Music Composed by Jeff Danna
Rating: ****

Jeff Danna’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse starts so strong that you’re sure it can’t hold up much longer. With the first three tracks, Danna holds a clinic on how to write loud, no choke-holds-barred film music. “My Name Is Alice” sets the stage with breathy electronics and a reverberated and processed e-guitar synth effect that will become a motif that runs throughout the entire score. This is the albums single “scare” or atmosphere track, as Resident Evil: Apocalypse leaves the frights behind in favor of over-the-top videogame theatrics. In fact, Apocalypse may be the world’s greatest videogame feature adaptation in the history of cinema. It is as violent, nonsensical and lacking in story as most shoot-’em-up vidgames are. Though with this particular cinematic chestnut, the rush comes not from messily dispatching attackers (and innocents) with a firearm, but watching sexy, scantily clad chicks enjoying themselves as they pump round after round into a quickly cooling corpse.

Perhaps the last film composer I’d expect to score Apocalypse, Jeff Danna has carved his career scoring dramas like O and docus like The Kid Stays In The Picture. Sometimes an unlikely choice makes all the difference, as Jeff has delivered a score heavy on action with all of the subtlety of a samoan skydiver wearing dayglo spandex. It’s almost as if Danna’s mandate from the filmmakers was to write the loudest goddamn music he could, and they’d make it work in the final mix. I haven’t heard a score as singular in purpose, as meticulously designed and executed, to destroy your hearing and piss off the elderly as this one. Only Alan Silvestri’s Van Helsing manages to out-loud Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Volume aside, that score and this one share no other similarities, as Apocalypse is a thoroughly modern orchestral score (recorded with London’s sizable Philharmonia Orchestra) infused with a percussion and electronics section as big as any Home Depot.

Danna ties his score in with the first Resident Evil (by Marco Beltrami and Marilyn Manson) with synth textures and grunge effects (”Umbrella Is Watching”). But the composer gives the score his own main theme, which is stated briefly throughout the score, most notably in “Captured By Umbrella”, and “The Crash Site”. But this isn’t the kind of score to get bogged down with unnecessary things like… Feelings and human emotions. No, this score is content to just cook, and like a gigantic swine slowly turning on a spit in it’s own juices over a roaring fire, Resident Evil: Apocalypse methodically churns out crispy handfuls of tasty mayhem.

Incessant percussion, layered drum samples, and hammering e-guitar blasts are the main ingredients, all mixed with an orchestra turning major somersaults. Check out the tortured brass and percussion as “Alice Battles The Nemesis”, where Danna lends the epic battle some much needed heft. The composer keeps the hits rolling with bass piano lines and a grunge/fuzz e-guitar (almost always followed by four growling brass notes) statement of Nemesis’ theme in “Nemesis Vs. Stars” (reprised later in “The Nemesis Is Awakened”), and gives the Umbrella Corporation plenty of menace in “Umbrella Is Watching” and “The Last Transport”. From there on in it’s almost a constant barrage of action that will have you begging for mercy.

What helps Apocalypse rise above the generic action scores being written today is not simply Danna’s control of both the electronic and acoustic elements, but his ability to make the score sound chaotic. This is a major step towards making Danna a good pick to score an action film — provided he wants to score more of ‘em. If action-score-junkies are smart (you know, the portly X-BOX guys who wear black t-shirts and tapered jeans), they’ll add this album to their playlist quickly. Don’t let the name on the cover fool you, this is probably the best all-out action score of the year from an unlikely source.

Music Composed and Produced by Jeff Danna; Orchestrated and Conducted by Nicholas Dodd; Performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, London; Recorded and Mixed by Brad Haehnel; Availability: In print; Label (Catalogue): Varèse Sarabande, (302 066 616 2); Release Date: September 28, 2004

01. My Name Is Alice (2′14)
02. Alice Battles The Nemesis (3′07)
03. The Nemesis Vs. Stars (2′12)
04. Panic At The Gate (1′39)
05. Umbrella Is Watching (3′04)
06. Ashford’s Plan (2′38)
07. Cain’s Demise (1′55)
08. The Nemesis Is Awakened (2′44)
09. Zombies In Church (1′37)
10. Captured By Umbrella (2′25)
11. The Crash Site (1′06)
12. Dogs In The Kitchen (2′06)
13. Searching For Alice (2′46)
14. The Anti-Virus (2′14)
15. Beneath The City (2′20)
16. The Last Transport (1′55)
17. Search The School (1′33)
18. I Remember Everything (2′04)

Total Playing Time: 39′39