Notes from the Soundscape

It’s been 10 years since Transformers hit theaters. Who would have thought at this point we would have five films let alone that Michael Bay would have directed each of them? It is rare for a director to stick with a franchise for such a duration, but honestly what fil...

The Boston-based metalcore band Ice Nine Kills has persevered through a series of stops and starts with replacement band members and record labels before finding a home in 2015 with Fearless Records. At the end of 2015, the band released their fourth full length album,...

It has been six years since On Stranger Tides and while many might think we really didn’t need another Pirates of the Caribbean film, Dead Men Tell No Tales returns the franchise to the Caribbean after the misadventures in Florida, and back to the more swashbuckling he...

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise boasts some of the most memorable and iconic musical themes of the 2000s. Composer Geoff Zanelli (Into the West, The Pacific, Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power) was one of the composers who worked on the Curse of the Black Pearl sc...

Recent success of video game scores, brought on in part due to the successful franchises such as Medal of Honor and Halo, have raised the bar and drawn attention to the potential for music composed for this medium. Continuing this upward trend is the recently released...

Fans should feel very fortunate that Mutiny Within’s third album exists. Origins, among best rock albums thus far in 2017, was produced entirely by the band through front man Chris Clancy’s Audioworks Production company and released without a record label. Despite hund...

I first heard Harry Gregson-Williams' main theme for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe a few months ago and was immediately taken into a world of magic, adventure, and wonder. The complex theme that represents the land of Narnia is used spa...

Hans Zimmer is often criticized for using too many additional composers on his film score projects. Whatever his method, Zimmer has composed some of the best film music of the past decade, with prime examples including The Lion King, Gladiator, and The Thin Red Line. F...

Dark, brooding, and sizzling as if the music itself were on fire, Edward Shearmur's Reign of Fire needs multiple listens before one can hear past the thundering percussion and electronics to the quite haunting music on the album. Fortunately, I heard the album after se...

I rarely like comedy scores. While I appreciate that they are very difficult to write and time to the film, I tend to avoid them. However, George Fenton's Fool's Gold is a glaring exception. Fool's Gold is the latest incarnation of Peter Benchley's The Deep (following...