Music You Can Sink Your Teeth Into ...

Well Halloween is almost upon us and I thought I'd celebrate the holiday by reviewing a few Halloween related albums. I only have a few albums and no, one of them is not the Halloween soundtrack (though that would be highly appropriate). Mind you the Halloween theme is one of the coolest and most recognizable themes. No, today I'll be starting the holiday theme with Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" soundtrack.

The music for the film was composed by Wojciech Kilar who also composed music for 2002's "The Pianist" and 1999's "The Ninth Gate" with Johnny Depp. He mostly composes for foreign films. There are few soundtracks that can enhance a film, yet stand alone as an album of original music. "Conan The Barbarian" and "Dragonheart" are 2 other soundtracks that are great works of music. "Bram Stoker's Dracula" starts us off with "Dracula: The Beginning" which gives a sampling of the dark and brooding, sinister and chilling music of the movie. It starts off slow and brooding, then introduces shrieking horns and melodic cellos. The song ends with haunting choral vocals and soprano solo's which lead into "Vampire Hunters". This song drives us with galloping style strings and deep choral chanting. A very sinister and evil song who's melody is carried through on "The Storm" and "The Hunters Prelude".

There is also a musical jewelry box feel to some of the music like "Lucy's Party", "The Brides" and as well as bits in "The Storm". These are sweetly sinister tunes. Lovely but slightly off-kilter. We also have the love theme that carries through from "Mina's Photo", "Love Remembered", "Mina/Dracula" and "Love Eternal". All these songs have sinister undertones. They are sweet and melodic with lovely use of harp, violins and cellos, but still chill with a haunting eeriness. "Mina/Dracula" is the one song that kinda sounds cliche.

"The Hunt Builds" is a transitional reprise of "Vampire Hunters" while "The Green Mist" is an eerie, chilling transitional piece. "The Ring Of Fire" is an ambient evil song with sounds of gorging and fighting and sinister laughing intermixed with brooding accompaniment. The movie portion of the soundtrack ends with "Ascension" which is sweetly angelic A cappella choral vocals. Then we end with "End Credits" which reprises most of the themes throughout the album. The music here goes from dark and brooding to sweetly sinister and upliftingly melodic that is slightly askew. It is a very evil sounding album which makes for great Halloween music.
The final track on the album is Annie Lennox's "Love Song For A Vampire" which is a powerfully uplifting song. It uses breathy keyboards and a variety of percussions to accompany Annie's distinct and strong vocals. The songs builds with a new agey style to a majestic climax then breaks and eases out. A very passionate tune, and seeing as vampires tend to be passionate creatures, very appropriate tune. The song would be great as its own single, but works well for this soundtrack. I plan on featuring Annie Lennox at some point. I don't own any albums, but she is such a powerful singer.

I don't remember much of the film, but I can pick out the music when used in different movie trailers. So, if you're having any Halloween parties, give this album a spin. Coming up next I'll be reviewing Iced Earth's "Horror Show".
BOO!