Resident Evil: Extinction Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Lakeshore Records (9/18/07)
Metal/Electronic
After two soundtracks under the Roadrunner umbrella, the Resident Evil franchise releases its third offering on Lakeshore Records. Lakeshore handled the two Underworld soundtracks, and anyone familiar with those releases has a pretty good idea of what to expect here.
Gone are the big-name artists Roadrunner was springing for (Fear Factory, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and on and on), but even without the “name†value, Extinction presents a cutting, little raw collection of music. It’s not all unknowns—Poison the Well offers up a steamroller of a track, “Wrecking Itself Taking You With Me”, while It Dies Today tears it up with “Sixth of June”, which sees the band abandon the screaming vocals of its earlier material. And perhaps the soundtrack’s best song, Shadows Fall’s “Stupid Crazy”, further shows why the group is at metal’s forefront these days with its chunky rhythm and blistering solos.
There’s a pair of remixes from up-and-comers Flyleaf (“I’m So Sick”) and Aiden (“One Love”), both by The Legion of Doom. The Flyleaf track is a little too electronic, sounding waterlogged at times, but the Aiden song receives a nice edge. Chimaira continues its slide into death metal with “Paralyzed”, which is by far the heaviest track on the album. And Collide offer up a remake of “White Rabbit”, a melancholic electronic number that showcases the flipside of what Extinction has to offer.
The rest is a hodgepodge of bands—Throwdown, The Bled, Emanuel, Searchlight and City Sleeps. There’s a handful of instrumentals from Charlie Clouser, which is most probably mood music from the upcoming movie, but far too short to do anything but add atmosphere to the album. It’s nice, but sound clips from the movie would almost do the job better (see the past two releases from Rob Zombie’s movies).
Overall, this is a good collection of music in the vein of the movie, but it lacks that must-have feel. With no huge “gets†on the album, it’s hard to completely recommend this release. But if you’re a fan of any of the bands on here, you might find a couple more you’d never heard of before to add to your library.
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