selections are among those that employed fewer players). In 2010, Intrada Records released the entire score in stunning sound from a newly discovered, superior source in the studio's vaults. This pressing of 2,000 copies sold out within a week and for good reason; the score is at last assembled into film order and is mixed to accentuate solo performances the way Poledouris had always intended them to be heard. Finally, this product conveys this excellent Poledouris score in its best, bombastic and relentless glory. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.47 (in 33 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.27 (in 32,977 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.