Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,881
Written 9/29/09
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Buy it... only if you are an enthusiast of the concept and are
familiar with the distinct differences between the original songs heard
on screen and the gloomy, partially orchestral underscore for the
film.
Avoid it... if you expect anything remarkable to emerge from this
score, for its is largely an unmemorable collection of orchestral
dissonance and electronic textures.
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| Gibbs |
Queen of the Damned: (Richard Gibbs/Jonathan Davis)
When Warner Brothers acquired the rights to Anne Rice's popular series
of novels regarding vampire culture, the studio did quite well with
1994's Interview with a Vampire. Problems arose, however, when
that film's director, Neil Jordan, stepped aside from his work on the
next entry in "The Vampire Chronicles," and in 2000, rights for the
concept reverted back to Rice. The author was at first convinced that a
tackling of the third story, "Queen of the Damned," without addressing
the development of Tom Cruise's character of Lestat in the second entry
in the series, "The Vampire Lestat," would prove fatal to the
development of the third story's plot. Inevitably, a screenplay that
merged parts of both of the two stories into one film was conjured, and
while Rice was initially hopeful about Warner's dedication to the
perfection of the 2002 release of Queen of the Damned, she
eventually deduced that a television series would have suited her
stories better. No cast or crew members carried over to the sequel, and
the less expensive talent behind its creation led directly to extremely
poor critical response. The death of lead actress Aaliyah several months
prior to the release date did help, along with the hoards of Goths
targeted by these productions, send the film to the top of the box
office charts for a few weeks, justifying the $30 million budget. Those
familiar with this trilogy of stories from Rice will know that music
ends up playing a tremendous role in the immortal life of Lestat. He is
not only a virtuoso violinist, but also challenges the hierarchy of the
vampire subculture by becoming a rock star with his own band. It is his
endeavors here that not only awaken the feared Queen, but also threaten
to expose the entire population of vampires to mass media. As such, the
production of Queen of the Damned needed musical services far
beyond those that turned out to be a controversy with Interview with
a Vampire. Hired to split duties on the music were Richard Gibbs and
Jonathan Davis, the former an Oingo Boingo band member turned composer
(with some guidance from Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek) and the latter
the frontman for the band Korn. While there was initially come confusion
about whether or not Korn as a whole would be involved in the project,
Davis made it clear that this was his solo endeavor, not only co-writing
the songs but performing as the singing voice of Lestat on screen. Two
other Korn members did contribute guitar performances, however. Because
of Davis' contract with Sony, his screen performances were not
contractually allowed to appear on the rock song soundtrack album for
the film.
Outside of the many source songs written for
Queen
of the Damned, Gibbs was largely responsible for providing the
predictably brooding, mostly atmospheric score. He recorded with a
100-member orchestra and incorporated pseudo-Egyptian sounds to reflect
the film's plot. These accents included the vocal and violin
performances of Shankar, whose sound in America was mostly associated
with the group Shakti and collaborations with Peter Gabriel. It is
Shankar's classical violin that speaks for Lestat's in the picture.
Additionally, highly manipulated choral effects were mixed into the
orchestral recordings, as well as electronic dissonance that defines
this work as one of texture rather than melody. Gibbs described the tone
of the score as "deeply twisted, anguished, and tormented" at the time
of its creation, and, in his efforts toward this goal, he succeeds.
There isn't much substance in the work that he and Davis provide for
Queen of the Damned, the only cohesive element being the
generally dark and menacing, bass-dominated environment produced by the
string brooding and electronic enhancements that dominate the work.
There are thematic structures at play in this score, some of which
marginally compelling in their harmonic grace, but never do any of these
ideas congeal into a lasting identity for the score. The duo of
"Maharet" and "Prodigal Sun," literally one solid piece of music on the
score-only album for the film, contains the majority of the
melodramatic, choral-aided harmonic material. The vocal effects are
obviously artificial in their rendering, giving the soundscape something
of a cheapened character. Instrumentally, international accents in "On
the Beach" and "Secret Passage" range from obnoxious to effective,
including the manipulated sound of an oud, an ancient Egyptian oboe and
the most interesting sound here. Less successful is the xylophone effect
in "Jesse's Dream" and truly out of place Indian tone in "On the
Beach." The fully orchestral cues, culminating in the brutal "The Queen
is Dead," are generally quite dissonant and noisy, containing none of
the structural complexity or classical connections that lifted Elliot
Goldenthal's memorable and acclaimed score for the previous film.
Overall, the score material by Gibbs and Davis for
Queen of the
Damned is generic and lacking in convincing power. It also fails to
make an adequate connection to the rock songs and virtuoso performances
on screen, a detriment for those primarily looking for continuity.
Joining the song-only album (with cover versions of those heard on
screen), a score-only product limited to under thirty minutes in length
was provided by Warner. Outside of the loyal fanbase of the concept, and
for film score collectors in particular, this music will have little
appeal.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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