MP3: Accursed (2014)
Score: Excellent
Label: n/a
Released: September 30, 2014
Tracks / Album Length: 12 tracks / (42:55)
Composer: Rocky Gray
Special Notes: n/a
Review:
Unlike most faux soundtrack efforts of late, William Rocky’ Gray’s Accursed is less reliant on the sounds of John Carpenter and Goblin, making this effort in percussive mayhem rather refreshing. The opening track (“Cannibal”) is a mass of pounding drums and distorted electric guitar bridged with howling tones and that classic staple of eighties horror, sampled chorus.
Gray, the former drummer from Evanescence, does pay homage to Carpenter in the form of a recurring piano theme, but it’s really a tertiary component in a narrative that’s driven by unwavering rhythms, backbeats, and some acoustic grunge. Buffering the kinetic cues are the classical styled “The Maze” with keyboard and slow, ominous passages; a synth cello that lead into the vocal heavy “High Hopes”; and the goofy dance track “Lovecraftian” with nothing but icy keyboards and layered drum sequencing.
The digital album’s 12 tracks flip between metal, rock, orchestral emulations highly redolent of nascent synth gear, and pulse-based electronica (Getting Away with Murder). There’s a clear line that Gray doesn’t cross, ensuring each idiomatic theme variation is pure to a late eighties / early nineties sound, and instead of unfolding like a schizophrenic pastiche of cues, Accursed is unified by traditional genre motifs and extreme theme variations, making this album sound like vintage gem from a long-forgotten indie shocker.
© 2014 Mark R. Hasan
Additional Links:
Editor’s Blog — Composer on IMDB
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Category: Soundtrack Reviews
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