Reviews
OST: "Doomsday" - Tyler Bates (Lakeshore Records)
By Michael Sullivan
Mar 22, 2008, 15:45

Before I got this CD to review I went and saw "Doomsday". Yep,all 3 minutes of it via a movie trailer. In it I saw "Resident Evil,"The Road Warrior","28 Days Later" and one of my favorite films of all time,"Escape from New York". All in 3 minutes...hell,I didn't even have time to pop a bag of mircowave popcorn.

So now you know the movie.

That said,the score of "Doomsday" is FAR better and thats because of the efforts of Tyler Bates,who is quickly becoming a favorite with many young cutting edge directors like Zack Snyder and James Gunn. Tyler's scores to Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" and the brillant "300" are just outstanding.
 In Doomsday,he uses a bit of what I call the TVT effect,mixing a smattering well known pop tunes with his score.
  The plot of Doomsday...a virus spreads in London,the government blocks off the city to contain the virus from spreading,after 30 years it somehow pops up. Someone notices that people are still alive in the blocked city so maybe they can create a cure ala smallpox. A small team is sent in to find a candiate and all hell breaks loose.

The score here is a tasty throwback to the 80's synth score of "Escape",its fast but not heavy in tone. Its almost like Bates knew what the movie was before he actually scored it. But there are some nice mixes of orchestral blasts during to main action scenes to offer a kick ass contrast. And it works very well...
 The real surprise was a very nice remix of the 80's classic from Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Two Tribes (Go to War)".

So I recommend this score but not the movie. Maybe one can rent Escape from New York and play this score with it....