Rise of the Lycans Soundtrack

About the Soundtrack: "Rise of the Lycans" is the third installment in the "Underworld" franchise, a trilogy that isn't heralded with greatness but has found moderate financial success to warrant three movies. On to score "Rise of the Lycans" is Paul Haslinger, a composer who seems to be frequenting the horror music ranks and seems to be typecast into that role. For this effort, the soundtrack yields 10 score tracks and one hybrid cue, making this a lean effort with a relatively short running time.

What You Need to Know: Wow, what a grim, murky adventure through the depths! Haslinger's score for "Rise of the Lycans" is a display of atmospheric horror cues that make for a downbeat listening engagement. The soundtrack features promising track titles, such as "Storming the Castle," "Court Battle Suite," and "Lucian and Sonja's Love Theme" but it fails to deliver on what any of the cues promise. Specifically with the latter, I'm not sure if I could even pick up a relatable motif let alone a stirring love theme. To me, it all sounded black, grim and depressing.

The soundtrack is a stifling listen throughout most of its first 8 tracks. By the 9th (and tenth) track, Haslinger rallies a bit and delivers some serious action music that is driven home with a bit of an attitude. Had more of the soundtrack been like this, then we would have been in business. Unfortunately, by the time the "Rise of the Lycans" gets cooking with the last 2 score cues, the proceedings come to an end and thus Haslinger runs out of time to save this soundtrack. To make matters worse, the hybrid 11th track by "Coma Virus" sends the soundtrack on a few steps back with a cue that is challenging to listen to and one that I couldn't find any value in. Think new age music with dark, stagnant overtones. Not good.

Not sure where Haslinger hopes to take his career in this business, but I am hoping he gets a break to work on some films that aren't as gloomy as his recent fare. Indeed, this seems to be a case where he is boxed in to a specific genre with no end in sight; Hollywood considers him a confident choice for these assignment. In the end, it's not a bad way to earn a living by but I'm sure it must be stifling in a creative sense.

Final Score: This is a score that I can't recommend in full but I can suggest you remain open toward buying the final two score tracks from iTunes. Those two cues will pretty much give you the best of the score and tease you a bit with what could have been had "Rise of the Lycans" offered more of the same.