As a collection of songs to showcase the current hard music scene, this does the trick. As a soundtrack to an anthology of horror, it is mostly lacking. It's a shame too, I was really looking forward to listening to this album. That's not to say it is awful, just not what I expected, and the songs generally skew away from my tastes.
When I think of music to go along with a horror theme, I think of dark metal and gothic tinged rock. I would expect bands like Marilyn Manson, Coal Chamber, Type O Negative, and Danzig. Of course there are other bands that would fill the bill, but they don't appear here.
I guess I should talk about the album a bit. The two disk set is bit bloated with sub par music, you could probably shave this down to a pretty solid single disk release. But, I guess you need enough music to use for the 13 episode series this is coming from.
The compilation takes a different tack than the series. The show's episodes are all being directed by proven masters of the moving image. The soundtrack is filled with primarily up and comers to the music scene, unproven talent, if you will. There are a few with proven track records, but not too many.
Let's start with disk 1. The first disk is led off by one of the best tracks of the set, Mudvayne's "Small Silhouette." Not their heaviest work, but it is a strong song and a great way to start off. Next up is a good track from a band I had not heard before, Norma Jean's "Shaunluu." Not a bad song. Other highlights include Andrew W.K.'s "You Will Remember Tonight," Shadows Fall's "This is My Own," and Mastodon's "Megalodon (live)." Not to mention the band with the best name for this set, Scary Kids Scaring Kids.
Article comments
1 - Dissapointed Reader
Dear Blogcritics,
I feel that your critique of The Masters of Horror soundtrack is a bit out of line considering that you had never heard of Norma Jean or Avenged Sevenfold prior to this soundtrack. You also fail to metion certain bands such as It Dies Today who has clearly one of the better songs, although a cover as it is, on the soundtrack. You also overlook Alkaline Trio who seems to convery a certain darkness to what they write. And just the fact that you fail to mention Everytime I Die and FATA is a mystery to me...I really do feel that this was a poorly thought out criticism and it should probably be reconsidered because it seems to me you listened to this soundtrack in the wrong way. I think yuo may have been looking for a more satanic darkness rather than a deep look into the soul type darkness which is where i believe this was to go.
2 - Mallory
It sucks you failed to mention the Murder By Death song.
3 - Soraya
The opening theme snagged my attention immediately as it was really dark and haunting...
I did like Showtimes' - Masters of Horror - series and have been waiting to see it back on the menu again.
Soraya ;o)