Doomsday Soundtrack

Genre soundtrack Publisher Rogue Pictures/Lakeshore Records External Links Doomsday Movie Website

For the Neil Marshall's Doomsday film, he originally wanted to mix 80s synth music. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it work with the movie's intense thrills and action. Instead, he recruited accomplished composer Tyler Bates to score his soundtrack. With the help of such artists as Adam and The Ants, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Ariel Rechtshaid, Tyler Bates does exactly this through 60 minutes and 23 tracks.

The soundtrack's first song was written by Adam and The Ants and is called 'Dog Eat Dog'. It's a strange tribe like song that really does sound cannibalistic. The beating drums are mixed with heavy metal guitar riffs mixed in low volume. This is then combined with a Pulp Fiction like temperance that is propelled further by juxtaposed like vocals with a chorus that sounds like Gregorian chant.

We begin to see Bates' influences right away with the soundtrack's 4th track, 'Exodus'. Much like the biblical reference itself, 'Exodus' is something that builds suspense. Mostly by way of strings and some Opera like vocals, the score is both bone chilling and graceful. 'Boat' begins eerily and grows into something even more ominous with the use of a solid bass line, climatic crashes and crescendos, and all sorts of noise makers. 'Block 41' is an interesting score for its similarity to 'Boat'; The main thing that makes the songs different being only the beat underneath. Track 8, aptly named 'It's getting medieval out here' uses strings and a gigantic array of organs to explore the impossibilities of darkness. Listening to this song is like standing in a room where things are happening, only you can not see them happening. It is truly terrifying. Bates' first explosive arrangement is 'Hospital Battle'. Here we get to see Bates using everything in music at his disposal, including a full orchestra of strings, horns, and woods as both classical and modern percussion instruments. The song is a mastery of different movements and creates a sense of the movie even if you have not yet seen it.

'Sword Fight' is something unique because it is almost completely void of anything you could associate to classical music. Almost entirely electronic in nature, it is full of temper and really gives the soundtrack a change in pace. It also shows how versatile Bates' is with his scores. 'Tolamon' is a great score for the feeling of angst and thrill that it creates. Using the full might of orchestra and percussion, the track is reminiscent of terror and desperation squeezed into a minute and a half. The soundtrack's 20th song features and array of well arranged movements, most notably the brass. It really creates a sense of thrill and that some kind of resolution is approaching, or that something climactic has just happened. Bates' last score for the Doomsday soundtrack could be his best. Called 'Headless Love', the sound pulls you in so many different directions it is almost impossible to find yourself going one way or another. Like a hearty stew, 'Headless Love' is filled with everything from the deepest of brass to the highest of strings. It is also very percussive, but only in such a way that does not intrude upon the delicacy of such chaos (if such a thing exists).

Tyler Bates' does a great job of creating something suspenseful and haunting for the Doomsday soundtrack. Although I have not seen the film, it feels as though I have read the synopsis, and is all because of Bates' work. As director Neil Marshall puts it, " If music is a movie's emotional core; its temperance, its rage, it's guiding spirit, then Tyler's brilliant score for Doomsday is all of the above and so much more".