For Sony’s PSP3’s Twisted Metal, Michael Wandmacher handles the main scoring chores, writing thick guitar tracks and a few dramatic cues for the first person player movements, and fans of the composer’s edgy sound in Drive Angry [M] (2011) will find some continuity here, particularly in tracks like “Boom,” with its bluesy groove,
or the heavy metal sound in “Gentlemen Start Your Weapons.” “Carmageddon” is all drums and multiple guitars flipping across the stereo spectrum, and it’s one of the more solid thematic renditions with plenty of wailing sounds and brief solos.

With feedback and grungy distortion, the guitar cues tend to convey a sense of player determination, strutting with absurd bravado, evoking the twirling of shiny weapons, and taking periodic pot shots to let aggressors know you mean business. “Deathwish” is devoted to total carnage, with a fast rhythm and pounding bass drum breaking up the fast-thrashing guitar licks.

A few cues begin with sampled dialogue (“Mr. Grimm’s Dark Trip Back” and “The Madness of Dollface”), and at about the 2/3 mark the album introduces more electronic sounds, with “Dollface” augmented with some orchestral samples and slight sound effects. “Ready to Die” blends guitar with retro nineties electronic processing, “Bruise Control” is all electrified bass tones and synth drums, and “Shoot to Kill” is all trippy beats and grinding reverb. The album closes with the song “Get Twisted,”, and although the album’s design sways too heavily towards electric guitar instrumentation, there are some strong cues which contain a balance of thematic samples and testosterone-driven malice.

An interview with composer Michael Wandmacher is also available.

© 2012 Mark R. Hasan