Review: Resident Evil Soundtrack
Resident Evil is one of the very first games you think about that would work great on the big screen. For the most part bits and pieces of the game, have been inspired by movies, so the jump seems more than logical. Finally, after more than four years of waiting, we are getting Resident Evil on the big screen. While I hope the movie satisfies the legacy of the games, the soundtrack left me strangely disappointed.
Let me just go on a small rant here. Why must you edit songs on soundtracks? I mean, come on, the movie is obviously rated R, meaning that no one under 17 should be in there without a parent (in the perfect world), so why butcher half-way decent songs on the soundtrack to make you feel like you are listening to a mid-day radio show? I mean radio stations around the country have the balls to say “shit,” “fu*k,” and various other words on the air, albeit, late a night when everyone from the FCC is sleeping, but why on a CD such as this one.
I think I was somewhat lenient in my score, I originally wanted to give the album a 2.0 for the fact that I don’t appreciate being sold an edited album to appease corporate suits who just want to be able to market something with the Resident Evil name to children. You market the games, that’s bad, you market the R rated movie, that’s worse, so make the CD clean and make everyone happy? No, it doesn’t work that way.
As for the material itself, the CD still manages to make up some ground, but not much. Marilyn Manson’s “Fight Song” has been remixed, although it doesn’t sound as great as the original version, Manson’s lyrics are so washed up and faint in this Slipknot remix, it is almost impossible to hear anything but the banging of drums and guitars. To their own credit, Slipknot’s original song, “My Plague (New Abuse Remix)” is a great lead off track. The rest of the CD features regurgitated songs from Static-X, Adema, and The Crystal Method. While all great songs, nothing I don’t already own.
The Mudvayne song “Dig” is remixed here also, and comes up sounding great, the song is very strong to begin with, but the remix adds to the intense feeling of the sound. Next up in the “What the Hell” category is what the hell is Method Man doing on this CD? I would just love an option to scratch that part of the disc off, the song is horrible, who even employs this “artist?”
Rather than releasing a separate score and soundtrack, Sony opted to have them both included on one record, a nice bonus to the end of the CD is the four track score produced by Marilyn Manson. If only the entire CD was composed of great stuff like this, it might be a higher score up there.
In any event, I am hoping that the movie doesn’t let me down like the soundtrack did, but if you are really a fan of the series, and have to have all the RE merchandise (like me), then pick up the CD today, it may not be the best, but it sure isn’t Glitter.
