{"id":3090,"date":"2011-06-20T13:23:44","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T17:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3090"},"modified":"2011-06-20T14:48:35","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T18:48:35","slug":"cd-crysis-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3090","title":{"rendered":"CD: Crysis II"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>C<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label: La-La Land Records<\/a>\/ Released: April 26, 2011<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length:\u00a0CD1: 21 tracks \/ (49:29) + CD2: 25 tracks \/ (49:15)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: 12-page colour booklet with a Q&A with composer Hans Zimmer, and liner notes by co-composers Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu<\/p>\n

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Composer: Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, Borislav Slavov, Tilman Sillescu<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

It probably makes sense that if Hans Zimmer is at the helm of a videogame score, the results will be big sound, and an epic scope dealing with dread, desire, and over-the-top heroism, and with the aid of three additional composers \u2013 regular collaborator Lorne Balfe (Megamind<\/strong>), and newcomers Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu \u2013 Crysis 2<\/strong> is a giant work that brings Zimmer\u2019s massive sound visions from blockbuster films to the home screen. (The first Crysis<\/strong> game was scored by Inon Zur.)<\/p>\n

The good news is little of C2 sounds like the generic Media Ventures material which tends to pepper the films Zimmer or his prot\u00e9g\u00e9s touch. Although he penned the main theme for C2 \u2013 a beautiful blast of heroism & brutality with percussion, heavy orchestra, and a deadly synth drone \u2013 most of the score builds on Zimmer\u2019s concept, and La-La Land\u2019s 2-disc set feels like the soundtrack to a 3 hour doomsday extravaganza.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsertion\u201d is governed by a thick set of electric tones harkening back to John Carpenter\u2019s Escape from New York<\/strong> (1981), with Zimmer\u2019s titular theme canted towards a more ironic tone, and barely perceptible bass pulses under the theme statement. \u201cSOS New York\u201d offers a lighter shade of orchestral colours interwoven with a thickening rhythmic pattern, and the addition of brass gives the cue an overtly James Bondian veneer \u2013 heroic, majestic, with order governing chaos.<\/p>\n

Most of the cues are geared towards intense action, but other cuts reflect an increase in human desperation, such as \u201cRising Spear,\u201d with grand sweeping gestures from strings and brass in spite of running just over a minute. The following \u201cDead Man Walking\u201d makes use of the Bondian theme without any graceful ornamentation; here the emphasis is on low tones, an immutable ostinato on strings, and gradual addition of percussion textures \u2013 all staying with a lower sonic realm.<\/p>\n

Low, snarling brass dominate \u201cSinister Breed,\u201d as well as slowly drawn-out chords \u2013 offering a welcome break between the album\u2019s otherwise heavy dramatic content. Shades of Howard Shore appear in \u201cSemper Fi,\u201d the last cue on Disc 1, where the composers maintain unresolved chords and set up the grimmer tone in Disc 2. (It also ends the first disc with a cliffhanger, mandating a need to listen to the score\u2019s second half.)<\/p>\n

\u201cShadowzone\u201d is a rare lament, and features a great interplay between a mournful violin solo and distant brass \u2013 some muted, others quietly snarling, insinuating this brief rest point has no chance of lasting (which is clearly the case when the full might of the snarling orchestra returns in lumbering, off-kilter march \u201cAlien Suite\u201d).<\/p>\n

Most of the cues are a fine blend of orchestra, electronics, and digital samples, but there are some cuts with a heavier electronic base. \u201cBurning Night\u201d has electric guitar and pulsing keyboards wafting up from the ether of hesitant strings; and \u201cEye of the Storm\u201d is dominated by synth wooden hits and a watery bass pulse over which the composers build a frenetic string motif with an aleatoric drift.<\/p>\n

Shades of the deep chords that permeated Zimmer\u2019s Inception<\/strong> (2010) are also evident in C2, such as the beautiful \u201cResolution (repirse),\u201d bookended by solo piano statements, and the composer\u2019s final cue, \u201cUnder Siege,\u201d is an inventive hybrid of his knack for weighted chords and an unsubtle nod to Brad Fiedel\u2019s Terminator<\/strong> theme (performed with electric guitar and percussion).<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s 2-disc set features a meticulously engineered score that\u2019s been arranged to flow through intense mood shifts. Zimmer\u2019s only credited with writing a handful of cues, making this set a nice sampler of the talent that more than met the challenge to write the game\u2019s most robust action set-pieces.<\/p>\n

Highly recommended for action fans.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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Related links:<\/p>\n

CD \/ MP3: \u00a0Crysis <\/a><\/strong>(2011) — Inception<\/strong> <\/a>(2010)<\/p>\n

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Related External links (Main Site):<\/em><\/p>\n

CD \/ MP3: \u00a0Megamind<\/a> <\/strong>(2010) — Terminator<\/a> <\/strong>(1991)<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0C<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ C . Rating: Excellent Label: La-La Land Records\/ Released: April 26, 2011 Tracks & Album Length:\u00a0CD1: 21 tracks \/ (49:29) + CD2: 25 tracks \/ (49:15) . Special Notes: 12-page colour booklet with a Q&A with composer Hans Zimmer, and liner notes by co-composers Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[4212],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-NQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3090"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3113,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions\/3113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}