Music Composed by Chris Tilton
Rating: *** 1/2

Longtime assistant to our sometimes-videogame soundtrack guru, Michael Giacchino, Chris Tilton has gradually emerged as a fine composer himself in the past few years, sharing scoring duties with Giacchino for games like Mercenaries and The Incredibles. For this most recent military shooter, Black, Giacchino still has a cursory credit, but by and large this is Tilton’s show, and he makes the most of it. A far cry from the noisy (if entirely entertaining) bombast that often blankets scores of this genre, Tilton’s score is a taut and craftily woven exercise in tension.

The “Black Main Theme” bookends the album, and it’s an appropriately grim portrait that captures the requisite ballsy heroism without running a Media Ventures power anthem down our throats. The theme was apparently a joint effort between Tilton and Giachino, a puzzling bit of trivia given that the theme is hardly a complex enough theme to warrant two composer’s input. Happily, Tilton doesn’t beat us over the head with the theme, but rather craftily interlaces it throughout the background (”Drydock”), occasionally bringing it to the foreground when the tension reaches its climax. The final reprise of the theme is actually quite moving, and a perfect way to close the album.

Chris Tilton

But actually, despite the high-octane scenario of the game, the music is actually fairly intimate in its design. Certainly, there are moments of full-out orchestral onslaught, but Tilton generally keeps his ensemble restrained, feeding off quiet tension rather than overt bombast. This is a great effect, as you can seemingly hear every instrument involved, and every meticulous layer of counterpoint working together. In this regard, the score carries strong shades of Danny Elfman’s Mission: Impossible (in my mind, the finest exercise in raw tension to grace a musical score since Herrmann left us). Though Tilton doesn’t use Elfman’s vast cavalcade of percussion, he does implement the same economical construction in creating high anxiety with sharp staccato string lines and syncopated brass lurches (”Walking Tour of Treneska”). The shadow of John Williams’ recent action writing is also strong when the tempo does pick up (”Madhouse Mayhem”), bringing to mind immediate memories of the most uncompromising material his most recent Harry Potter and Star Wars films. But certainly, if you’re going to borrow, borrow from the best; Tilton does just that, and just about lives up to his mentors in the process.

Perhaps the only problem is that there isn’t a whole lot of dramatic variety. Things are either soft and tense or loud and tense, with little emotional range covering the space between. Granted, this is hardly anything Tilton could avoid, given the circumstances – this is not music designed to tell a story or interpret characters, but rather to keep the excitement and tension high while players rush through war-torn corridors. As a listening experience, however, the music’s single-minded purpose occasionally runs the risk of wearing thin. At 36 minutes, the album is brief enough that it ends before it really wears out its welcome, but any more would be pushing it.

Indeed, how well you enjoy the score on its own depends on how much you can take an album that pretty much consists of straight thriller cues. Again, few are bombastic thriller cues (this is not Van Helsing), but some of us can only endure so much nail biting before our fingers start to bleed. Still, it’s great to hear Tilton beginning to step out of Giacchino’s shadow and coming into his own. At present, the album is only available as a download, but its well worth it for those of you who like your music tense, intelligent, and relentless.

Music Composed by Chris Tilton; Main Theme by Michael Giacchino and Chris Tilton; Orchestrated by Tim Simonec and Chris Tilton; Conducted by Tim Simonec; Recorded and Mixed by Dan Wallin; Label: Electronic Arts; Availability: Download Only; U.S. Release Date: March, 2006.

01. Main Theme (2′21) audio clip
02. Treneska Border Crossing (2′12)
03. Tunnel Trouble (3′00)
04. A Bridge Too Close (1′41)
05. Walking Tour of Treneska (1′33)
06. Minefield (1′27)
07. Tivliz Asylum (2′39)
08. Madhouse Mayhem (1′40)
09. Sniper Alley (2′03)
10. Drydock (2′22)
11. Black and Boom (2′23)
12. Ambush (2′27)
13. Gulag Gauntlet (4′20)
14. Bunker Buster (2′23)
15. Main Theme (reprise) (3′59)

Total Playing Time: 36′30