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In terms of inspiration, "The Bible" flunks in every regard. The crew takes themes and instrumental and vocal treatments from Gladiator, The Prince of Egypt, The Da Vinci Code, Crimson Tide, and Klaus Badelt's The Promise (strangely enough) and pieces them together into a "greatest hits" collection of standard Zimmer sounds. Gerrard's vocal tones are pure Gladiator, the ostinato crescendos are pure The Da Vinci Code, the marginal instrumental exoticism is pure The Prince of Egypt, and the male chorus is pure Crimson Tide. None of the themes is original, either, the three major identities all tired regurgitations of progressions from all of the above scores. Actually somewhat humorous is the application of a Zimmer power anthem to the concept of the creation, heard with glorious power in "In the Beginning" and "Creation Choral." More romantic is the nativity theme in "Roma's Lament" (a trick title) and "The Nativity" (listen for similarities to The Promise) as well as the general faith theme heard with all of Gerrard's heavenly gusto from The Gladiator in "Faith" and "Rise Up in Faith." This latter theme is the score's primary identity, and its long presentation in "Faith" is the highlight of the work. On the downside, this theme exposes this score's more pressing failure: its rendering. Without the resources to hire an orchestra to perform this work, Zimmer and crew got cozy with their trusty synthesizers. While in some places, as in "Pentecost," the execution of the score sounds quite accomplished (especially with the greater dose of reverb and some additional percussive and choral effects), the majority of the work exposes the weaknesses of synthesized orchestral elements. This especially applies to the performances of the faith theme, during which the fake brass really strains to suffice in ways oddly familiar to mid-1990's Media Ventures music. This harsh tone is also reminiscent of Crimson Tide, a score that almost hilariously informs the final ten seconds of "Rise Up in Faith." On album, the three themes bookend the presentation in convenient, inversed order, with a handful of moderately interesting ideas explored in between. Much of this filler music in the middle is not worth your trouble however, for its melodic structures go underdeveloped and the rendering is not much better in most cases. On the whole, the music for "The Bible" might have been a solid three-star effort had Zimmer and his crew been afforded the opportunity to perform this retread with an immense, live ensemble, as deserved by the topic. Hearing it rendered with cheap electronics only makes the derivative nature of the whole thing more irritating. All of that said, the album is still an easy listening experience and some Zimmer enthusiasts probably won't be able to determine that the ensemble is fake. That's a sad commentary about what listeners are willing to accept.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.86 (in 119 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.97 (in 294,665 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars. For Lorne Balfe reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.9 (in 29 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.89 (in 22,583 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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