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The Alien franchise has never had a distinctive sound, Jerry Goldsmith's longing closing theme, James Horner's ambitious action style, and Elliot Goldenthal's post-modern, religiously brutal orchestral tendencies all notably representing individual entries. The Predator franchise has been long identified by Alan Silvestri's primal theme over memorable percussive rhythms. Intriguingly, Tyler doesn't clearly restate any of their main ideas, instead hinting at their components and supporting material in a fashion that perhaps suggests that he was instructed not to reprise old themes in full. This is something of a disappointment, especially with John Debney eventually reprising Silvestri's famous Predator theme for that concept's 2010 re-imagining. The lack of that theme in Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem is baffling, especially when Tyler tries to work around it and heavily suggest it without actually allowing it to flourish. That said, the composer does present a relentlessly brutal new identity for the franchise that really does put to shame Kloser's preceding efforts. The album is arranged with the most cohesive presentations of this idea up front, "Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem" immediately slapping you with a Carl Orff-style rhythm and orchestral volume rarely heard. The two variations on the title theme that occupy this cue borrow wild, rising and falling string figures and harsh brass from Elliot Goldenthal's darkest tones while also using an ominously rising main progression highly reminiscent of Trevor Jones' Dark City. The Goldenthal progression, along with that composer's percussive thuds and wailing brass dissonance, is a regular element of this score, though Tyler's habit of emulating Goldenthal's post-modern style in other works makes it difficult to specifically assign connections to Alien 3 here. The Orff-like rhythm is reprised in several places as a tool of momentum, including the start of "Opening Titles." That cue then presents Tyler's most consistent reference to Silvestri's Predator: that score's space/wonder theme. The (appropriate) theme extends into "Predicide" and "Coprocloakia" and start of "Skinned and Hanged" and breathes life into an effective idea that was a bit short-changed by both Silvestri and Debney in their franchise scores. Tyler never states Silvestri's actual Predator theme, but he does heavily suggest its rhythm at the end of "Power Struggle" and, with impressive bravado, the conclusion of "Predator Arrival."

The only other references worth noting in Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem exist in "Requiem Epilogue," easily the score's best listening highlight on album. In this cue, Tyler (perhaps coincidentally) addresses Kloser's basic thematic chord progressions before launching into one of the most notable James Horner parodies of sort to ever exist. The entire second minute of that cue so expertly develops one of Horner's trademark rising structures from the 1980's (even down to the whimsical violins meandering over the top) that it's both intoxicating and laughable at once. Once again, why hasn't Tyler been given the chance to score a feature Star Trek film? While Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem is in part defined by all of these connections to previous scores, it does have some usual Tyler activity in the mix. The static snare rhythms with slight dissonant string shades in "National Guard Part 1," for instance, are very similar to Tyler's replacement Timeline score. He also has a capacity for producing ruckus like few composers in the younger generation; remarkably, Tyler creates such dense and frightening material while remaining loyal to an orchestra, with very little outward synthetic help to be heard. The powerhouse cue in Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem is "Decimation Proclamation," eight minutes of frenetic pounding and slashing accompanied by rousing, propulsive interludes of cohesive orchestral movement. It's a challenge to casually listen to this material, but it impresses on every technical level. There are only short respites from the nastiness of this score, most notably in the light acoustic guitar of "Special Delivery" and electric guitar of "Striptease," though the former cue is laced with distant siren effects and the latter cue dissolves into a dissonant stinger as necessary. The arrangement of the album does indeed place almost all of the highlights in the first half, with several of the more generic and less interesting atmospheric dissonance concentrated in the second half. Additionally, the album is simply too long of a listening experience to sustain interest. Tyler reportedly supports these immense albums featuring his scores, and while it is indeed great to be able to hear so much of what was recorded in each instance, many such works translate into superior 45-minute presentations. Among these is Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem, though there's enough ball-busting explosiveness and creative references to other composers' styles to warrant a recommendation of the product.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Brian Tyler reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.2 (in 41 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.13 (in 19,673 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 77:11