CD: Castlevania – Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate (2013)
Score: Excellent
Label: Sumthing Else
Released: November 26, 2013
Tracks / Album Length: 18 tracks / (61:31)
Composer: Oscar Araujo
Special Notes: Includes colour booklet.
Review:
Oscar Araujo’s latest epic score for the Castlevania franchise is another remarkable opus that melds a huge orchestral sound with some overt electronic elements to capture a world of myth and mayhem.
Where “Gabriel’s Farewell” is a warm, resonating theme with broad chords performed by a huge array of strings, the action cues are filled with all kinds of instrumental nuances and gestures to ensure there’s minimal monotony. “Night Watchman” is invigorated with thunderous ethnic percussion and a beautiful array of low brass, and Araujo also uses flittering wooden sounds that evoke an army of massing bowmen. Most of the kinetic material is built up from a circulating 3-note motif, and its constant use is tempered by softer, elongated thematic cues, such as the choral-heavy “Theatre.”
Engineered to exploit even the most tepid sound system, the CD’s superior production brings out the snarling majesty of Araujo’s brilliant writing for this large-scale orchestral assault.
© 2014 Mark R. Hasan. (This review originally appeared in the Jan./Feb. 2014 issue of Rue Morgue magazine.)
Additional Links:
Composer on IMDB — Composer Filmography — Soundtrack Album
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