Beyond the Ring
Mac Styran
" Before you die, ... you'll definitely hear another Ring "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the promotional release
We know something about the hit movie Ringu, we liked the American version more namely The Ring of Gore Verbinski, and we all thought / assumed Ringu 2 / The Ring 2 wasn't going to cut it. But we didn't discuss Beyond the Ring yet, coming from a sole man's idea of making a sequel score to The Ring. Completely fictional, Beyond the Ring is the work of unknown composer Mac Styran, but therefore not unmemorable. The sound may be sampled for you, but the ideas are there, and it is this what makes the listen more than worthwhile.
To come up with a theme is good but to make it revoke the spirit of Zimmer's theme is something else. And it is this nice urgent, time consuming manner that crawls throughout the entire listening experience, once you give Beyond the Ring a try. Some listeners might even hear a futuristic tone in it, but this because it reminded me at first of the tone of The 6th Day of Trevor Rabin.
Anyway, the theme is heard a lot, but it works well in context and it is heard already in the first track "The Girl (Overture)". The track itself starts atmospheric, but develops to a true Ring laden feeling once the beat starts taking the theme to another level. The added use of a sampled choir sounds really appropriate, giving the sound an otherworldly effect. The second track delivers us the other theme of the score, the theme for the girl herself. Here it is still harmless through the use of piano. The feeling of relief doesn't last however, when we hear a variation of the theme hinting danger and inevitable doom. That sense of danger continues in "It's Spreading", opening with a terrific atonal strike before showing the main theme and the girl theme with piano assistance.
"Field" continues to bring main theme statement (with a lot of choral effects) to show you there is light at the end of the tunnel after all. And "Eternal" delivers us the proof of this with resolute main theme statements. The "End Credits" track dares to combine both themes together, creating a nice fluent listening experience, offering wonderful theme statements of the girl and the main theme colliding at the end in true end credits style.
In the end, Beyond the Ring is not the moody, atmospheric attempt with only glimpses of action of Hans Zimmer's style. No it's a follow up to several ideas of that, with simply a bit more pace in the end. Okay it's not a film score, but making it succeed is all the more rewarding and Mac Styran succeeds in that effortlessly. The theme works well in context, the brief relief of Samara's theme shows us a girl without scary faces and the action moves along quite nicely. In a nutshell, it gives Samara at least some credibility, as a girl that scares my pants off!
Tracklisting
1. The Girl (6.12)
2. Innocent Youth (3.14)
3. It's Spreading (3.12)
4. Circle (4.19)
5. Field (3.02)
6. Eternal (2.16)
7. End Credits (4.15)
Total Length: 27.25
To come up with a theme is good but to make it revoke the spirit of Zimmer's theme is something else. And it is this nice urgent, time consuming manner that crawls throughout the entire listening experience, once you give Beyond the Ring a try. Some listeners might even hear a futuristic tone in it, but this because it reminded me at first of the tone of The 6th Day of Trevor Rabin.
Anyway, the theme is heard a lot, but it works well in context and it is heard already in the first track "The Girl (Overture)". The track itself starts atmospheric, but develops to a true Ring laden feeling once the beat starts taking the theme to another level. The added use of a sampled choir sounds really appropriate, giving the sound an otherworldly effect. The second track delivers us the other theme of the score, the theme for the girl herself. Here it is still harmless through the use of piano. The feeling of relief doesn't last however, when we hear a variation of the theme hinting danger and inevitable doom. That sense of danger continues in "It's Spreading", opening with a terrific atonal strike before showing the main theme and the girl theme with piano assistance.
"Field" continues to bring main theme statement (with a lot of choral effects) to show you there is light at the end of the tunnel after all. And "Eternal" delivers us the proof of this with resolute main theme statements. The "End Credits" track dares to combine both themes together, creating a nice fluent listening experience, offering wonderful theme statements of the girl and the main theme colliding at the end in true end credits style.
In the end, Beyond the Ring is not the moody, atmospheric attempt with only glimpses of action of Hans Zimmer's style. No it's a follow up to several ideas of that, with simply a bit more pace in the end. Okay it's not a film score, but making it succeed is all the more rewarding and Mac Styran succeeds in that effortlessly. The theme works well in context, the brief relief of Samara's theme shows us a girl without scary faces and the action moves along quite nicely. In a nutshell, it gives Samara at least some credibility, as a girl that scares my pants off!
Tracklisting
1. The Girl (6.12)
2. Innocent Youth (3.14)
3. It's Spreading (3.12)
4. Circle (4.19)
5. Field (3.02)
6. Eternal (2.16)
7. End Credits (4.15)
Total Length: 27.25