The Darkest Hour
Tyler Bates
" The Darkest Hour of film music! "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
The Darkest Hour is one of the more intriguing science fiction movies coming out next year. It goes about five young people who battle an alien race which has attacked Earth via our power supply. The visual look alone is enough to get excited about. The question is now, will the music be able to raise our excitement even higher? Especially for such a project, all things are possible. And perhaps that's why composer Tyler Bates was brought on board, considering with him everything's possible. You better believe it, considering The Darkest Hour is truly an experience unlike no other.
You see, The Darkest Hour actually confirms why Tyler Bates is already one of the less popular film music composers on the planet. The fact he's getting such cool assignments like this proves that producers and directors are favouring noise above actual artistry. This is a soundtrack that delivers not a single note or moment of actual melody. It's all mood, it's all sound design, it's all gloomy, dark and threatening, alienating so to speak off. Perfect for the effect it tries to create, a nightmare for an experience to hear.
I possibly cannot give you one single track that tries to create something that's called music. Perhaps the only one that comes close is the rather mellow drama discovered in "Say Goodbye", it's like tasting your first sip of water after having strolled 3 days in the desert (it's that welcome). The other ones that come close are the suspenseful pounding action music, creating some kind of a thrill in "Holy Sh*t!" and "Dusted", but sadly those ones are still buried under layers of hideous sound design.
But everything else, and I kid you not when I say this is hideous electronic garbage that doesn't do one single attempt at creating some kind of melody. No this is enhancing the atmosphere on screen, and I can honestly tell you, it will make my attempt of actually enjoying this movie a lot harder.
The thing that troubles me the most is that someone actually gets paid to write stuff like this, and that apparently this needs an orchestrator! I don't see how you can orchestrate noise, because whatever instrument creates it, it's designed to make it sound atonal. Either way, Tyler Bates was never a composer that received a lot of adoration. The Darkest Hour is truly hideous. I applaud Tyler Bates for doing the impossible. I think he is the first composer who actually gets the credit of sound designer as well. Sadly for us, he did all sound designing and none ofcomposing. I wish I could give The Darkest Hour zero stars, but sadly this is not an option. At least it shows us that the MainTitles God still cares about all his children, no matter what they are doing wrong in their life.
But may I give you one last piece of advice? Try to end your experience with a positive note. Meaning simply flush your toilet after the last track. I promise you, it will sound like symphonic music after this.
Tracklisting
01. I Like That: Richard Vission and Static Revenger feat. Luciana (5.09)
02. Moscow: Marselle (3.22)
03. Space (2.32)
04. Northern Lights (2.39)
05. Night Club Attack (3.01)
06. The Bridge is Out (1.48)
07. Crashed (1.06)
08. They're Inside (2.43)
09. Now What? (2.18)
10. Moscow Streets (1.55)
11. Holy Sh*t! (2.46)
12. Here's Our Mission (1.42)
13. Dusted (2.48)
14. Metro Shred (3.35)
15. Say Goodbye (2.40)
16. Man Overboard (2.12)
17. Train Yard Battle (4.02)
18. Fighting Back (1.28)
19. Looking Forward (2.33)
Total Length: 50.19
You see, The Darkest Hour actually confirms why Tyler Bates is already one of the less popular film music composers on the planet. The fact he's getting such cool assignments like this proves that producers and directors are favouring noise above actual artistry. This is a soundtrack that delivers not a single note or moment of actual melody. It's all mood, it's all sound design, it's all gloomy, dark and threatening, alienating so to speak off. Perfect for the effect it tries to create, a nightmare for an experience to hear.
I possibly cannot give you one single track that tries to create something that's called music. Perhaps the only one that comes close is the rather mellow drama discovered in "Say Goodbye", it's like tasting your first sip of water after having strolled 3 days in the desert (it's that welcome). The other ones that come close are the suspenseful pounding action music, creating some kind of a thrill in "Holy Sh*t!" and "Dusted", but sadly those ones are still buried under layers of hideous sound design.
But everything else, and I kid you not when I say this is hideous electronic garbage that doesn't do one single attempt at creating some kind of melody. No this is enhancing the atmosphere on screen, and I can honestly tell you, it will make my attempt of actually enjoying this movie a lot harder.
The thing that troubles me the most is that someone actually gets paid to write stuff like this, and that apparently this needs an orchestrator! I don't see how you can orchestrate noise, because whatever instrument creates it, it's designed to make it sound atonal. Either way, Tyler Bates was never a composer that received a lot of adoration. The Darkest Hour is truly hideous. I applaud Tyler Bates for doing the impossible. I think he is the first composer who actually gets the credit of sound designer as well. Sadly for us, he did all sound designing and none ofcomposing. I wish I could give The Darkest Hour zero stars, but sadly this is not an option. At least it shows us that the MainTitles God still cares about all his children, no matter what they are doing wrong in their life.
But may I give you one last piece of advice? Try to end your experience with a positive note. Meaning simply flush your toilet after the last track. I promise you, it will sound like symphonic music after this.
Tracklisting
01. I Like That: Richard Vission and Static Revenger feat. Luciana (5.09)
02. Moscow: Marselle (3.22)
03. Space (2.32)
04. Northern Lights (2.39)
05. Night Club Attack (3.01)
06. The Bridge is Out (1.48)
07. Crashed (1.06)
08. They're Inside (2.43)
09. Now What? (2.18)
10. Moscow Streets (1.55)
11. Holy Sh*t! (2.46)
12. Here's Our Mission (1.42)
13. Dusted (2.48)
14. Metro Shred (3.35)
15. Say Goodbye (2.40)
16. Man Overboard (2.12)
17. Train Yard Battle (4.02)
18. Fighting Back (1.28)
19. Looking Forward (2.33)
Total Length: 50.19