The basic ingredients of a typical Sato epic score are all present here, though, sans the electronics and high-range soloists (notably whistles) that often punctuate his best work. The soundscape instead emphasizes the bass region, as expected, resonance befitting the monster supplied especially in the dissonant horror cues. In this case, the historical setting confines Sato to a more conventional orchestral and choral ensemble, though modern techniques do indeed bleed into the soundscape. One notable characteristic of Sato's style for these types of scores is the resoundingly wet mix of his orchestral recordings, and that aspect remains intact in Godzilla Minus One, once again accentuating the larger-than-life feeling of his contribution. Rather than apply that sound to crisp and dynamic melodic lines, however, Sato has chosen to adapt the immensity of his grandest tones to serve the purpose of cacophony more often than not. The exploration of ambient tonalities is so pronounced that Sato uses his cues to rotate between various emotional bludgeons without much regard for specific synchronization points. Individual moments in these suite-like recordings capture the essence of suffering extremely well, but they generally yield an undoubtedly dismal mood overall. The composer highlights the concept of agony beyond almost all else, with almost no excitement built in to his original material. His tone is overwrought to a fault, forcing so much torment, anguish, grief, and misery into most of his cues that the effect of the music is more numbing than purely respectful. The long "Pain" cue is itself a perfect encapsulation of sonic pain via dissonant pulses, and even a cue like "Pride" spends most of its time detached from any positive emotional response. There are personal moments when this strategy hints at a payoff, as in the underplayed "Hope" and conclusive "Pray." But these passages maintain the struggle of the other cues in their underlying dissonant haze, suggesting that Japan's battle against its legacy and the monster are endless.

The biggest head-scratcher involving the spotting decisions regarding music in Godzilla Minus One, however, related to the infusion of chopped up pieces of Akira Ifukube's classic franchise scores into the scenes of military conflict with Godzilla and the beast's obligatory stomping of cities and almost perverse concentration on the disruption of train schedules. The resulting references to Ifukube scores from the 1950's and 1960's, ranging from Godzilla to King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla, don't fit at all amongst Sato's new material. This re-recorded music is well executed but too faithful, not adapted for the moment as in Bear McCreary's monumentally profound Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It doesn't help that these two, disparate halves of the score are butchered in the film's mix, shifting back and forth between these styles haphazardly within the same scenes. Ultimately, the awkwardly merged soundtrack for Godzilla Minus One is absolutely schizophrenic in musical style, sacrificing most narrative development in the process. The climax in "Last" offers some satisfying sense of resolution, but only partially. Sato especially struggles to find footing with his new themes for the concept. It's not unusual for him to write in a stream-of-consciousness methodology, allowing the underlying emotional tone and style of his music to carry an identity rather than outright motific repetition and development. This technique really diminishes Godzilla Minus One, though, for his thematic sets for the human characters and the monster never consolidate as necessary to form memorable melodic appeal. For the humans, he often relies upon descending figures of anguish, the foremost example building at 1:31 into "Elegy" on tortured strings over chimes. This material doesn't transition well to a low brass bassline in "Mission" and shifts to another rhythmic figure under the primary chords late in "Honor." Elongated during "Pride," this material persists at 1:19 into "Last" and is transformed into a different religious identity by "Pray." Voices are applied very well in this cue, both in solo and ensemble ranks, to denote religious size.

The nasty lizard, on the other hand, often receives stereotypical bass blasts on low brass and a rising bass pitch of immense power. It's previewed with a foghorn effect in the latter half of "Fear" and debuts in "Portent" before vaguely informing the dissonance of "Confusion." The Godzilla material inverts into a more melodic, sinking identity in "Divine," battles the character theme in higher string ranges and choir in "Resolution," explodes from low brass in "Unscathed" with banging chimes overemphasized, and unleashes its final blasts in the middle of "Last." There is surprisingly little propulsion outside of the latter half of "Mission" and "Resolution" in this music, an insufficient quantity to keep the music's narrative moving. Sato also adopts the Hans Zimmer crescendo method of crafting long suites of emotions rather than specific cues for a scene, which doesn't help. Most obnoxious is digital manipulation of the orchestral recordings, especially in "Resolution." The three Ifukube suites are so strikingly different from all of the original Sato music of excessive agony that the combined score for Godzilla Minus One causes stylistic whiplash, a fatal flaw that makes the original 56-minute album presentation just as awkward as the score in the film itself. A year after that initial album, a 79-minute expansion from Milan Records (digitally) and Rambling Records (a 2-CD set from Japan) added another ten tracks to a "Deluxe Edition" album. Almost all of the newly released material is highly redundant with tracks from the prior product, all of which included as well. The duo of "Pain II" and "Live" contains continued atmospheric haze while "Scar," "Incident," and "Fear II" are embroiled with Sato's outright atmospheric horror mode. More palatable is the crescendo of muscular brass in "Honor II" and the additional stomping melodrama with choir and chimes over the ensemble in "Divine II." Curious are the soft acoustic guitar pleasantries of "Days" and the extensive silence that exists in the mild drama of "Guilt." Finally, "Resolution (Reprise)" is a completely redundant track. On the whole, the expansion is definitely not worth significant pursuit, confirming just how redundant Sato's score can be. Despite all the incredible potential of having the composer score a massive entry in this franchise, the end result is a strategic misfire of epic proportions.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download