The lack of structural continuity between The Final Conflict and The Omen is both a plus and minus (in extremes, it would turn out). Let's first explore the positives, for they are many. Without a doubt, Damien: Omen II was a score of regurgitation. It took an outstanding set of ideas and pushed them in impressive variations, thus earning strong marks and successfully appealing to listeners. But at the end of the day, the music for Damien: Omen II didn't really accomplish anything new. Then again, neither did the film's plot, which was simply a copy of the first, so it's hard to fault Goldsmith. The fresh start with The Final Conflict brushed aside the ills of the previous score and allowed the composer to spread his wings in vastly new directions. A new theme greets Damien in his adulthood, one that is as bold, tragic, and powerful as any Goldsmith ever created. This robust idea is as solid as movie themes get, conveyed by horns with a resonance rarely heard in even Goldsmith's most heroic or otherwise melodramatic efforts. He wastes no time stating it, either, opening the score's "Main Titles" immediately with this idea and allowing the chorus to join it in grand harmony for an apocalyptic climax of epic proportions. Goldsmith reportedly had always wanted to write an opera for chorus, and The Final Conflict gave him that opportunity. Massive, mixed choir harmonics of this level were new to Goldsmith, though he would extend the usage to a lesser degree in his ill-fated music for Legend later in the decade. Goldsmith is loyal to this theme without beating the audience senseless with it (as he had done with "Ave Satani" in Damien: Omen II). The incorporation of the horn performances of this theme in "The Monastery" and "The Hunt" are crystal clear, and by the time the theme is joined in the actual score by chorus in a monumental rendering in the latter half of "The Blooding," the score and film take on another dimension of religious importance. One of the oddities of this theme is that it became the second idea by Goldsmith in the series to borrow heavily from John Barry's work of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Whereas the underlying progressions and stomping movement of "Ave Satani" owed to The Lion in Winter, the theme for Damien in The Final Conflict, both in melody and performance aspects, is highly reminiscent of Barry's The Last Valley. It's not a distracting level of similarity, though, and the connected themes are equally efficient in achieving the same emotional response.

The other strikingly refreshing aspect of The Final Conflict that distinguishes it from the previous two scores is Goldsmith's secondary theme for the second coming of Christ. Along with the less dissonant lines of the title theme, this fluid and beautiful representation of the divine is as attractive as Goldsmith could have possible made it. Truly heavenly in its redemptive tone, this theme is introduced at the end of "Main Titles," flirted with in soft tones in "Trial Run" and "The Monastery," and realized fully with grandiose orchestral and choral performances in "The Second Coming" and the climactic "The Final Conflict." This material extends beyond even the collection of Goldsmith's effortless love themes in his career, taking the opportunity that Hollywood never gave him to score a biblical epic with all the overblown sense of importance that could be squeezed into one heavenly theme. In its lesser variants, this idea embodies the same sense of supernatural whimsy that would be heard in Poltergeist. The firm but restrained resolute stature of "The Monastery" is a reminder of Goldsmith's Star Trek material. The actual attacks on Damien's enemies aren't conveyed with the same frequency of orgasmic chanting and symphonic strikes, another change of direction in The Final Conflict. The whispering effects are there, and "A T.V. First" is a nice throwback to Damien: Omen II, but anything approaching the singular menace of "Ave Satani" certainly is not. Harmonious counterpoint on the horns makes these cues a bit more palatable than before. Another change in The Final Conflict relates to the glimmers of hope that exist throughout the score, with the secondary theme forcing the score to be far more balanced in its general attitude. Finally, the single cue "The Hunt" is a highlight of Goldsmith's career that stands apart from the rest of the music in the three scores in its spirit of adventure. Goldsmith was inspired by a fox hunt in The List of Adrian Messenger many years earlier, and he doesn't let the opportunity pass him this time, either. Employing rollicking rhythms and his famous slapping tambourine keeping pace, this theme even imitates the trumpet calls of a hunt with exuberant clarity of character and a pastoral sense of respect for nature. The fact that Goldsmith could accomplish all of this with the horn theme for Damien on top is remarkable. It's strange to think that the single most impressive cue written by Goldsmith for these three films has nothing to do with any of the religious tones or monumental horror that dominate the rest of the works, but it's true.

Unfortunately, all of these positive aspects of The Final Conflict point to the score's greatest weakness: it's almost complete disavowing of the previous thematic constructs. Careful inspection of Damien's adult theme will find that the meter corresponds with "Ave Satani" and, on occasion, as in the end of "The Blooding," the actual baseline progression of that previous theme is employed. But why would Goldsmith abandon the idea in its full form in The Final Conflict? It was such a powerful theme in The Omen that is was nominated apart from the score for a "Best Song" Oscar, and how often do you witness that in the realm of film music? Certainly, Goldsmith could have allowed "Ave Satani" to evolve into Damien's more bombastic adult theme at one or more junctures in The Final Conflict. Or, at the very least, a parting reminder of the theme upon Damien's death or in another tribute fashion would have clearly wrapped the series into a neat package. Never even do the whispered effects fully reprise this theme, and despite the fact that Goldsmith over-utilized the idea in Damien: Omen II, its total dismissal here is a major disappointment. Also absent, less surprisingly, is any reference to Goldsmith's well developed family theme in The Omen, an idea that could have merited attention given Damien's own sick love affair in The Final Conflict and de facto adoption of a son through that relationship. Simply put, nothing concrete from The Omen survives in The Final Conflict, so in the producer's effort to use Goldsmith as a source of continuity for the series, the score fails to accomplish that goal. The composer's high quality of output and general approach to the concept will be similar enough for some listeners, however, for whom this won't be an issue. Otherwise, The Final Conflict is an outstanding score despite being an orphan within the context, necessitating different ratings for the score's continuation of the story and its album presentation. Released by Masters Film Music through Varèse Sarabande in 1986 on a 48-minute CD, The Final Conflict finally received expanded and remastered treatment in 2001, with a significant improvement in sound quality and 14 additional minutes of music. A 2005 repackaging of all three "Deluxe Editions" together for a retail price of less than $30 made them very affordable, not to mention a compensation for more difficult retail availability of the 2001 albums by then. There is no question that The Final Conflict is the most satisfying of the three scores on album, but The Omen remains the best pure horror score in context.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download